Internal Desktop Components Reviews

Band : EVGA
Model : 141 BL E760 A1
Product Features :
- 2 way 3 way and 3way SLI with PhysX support
- 10 Phase Digital PWM with switching frequency up to 1333 KHz
- E LEET motherboard tuner
- Vdroop Control and Onboard Power and Reset Buttons
- 8 Channel audio

EVGA 141 BL E760 A1 X58 Classified SLI Mainboard
>> great board
Great board There are setting for everything including extreme cooling setting for those of you that phase change cool It makes it more fun to overclock Seriously though i could have gotton the same overclock off of my CPU from the EVGA SLI LE This board has alot of nice features but i dont use more than half of them
>> Very empressed with performance
I have to say that I am very empressed with the Evga classified X58 motherboard After arriving in Trinidad and Tobago on 3rd August 2009 a week after it was bought online I assembled it in a Coolmaster CM 690 case with 6 gb of 1333 Ghz OCZ ram XFX geforce 8400 graphics card All I could of gotten at short notice with the little change I had left over Corsair 1000 watts power supply Core I7 920 500 GB hard drive and Lite on DVD burner When I first turn on the PC with out the operating system installed it booted up or posted successfully I then installed Vista Ultimate operating sysem which was a smooth process with no issues After installing all the drivers virus programs etc I ran Fallout 3 Need for speed most wanted and Bioshock and it ran smooth with no problems

One issue I had was that with Vista I could not use the two RJ45 Ethernet network ports to share the internet between my cable modem and another computer no matter how much updates I did on my drivers and OS This issue was later solved after installing windows 7 It took me a while to find a way to fit this big motherboard in a mid tower but after unscrewing the plastic cable Guides the motherboard fit perfect It looks as if the CM690 mid tower case was made for this motherboard Even after running Resident evil 5 and Devil may cry 4 on Windows 7 the computer gave me no issues with drivers or viruses or computer crashes The Bios boot up sequence has a very professional look and feel with the very defined text I compared it with my friend s MSI AM2 790fx platinum boot up screen and I have to say that it cant compete Every thing about the motherboard from the way it was packaged the layout of the motherboard and how it performed was very professional There is great spacing of the PCI express slots on the board It was easy to update the drivers of the computer from the Evga website I would have liked it very much if they had a lighted back plate like the Asus rampage 2 extreme

I have not tried overclocking yet to find out how stable the board really is but that is in development Unlike so many reviews I have read about the Asus rampage 2 extreme and the MSI X58 eclipse having posting problems The Evga classified had shown me that it works straight out of the box I recommend this board to anyone who want X58 performance without the headache especially if you are not a computer nerd

Ohh gosh this review is long so let me take this time to big up the workers at amazon for getting my computer goods to me in record time and treating me like VIP I had sent my first motherboard to the wrong address but Amazon made the changes and sent another motherboard to the right address at no extra cost These people know about customer service I will definitely continue shopping with Amazon com I still have to stop borrowing my friends monitor and buy my own and also buy 2 GTX 295
>> EVGA Classified X58 Motherboard The Star of the Show
This is going to be a mini review of the E760 A1 Classified Motherboard by our favorite silicon sandwich maker EVGA Believe it or not Amazon com gave me a deal on this mainboard or I d still be staring at a standard EVGA BL 132 X58 3 x SLI Motherboard and not this pretty Classified baby that s inside of my newest PC right now So thanks to Amazon com for making a bad thing right and taking care of business with me and the Classified

I actually want to thank them a LOT for turning me onto this beautiful sculpture that s inside my HAF 932 highly mod d PC since yesterday at about 9AM PST because this is The Kind as we say in Hawaii Actually it s Da Kine which is KUHL KUHL KUHL The most striking visual appeal of this board is the awesome black and red finish to everything there is ie the theme is repeated from the DIMM slots to the PCI Express slots to the CPU area it s all mirrored in visually stunning graphics colors and finished blackout Chrome metal and a mirror finished motherboard itself Like WOW Visually it s a 20 on a 10 Scale it just jumps out at you and says I am Class and you may as well call me by my real name Classified before I whack you up side of da head

The board has presence and features that beget a much better review than I am going to make tonight All told I have been up perhaps the better part of two days getting the new PC all gussied up in new Duds including this beautiful thing and my judgment and wit are on the wane right about now or I d seriously get into the dialectics of the huge electronic masterpiece that this motherboard is But I won t just now promising to come back to this review and update it with impressions after a week a month heck whenever I feel like it if you don t mind

Wavey Davey gives this motherboard his solid 5 Stars across the board and I ll mention just a couple coup s that the board has that others do not

1 There are 4 Full Length 16/8 x Lane PCI Express Slots actually 5 yes that would be five with the single lane slot for something like your X Fi Fatal1ty Pro Sound Blaster card like that actually it s there for you to run of course Quad SLI mode if nothing else How about that gamers You could potentially if you had enough power supply firepower and cables you d need a minimum of a Kilowatt PSU to do this 1000 Watts or higher ie run 4 x 2 PSU 6 pin connectors to 4 matching cards or rather 3 matching cards for gaming and that sort of deal God forbid the scores with 3 cards in SLI mode and a 4th video card for normal pursuits like Folding Home doing Phys X stuff things like that

2 Then there s the Custom Cooled North Bridge I believe it s called I ll research it and come back and change this if it s the South Bridge hah hah That black anodized piece with an intricate and effective cooling heat sink setup looks so stealthy and Darth Vaderish in all it s glory on the motherboard that it will scare off heat Well would that it could would be nice if it could yah And ON that North Bridge is a magically glowing LED E in EVGA Speak the biggest and baddest eletric LED graphical interface I ve ever seen on a motherboard of anybody s making WOW It just looks positively stunning at night or in a darkened room to look inside your PC and see the Glowing E of EVGA all nice and cozy on your motherboard Nobody has that for sure This is unique

3 The running lights in the Classified are also color keyed along the company line with a red ON button normally it s green right But not with this item guys and gals Red is ON and red is Good so don t get confused and think that your motherboard is posting bad things and call Tech Support over at EVGA with a dire request for an explanation of this phenomenon which looks Tres KUHL like everything else about this motherboard does It s just first class and All First Class from point to point feature to feature vs all the other boards for sale now

Of course the motherboard has the usual fare from EVGA like the Digital Post Board at the lower front edge of the board conveniently located there for your perusal and it will tell you the temp of the CPU at any given time after full boot is made good and up to then it s giving up all kinds of Post Codes which are explained fully in the back of the rather massive owners manual that comes with the board The Activity Light is Amber to Yellow colored so that s also a new wrinkle At least the Clear CMOS button is still familiar Red well of course it would be Red right Right

The motherboard comes with a host of cables and things a bunch of SLI enabling cables for multiple Video Cards different types of SLI I later learned there are several modes SLI 2 SLI 3 and SLI 3 w/4th video card for Phys X FAH or another monitor There are SATA cables and otherwise some Molex connectors for your collection of fans and gadgets inside the case something to help organize the deal so it won t look like a trash heap of wires in there

There s also a Chrome satin finish care portal arrangement I believe it s called something particularly fitting ie it s called the I/O Shield It s the place where all the USB FireWire Ethernet RJ 45 and other ports like PS2 ports are on the so called back of the case that s what they furnish you There s also a combo FireWire and USB port gadget which can be placed in any open PCI slot like if you re a true aficionado you re going to HAVE a clear or open PCI slot don t think so at least not in mine anyway

I will caution those of you with an eSATA port in the front of your PC like I have with my HAF 932 that you will NOT be able to hook up that port normally shall we say with the Classified if you plan on utilizing that single lane PCI Express slot AND the adjacent PCI Express full length 16X Lane slot plus the flat motherboard SATA connector There is no way in Hades that you can put two cards of any persuasion there and still have the connector free for the SATA part of your front panel so I had to Pasadena on using that Single Lane PCI Express port for my X Fi Titanium Sound Blaster Fatal1ty Pro Card and front panel for that matter It would have been nice there the my front eSATA port is very very important to me because I ve got some eSATA external equipment that I like to use with the PC and I NEEDED THAT PORT hooked up

Alternatively you can hook up that front eSATA/SATA port to the regular motherboard SATA connectors and NOT use that particular motherboard SATA connection and then use all 5 PCI Express Slots for whatever purposes you wish end of that story EVGA has it all covered trust me

That s about it for my 1st impressions of this total KNOCKOUT and DRAG ME DOWN motherboard It is so visually stunning you will not believe it goes in the bottom of your computer Crazy I love it I mean my PC is stylin like never before tonight Gosh Darn It Why did they have to make it so pretty anyway

Of course I didn t mention this one s No 1 purpose in all of the above gadgets and stuff It s meant for the Intel i7 Nehalem CPU and all of the OVERCLOCKING possible all you could do and THEN SOME because there are things to do to your CPU with this board that I wouldn t dream of telling Intel for fear of warranty banishment This is the Overclocker s Dream if there ever was one so come one come all it s the E 760 EVGA Classified for you if you want to overclock unlike any other overclocker on your street

Come get it this is the one

Wavey Davey 5 23 2009

ADDENDUM 6 29 2009

A couple things that comes to mind with this setup which I have learned to love that I didn t mention with the above mini review which was written hastily under the influence of a lack of sleep ie before I had time to actually experience all of the blessings that the Classified bestows on its owners

1 ELEET aka E LEET Tuning Utility

This is something that you ve got to use to truly appreciate and only time and your creativity stops miracles from happening with it punched up in the control center your desktop ELEET allows for fine tuning ie adding additional overclocking parameters to your initial overclock just to make things more stable push the envelope higher than it already is by adjusting virtually all of the important Voltage and Frequency adjustments available with Classified Let me give an example

Let s say you boot up to a 4167Mhz overclock dialing in 19 X 219 QPI but your real goal is 4257Mhz Small things make all the difference in the world doing this sort of thing and here s where ELEET comes into play

Open ELEET Voltages tab where you can increase VCore a minute minoot amount CPU VTT Voltage an equally minute amount then go to the Overclocking tab Hit the Increase Mhz tab ten 10 little clicks and BAM Instantly after hitting Apply Selection things rock and roll for a second or two as the computer s hardward is adjusted by ELEET you re at 4257Mhz the elusive goal is reached

ELEET is the only hardware overclocking utility built into the GUI in any computer/motherboard/CPU tandem that I know of and it s very very effective so there you go another EVGA 1st first on the block first at the race and there at the finish to hand you the trophy

2 North Bridge South Bridge motherboard features unique to Classified

The North Bridge and South Bridge in the Classified put the pedal to the metal so to speak they are the operating hardware features of this board that distinguish it from all others Without getting technical the NB is a big old heatsink system while the SB is the brains the control center for SATA and other intricate functions These are NOT by the way things to grip the motherboard by when handling it during installation as I ve cautioned people over and over again They are on the board with specific itineraries each has special fittings on the bottom of the board which enables maintenance and/or adjustment s to the TIM sealing but be careful there EVGA doesn t like the bottom end of this board taken apart by the consumer even though there s a special thread in the EVGA forums devoted to doing just that with all the special techniques mapped out that are necessary for re seating the TIM Thermal Material ie insulation on each controller and heat sink surface

Just thought I d mention this for the uninitiated as there may be attempts at messing about with the NB and SB but unless you are prepared with the right tools and knowledge it s best left to an RMA to EVGA Tech Support to deal with high temperatures or other anomalies that can occur with improperly applied or mastered TIM sealing

3 24GB of SDRAM

Here s another interesting part of the deal with Classified if you ve got the deep pockets to make it happen 6 x 4GB DIMMs 24GB SDRAM but you ll pay a small fortune for the pleasure this board supports 24GB of DDR3 SDRAM in Triple Channel Mode ONLY That s right it will do this if you ve got a regular job like long payment schedules and can FIND a SDRAM manufacturer to make this happen I am running 12GB of G Skill P3 8x8x8x21x74 Clocks 1600Mhz SDRAM these days running 1772Mhz we call it Purple Wonders SDRAM instead of the Corsair Dominator that I bought into this game with because well it s just so darned good that I couldn t resist the temptation to try it and it worked out even better than I d planned

But back on topic 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3 DIMM modules are NOT cheap by anyone s measure even if you happen to be filthy loaded rich and by that I mean in today s market they are fetching in the neighborhood of more than 300 each that s right EACH ONE costs about 300 or so if you can find it that is But for the budding entrepreneur with loads of cash to burn and a notion to have the world s highest overclocked media and graphix station well you get my drift Classified supports 24GB of DDR3 SDRAM if you had your druthers

Now back to earth here and earthly pursuits

4 SLI Modes Classified E 760 Supports these and these alone

With Classified you ve got more choices than hens have eggs and that also involves the video card business Presently I am running twin EVGA GTX 285 1GB DDR5 SuperClocked Video Cards in SLI x 2 Mode which is plenty good enough for my purposes which is mostly normal pursuits with an occasional game like COD WAW thrown into the mix IN ADDITION I have to actually use my Classified for bring home the bacon stuff yikes aka WORK So I don t have a dedicated to overclocking and fun and games only luxury running in my world Classified it s destined to build web pages construct volumes of photography and graphics projects and yes audaciously manage a film and video portfoloio all things that I get paid for

So SLI x 2 for me means that I have video cards in PCI Express slots 1 and 2 with PCI Express slot 3 dedicated to my wireless network card a DLink DWA 556 in case you wondered what Wavey Davey depends on for Look Ma no wires here Slot 4 gets my bread and butter an Areca 1680IX 8 SAS RAID Controller yup real HARDWARE RAID in my baby that administers to more than 8TB of storage which you may find strange in such a machine but like I wrote above I make using the Classified it s not all show and go

Conceivably people are running SLI x 3 mode which would be video boards in PCI E slots 1 3 and 4 for ultimate effect or 1 2 and 4 for SLI x 3 x 8 Lanes which doesn t give the big KICK in Da Head that SLI x 16 does at least on the graphix scores and game playing that is So you ask what is PCI E slot 0 Well guys and gals that is the Single Lane PCI E slot and it s just a little blip on the Classified s radar just North of PCI E slot no 1 and it s meant for things like my Fatal1ty Sound Blaster Titanium card the thing which makes music and sounds happen with this PC

And happen it does with a full quiver of Logitech Z 5300e THX 5 1 Speakers backed by JBL James B Lansing for those who wondered Studio Sound Speakers which are all hooked up and into my Samsung TOC 40 LCD HDTV/Monitor which runs in 1920x1080 pixel mode for pretty dramatic movies games and AppleTV mode too

So there you have my setup with this unbelievable Classified E 760 A1 motherboard mainboard to Amazon com folks serving as the backbone to it all It s kind of hard to imagine a 15K PC sitting here in my studio where I used to have a G5 PowerMac running the show but there you go times people and equipment does happen to change and so has my flavor of tea it turns out I never said I wouldn t have a PC as my main squeeze but then again I never said I would either it just sort of HAPPENED that way Wavey Davey couldn t be happier than a clam in the sand at Malibu Point that turns out to be the way things are too