Evga motherboard11/7/2023 ![]() They have also included an alternate socket backplate in case your chosen heatsink/water block/extreme cooling pot don’t take advantage of the built-in socket 2011 screw holes. The rear I/O cover is (as usual) self-explanatory. In case the plentiful USB options on the rear I/O aren’t enough, you get four additional USB 2.0 and two additional USB 3.0 ports via included PCIe brackets. There is also an I/O cover that makes the board look even better when it’s mounted in a case (or on a bench). There are three SLI bridges included, for two, three and four-way SLI. There is alo your standard EVGA fare – motherboard manual, driver disc, case badge & board quick-reference poster. Of course, any time there’s a new CPU out, you’ll want to update that BIOS to the latest release ASAP. As this was a before-IVB-E release, the two primary BIOSes (there are three) had SNB-E BIOSes, but the third one gives instant IVB-E compatibility. 8 Channel High Definition Audio + OpticalĪside from the board, there are plenty of accessories accompanying it.6 x Serial ATA 600MB/sec (6x Internal) with support for RAID 0 and RAID1.6 x Serial ATA 300MB/sec (4x Internal + 2x E-SATA) with support for RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 0+1, RAID5, RAID10 and JBOD.These specs & features are pulled from the X79 Dark product page. Specifications & FeaturesĮVGA doesn’t give massive specification lists, they just list the Very Important items and let their products do the talking. Ok, so we know it looks good, let’s find out what it’s made of. I really like this look plain and powerful looking. Now that those stickers are off, let’s look at the board itself. EVGA kindly includes several stickers to indicate RAM positioning and voltage warnings as well as a handy little instruction manual for inserting a CPU in the 2011 socket. Aside from minimal red highlights, it is all black, befitting its Dark name. We’ll get the board photos out there first thing. The board is well protected and all the relevant specs/features are right on the box. Packaging & First LookĮVGA goes simple with packaging and that can be a good thing. Today we dig into the Dark and find out what EVGA has done – and whether it is able to fill those large, if aged, shoes. Saying the Dark is equal to or even greater than that board is a big statement. ![]() The X58 Classified left some big shoes to fill. “EVGA put together a different engineering team and brand new bios team to make better boards =/> than X58 CLASSIFIED.” Further, “Along with titan and soon 780, it now holds almost every single major modern benchmark world record.” In a post at the Kingpin Cooling Forums, he basically admits that recent EVGA boards haven’t been up to snuff (“…an older resource scarce interim engineering team that well, lets just say wasn’t making the boards the best they could be.”) and says they’ve turned the page on that book. The last very solid, nearly flawless board they had was the X58 Classified.ĮVGA’s most public overclocking face – Vince “k|ngp|n” Lucido – has said they’re going to change all of that, starting with the EVGA X79 Dark. So, EVGA has a small but noticeable blemish on its reputation – its BIOSes have been buggy and their lack of updates make one wonder about the support you’re getting from the BIOS team. ![]() Still to this day it has trouble running high speed RAM and the BIOS has been updated only once since that review. Aside from that it was a solid board, but it was an issue that should have been fixed. In that case, an inability to run RAM at the speeds it’s capable of. The boards have been solid, but the BIOS has been a) behind, without a decent UEFI to speak of and b) buggy with a capital B.Įven when they’re not too bad ( see our EVGA Z77 Stinger review), they have bugs. EVGA has had a decent run the last couple years with its motherboards, but they have had issues, mostly with the BIOS. Every now and then a company has to invest in fixing its image. ![]()
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