Overclocking and Conclusion
Overclocking
To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the X99 Classified motherboard, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. We were able to get the board running stable for over 4hrs at a 4.50GHz CPU speed, a 2666MHz memory speed, and a 3.4GHz ring bus speed with a 125MHz base clock. The board proved to be a bit bullish when attempting to stability the overclock with the memory mode required to be set to XMP1 and all voltages with the exception of CPU voltage set to Auto. The board would not stabilize successfully at the expected run speeds using other BIOS settings. System stability was tested running the AIDA64 stability test in conjunction with EVGA's OC Scanner X graphical benchmark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 8x MSAA in stress test mode. Note that 32GB (4 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR3-2666 memory modules were used for the overclocking tests.
Note that this is is meant only as a quick preview of the board's performance potential. With more time to tweak the settings to a greater extent, pushing to a higher base clock and ring bus speed may have been achievable, in addition to an overnight stability run without issue.
Performance
The EVGA X99 Classified board performed well at stock in comparison to other systems. The board's overclocking provided much more of a challenge than anticipated. Given the new-ness of the platform, this not an unexpected occurrence.
Pricing
As of September 20, the EVGA X99 Classified motherboard was available at Amazon.com for $399.99 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $399.99.
Conclusion
The EVGA X99 Classified board is a very appealing solution, both from the aesthetic perspective as well as the integrated features perspective. EVGA designed the board with a classic black coloration, adding red highlights to the logo on the chipset heat sink, for a superb appearance in any case. The board's layout is almost flawless with some a few placement decisions that could have been better implemented. The X99 Classified has many features integrated from previous board designs with tweaks made to offer a better product. Even though EVGA chose not to integrate any SATA-Express ports on the board, they more than made up for it with the dual M.2 slots and 10 SATA 6 Gbps ports. The board's performance was on par with expectations at stock speed. Overclocking the board was a trivial matter, once the system was dialed in. However, the X99 Classified does seem to have a lot of untapped performance potential under the hood.
One thing that stood out in the board's design was the proximity of the primary PCI-Express x16 slot to the CPU socket. Because of the proximity of the slot, we found the primary slot to be unusable when cooling the CPU with a larger CPU air cooler such as the Noctua NH-D15 cooler. However, this proximity seems to be common with X99-based board designs the feature true-quad card SLI or CrossFireX support. There is just not enough room on a standard ATX-sized motherboard to fit four slots with room between them to accommodate a dual slot cooler without adjusting the layout of other integrated components. The included manuals presented another conundrum with the amount on information present therein. They contained with not much more than surface level information included to use and troubleshoot the board. The overclocking "dial-in" issue encountered presented further challenges, but should be easily solved with some tweaking of the board's BIOS design by the EVGA engineers in future UEFI revisions.
Strengths
- Stock performance
- Overclocking potential
- Board aesthetics
- CPU socket layout and spacing
- UEFI BIOS design and usability
- CMOS battery placement
- Quality of integrated Creative Labs Core3D chipset and audio subsystem design
- Performance of dual Intel GigE NICs
- Dual M.2 ports
Weaknesses
- Lack of CMOS reset jumper
- Proximity of primary PCI-Express x16 slot to CPU area causes space conflict when using larger CPU air coolers
- Lack of SATA-Express ports
- Lack of in-depth board feature information in included manuals
- Time required to dial in base overclock
My favorite product of all
My favorite product of all time is a bit different. I love the EVBot I got to push my Classified cards to the max… or whatever classified products I happen to be holding.
Nice write-up. My only gripe
Nice write-up. My only gripe is with EVGA going with angled connectors at the edge of the boar. This is clearly meant to be setup as a benching system or a very top-end full size ATX or EATX case with plenty of room.
The lack of a cmos jumper
The lack of a cmos jumper shouldn’t be listed as a weakness, considering there is a cmos reset button on the motherboard backplane.
CMOS reset button just clears
CMOS reset button just clears current CMOS settings but retains profile information and any internally configured settings. The reset jumper physically shorts the CMOS to reset it to factory defaults, including profile information, time, and internally configured settings (like memory and cpu-dependent settings that are not user configurable). That is why it is listed as a weakness.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the norm with x99 boards rather than the exception. You can remove the CMOS battery for the same effect most of the time, but I have seen boards retain profile and time settings even after removing the CMOS battery for elongated periods (> 20-30m)…
Weakness indeed. I tried
Weakness indeed. I tried every possible way to reset Cmos but it just doesnt work.