Conclusion

While we were raving about EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard right from the start, by the time we got to the conclusion the overall mood changed. EVGA X58 SLI Classified has a lot of advantages. It boasts very convenient PCB design, offers excellent functionality, and although some of the features aren’t revealed to us, they are still there. Of course, I am talking about ATI CrossFireX and a few other features that haven’t been disclosed to us for some reason. The board has very informative BIOS that is extremely easy to work with and offers anything you might need for successful system overclocking. As we found out the board increases the voltages under heavy load, but even despite this issue it managed to overclock our test processor to its maximum – it is the only mainboard after Gigabyte solutions that actually did it. Moreover, this particular issue made it possible to overclock our processor even higher than on any other mainboards without actually touching the voltage settings. Unfortunately, despite the formal advantage in overclocking results over Asus P6T, EVGA X58 SLI Classified failed to outperform its competitor in all test modes. Besides, it consumes more power, even though Asus P6T is also no energy-efficient product.

So, who may be the ideal user of EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard? It works great in nominal mode - however, it will waste a lot of power in this case. It is practically ideal for CPU overclocking - however, other mainboards will offer higher performance levels and, again, will consume less power that simply turns into heat. So, it appears that EVGA X58 SLI Classified won’t suit just any user. It is for those of you who know with all certainty that they need this particular mainboard. A potential user should have a couple of Nvidia graphics cards to build an SLI configuration. He or she should demonstrate clear intention to upgrade to the next-generation Nvidia graphics solutions in the future, so that the NF200 chip could finally do some good. Moreover, it would be best to use CPU cooling solutions of extreme efficiency, such as liquid nitro or Freon phase-changers, especially since the board has a number of special features that should eliminate certain problems caused by extreme cooling methods and make extreme overclocking experience more enjoyable. Besides, when the CPU frequency changes are measured in GHz instead of hundreds of MHz, no one will be concerned with the low performance of this EVGA mainboard. It may allow you to push your CPU to 5-7GHz frequency: at this point, performance at 3.8-3.9GHz speed is of no immediate importance any more…