BIOS Setup

At the time of tests the last official BIOS version for EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard was version S21H from 03.30.2009. However, I did find a link to the newer version S21N from 04.17.2009 in one of the forums. S21N Beta-BIOS appeared more user-friendly than the official one because it clearly states the processor and memory frequencies and you don’t have to manually calculate them. Besides, it also offers “Overclock Recovery Feature” that restores the settings after over-overclocking and improved fan rotation speed management with “Smart Fan Control”. Therefore, we used S21N version during our test session and are going to talk about it in this part of our review.

EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard uses a BIOS based on Phoenix-Award code. We are well familiar with most of its standard features that is why we are going to proceed with the discussion of those sections and sub-sections that have new and unique functionality in them. The first one will be “PC Health Status” section.

The functionality of this section makes a very good overall impression. We know all major voltages, chipset North Bridge and processor voltage regulator temperatures besides the CPU and system temps. Here we can control the rotation speed of three fans out of five that can be connected to the board. “SmartFan Function” allows setting the fan rotation speed adjustment in dependence with the temperature or set the constant rotation speed in percents from the maximum.

Now let’s move over to the “Frequency/Voltage Control” section that contains all the settings related to overclocking and performance increase.

“Dummy O.C.” parameter automatically overclocked our test Intel Core i7-920 processor by raising the base frequency from 133MHz to 160MHz. The result may vary for different CPU models. “Extreme Cooling” parameter serves to ensure system stability when extreme cooling methods are in place, such as Freon or liquid nitro. Overclockers are familiar with the issues caused by too low CPU temperatures referred to as “Cold Bug”. By selecting one of the three “Extreme Cooling” modes, you can eliminate these issues.

Most other parameters hardly require an explanation, their functions are pretty obvious. Therefore, let’s take a look at the first sub-section dealing with the memory parameters. “Memory Feature” sub-section has the biggest number of parameters in it, but it is very convenient to work with. Each memory timing may be set to “Auto”, which means you can adjust each of them individually, independently from all the others. The “Current” column lists the current parameter values.

“Voltage Control” sub-section contains numerous settings related to power and voltage management. For most of them you can set not only higher values, but also values below the nominal. Dangerously high values will be highlighted red. It is extremely convenient that there is a separate column with default settings for your reference.

Parameters for management of processor technologies are summed up in the “CPU Feature” sub-section. Everything here is also very clear and convenient. We were only a little surprised to see all processor power-saving technologies disabled by default.

The BIOS of EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard, just like the BIOS of many other contemporary mainboards, allows saving and loading settings profiles. You can save eight complete profiles and that is more than enough; however, the implementation of this function could have been more convenient. The window shows only profile numbers, you can’t provide them with explanatory descriptions or names upon saving, the occupied slots aren’t marked in any way and there is no warning if you are about to save a profile over the existing one.

The inconveniently set up work with settings profiles is probably the only serious issue with the EVGA X58 SLI Classified mainboard BIOS. Other than that all parameters necessary for successful overclocking and optimization for maximum performance are there; they are all very smartly arranged and are very easy and convenient to work with.