Operational Specifics

If you don’t change much in the mainboard BIOS and don’t touch any of the essential settings, then normally you shouldn’t experience any problems in the nominal mode. This time we also didn’t experience any difficulties neither during system assembly, nor during further work with EVGA X58 SLI LE mainboard. When there is no serious processor load in place, all power-saving technologies (that are disabled by default for some reason) lower the processor clock frequency multiplier and Vcore.

When the CPU is loaded heavily, its core voltage returns to its nominal value and the multiplier increases to 21x due to Intel Turbo Boost technology kicking in. the only peculiarity that we managed to notice so far is the following: unlike other mainboards that tend to slightly, maybe by only a few MHz, increase the base clock, EVGA X58 SLI LE lowers it just a little.

On system boot-up the board reports very detailed info about the system operational parameters: current and nominal CPU frequency, memory size and frequency, a complete list of connected storage devices, BIOS date and version number, a list of available “hot” keys.

However, there is one small issue, we noticed. The memory frequency you see is not the actual memory frequency, but the BIOS setting, which is the result of the selected base frequency times the chosen multiplier. If we increase the base frequency during overclocking, then the memory frequency will increase accordingly, but we will still see the old, lower setting on system boot-up.

This is when we usually proceed with the performance tests, but we have recently got another interesting opportunity for additional investigation of mainboard functionality due to Crown AGE12025F12J fan with PWM control function. It turned out that different mainboards cope with this seemingly simple task very differently.

I would like to remind you that the rotation speed control of the CPU fan is enabled in the BIOS by default. Supposedly, if the CPU temperature is below 30 °C, the fan rotation speed should be at 50% of the nominal, and as soon as the temperature reaches 60 °C, it should increase to 100%. While the nominal fan rotation speed is 2200 RPM, in idle mode the board lowered it to approximately 1330 RPM.

I was a little upset to discover that during fan rotation speed management the board uses not the actual processor temperature, but the readings it takes on its own. And the sad thing is that the board’s readings are considerably lower than the actual temps. According to mainboard monitoring, the CPU temperature was around 22-24 °C in idle mode, which was about the same or even lower than the ambient room temperature, and as you realize, it is simply impossible. Therefore, I was very concerned that this mainboard would be unable to ensure acceptable thermal conditions for the CPU, just like the recently tested ASRock X58 Extreme. Luckily, my concerns didn’t come true. We experienced no issues when we increased the memory frequency and even during CPU overclocking. So, what’s the difference between the boards then? In the time it takes the board to respond to conditions changes.

In our ASRock X58 Extreme review we wrongly claimed that it takes the readings off the thermal diode beneath the processor socket. In fact, we should have mentioned some kind of a diode next to the CPU socket. When the processor load increased, it started heating up little by little, and then it took very long to cool down after the CPU had already switched to energy-efficient mode. As a result, we had to give up automatic management of processor fan rotation speed on ASRock X58 Extreme, because in this case we couldn’t overclock the CPU. It overheated before the fan could switch to higher rotation speed mode. The difference between the actual and measured CPU temperature on EVGA X58 SLI LE board is even greater, but the outcome is not the same. When the workload increased, CPU temperature rose very rapidly and the processor fan immediately switched to higher rotation speed mode. It means that you can in fact use automatic fan rotation speed management not only in nominal mode but also during overclocking.

I was very grateful to EVGA X58 SLI LE board when I found out that I didn’t have to keep the fan at its maximum rotation speed all the time during CPU overclocking.. only those applications that load the CPU very heavily require the fan to speed up to its maximum. Among the applications that we would normally use during our review process are Cinebench 10, Fritz Chess Benchmark, 3DMark Vantage CPU tests and video encoding in Custom PC Bench 2007. In all other cases the CPU cooler could cool the CPU sufficiently even at lower fan rotation speed.

However, we couldn’t help pointing out a few things, despite the above described successful resolution of our experiments. Although automatic fan rotation speed management on ASRock X58 Extreme doesn’t really work because the boards measures CPU temperature incorrectly, it is based on absolutely correct management principles. We have only two parameters at our disposal: startup fan rotation speed and temperature threshold at which the rotation speed should start increasing. This was exactly how it worked: once we exceeded the set temperature threshold, the fan rotation speed started to gradually increase. Unlike ASRock, EVGA X58 SLI LE mainboard boasts broader and more flexible configuring options. It offers three parameters that we can use:

1. Initial temperature that can be set in the interval from 0 to 30 °C, default setting being 30 °C;
2. Corresponding startup fan rotation speed that can be changed from 0 to 100%, nominal setting being 50%;
3. Maximum temperature when the fan rotation speed should be increased to 100%. The default setting is 60 °C, the supported interval is from 51 to 100 °C. We lowered the setting to 51 °C in order to speed up the transition to max fan rotation speed.

In my understanding, fan rotation speed management should work the following way:

• While the CPU temperature is below the set minimum value of 30 °C, the fan rotation speed is at only 50%.
• If the CPU temperature is in the interval between the minimum and maximum marks, the fan rotation speed increases gradually.
• As soon as the CPU temperature reaches the set maximum mark of 51 °C, the fan rotation speed increases to its maximum.

Unfortunately, our tests showed that the startup temperature doesn’t have any effect on the way fan rotation speed management works, so the second item is eliminated from the algorithm. Just like on ASRock mainboard, only two parameters actually matter: startup fan rotation speed and maximum CPU temperature. The only difference is that as soon as the temperature reaches the maximum mark, fan rotation speed on EVGA X58 SLI LE mainboard jumps up to its maximum immediately. As a result, when the CPU load increases its temperature to the maximum threshold value, the fan rotation speed immediately hits the ceiling. The CPU temperature goes down, and so does the fan rotation speed. CPU continues working, the temperature increases again, and so does the fan rotation speed – up to the maximum, and this endless cycle goes on and on…

My shattered nerve system begged to tell EVGA X58 SLI LE mainboard that this limited algorithm for the management of processor fan rotation speed can only work during low CPU load, when the processor temperature doesn’t reach the set maximum mark. Or on the contrary, during work in extremely CPU-heavy applications when even maximum fan rotation speed can’t help keep the CPU temperature within an acceptable thermal interval and therefore, its rotation speed is constantly at its maximum. As for the pretty widely spread average workload, the constant cyclic howling of the EVGA X58 SLI LE processor fan make it absolutely impossible to work comfortably and affect the users’ mental health. Only properly implemented management of the processor fan rotation speed on EVGA boards can save the day. If the rotation speed starts increasing gradually as soon as the CPU temperature reaches the minimum mark, then maybe it will be possible to keep the thermals within the acceptable interval without reaching maximum fan rotation speed. If not, then maybe at least this transition won’t be as abrupt and annoying from acoustical standpoint.

I would like to wind up the discussion of EVGA X58 SLI LE features and operational specifics on a highly positive note. I was very pleased that the board shares its own extensive monitoring info with the corresponding utilities. Look at the screenshot from CPUID Hardware Monitor window: we know all the major voltages, temperatures and fan rotation speeds. Moreover, it is for the first time that I see this utility display the current PWM-control value in percents.

However, you can also notice how greatly the processor temperature readings actually differ, as we have already mentioned earlier in this review. According to the mainboard diode, the CPU temp is only 22 °C, while the actual CPU core temperature is between 34 and 37 °C. so, there is still room for improvement, that’s for sure.