EVGA X58 Classified - Trophy Board
by Rajinder Gill on May 8, 2009 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Taking Things Down Another Notch
Next up we were eager to see if using liquid nitrogen to cool the processor would allow further scaling in any of these benchmarks. A previous attempt at finding the "cold" limit of this CPU on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme had showed a maximum temperature limit of around -125C for booting from BIOS and a maximum -128C while idling within the OS (to be honest, other boards from several manufacturers fall into this same category and perform worse). However, this was misleading as it turned out the processor was capable of far lower temperatures on the Classified, which has onboard jumpers for disabling thermal motherboard cut-off thresholds.
Much to our surprise the CPU was capable of booting on the Classified at a brutally cold -160C, and being benchmarked all the way down to -190C during peak CPU loads; that's an instant 35C gain over the ASUS board. In the world of extreme overclocking, this is a big deal. The following picture pretty much says it all, with the CPU test of 3DMark06 running in the background with a pot temperature of -186C.
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We only had approximately 15 liters of LN2 for the Classified testing, and with a little bit of BIOS voltage tinkering were able to extend our 3DMark06 run all the way out to a scintillating 248BCLK with HT enabled.
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 A landmark believed to be "unobtainium" is squashed by the EVGA X58 Classified, Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 modules, and a retail 920 D0 stepping processor. |
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takumsawsherman - Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - link
Which video cameras have a better interface than firewire? Which audio recording devices? Even removable hard drives benefit from the extremely sturdy Firewire 800 connector. eSATA shows it was designed as an afterthought. As to why bother, they obviously bothered with Firewire 400, but couldn't spend the extra $5 to give the board everything. The same reasoning seems to be why there is no PS/2 mouse port.Of course, you are coming from a perspective of someone who doesn't know people who dabble in audio or video unless they own a mac. But there are plenty of audio people who use a PC. Why should they get the short end of the stick if they buy a $450 motherboard when the lowliest Mac buyer does not?
Rajinder Gill - Sunday, May 10, 2009 - link
The fact remains that most people game and overclock are not intrested in Firewire. If there were a demand for such things on boards like these it would already have been 'upgraded'. Fact is most people who are serious about music editing/development will prbably not be spending $400 on a overclocking or sub-zero cooling oriented motherboard - they'd excercise far better intelligence by looking at a dedicated solution.takumsawsherman - Sunday, May 10, 2009 - link
Well, this board has firewire. It just has the cheap version. Again, considering the difference in cost (minimal) and considering the huge price of this board, why cheap out when it comes to peripherals?In my opinion, this board is useless whether or not it as FW800. I just find it disturbing that some are willing to accept paying a premium and getting a product that doesn't even upgrade to the port that's been around for 5 years and is found on $600 computers aimed at Grandma. It's shameful and cheap.
Rajinder Gill - Sunday, May 10, 2009 - link
The people that would buy this board care about sub-zero and i7 over 5GHz the way you do about Firewire..lolRajinder Gill - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
hi,We're in the process of intorducing someone new to that segment of reviews. The frequency of articles has been a bit lop-sided at times simply becasue we've been spread a little thin. The high-end perf stuff is my end of things so you've see stuff going up a little more frequenctly as a result (there's less of this stuff in general making it a little easier). Hopefully we should be up to speed on the more everyday stuff soon. I know Gary's working on another round-up, so please beare with us.
regards
Raja
Busboy2 - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
I think you should see how far you can push an i7 965 on liquid nitrogen.... I really want to see those results... I figure if someone is spending this much on a board they are going to get the best processor.bupkus - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
Will newegg carry it? I want to enter an automated notification for when the price reaches $79. ;)hemipowered - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
If you are talking about the classified, It is already there bought mine like a month ago.Elenseel - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
You might have to wait a while for this one...hemipowered - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
I bought a Silver Stone ST850 power supply, It worked very well with my X58 Classified