EVGA X58 SLI LGA 1366 Motherboard Review

A Closer Look at the EVGA X58 SLI

With three PCI-E 2.0 16X slots, six DDR3 memory slots, and a larger CPU socket, these X58 based motherboards are starting to really push the limits of the standard ATX form factor. EVGA has done a remarkable job in providing a lot of features and keeping the layout relatively clean but it is not free of some debatable faults. The spacing on the three PCI-E 16X slots won't allow use of the PCI or PCI-E 1X slots when using three double spaced video cards. The CPU socket is also extremely tight looking because of the tall north bridge and PWM heat sinks. The DIMM slots are nicely gapped from the CPU socket though and all of the appropriate connectors are exactly where they need to be for easy cable management. Let's zoom in and take a look at some of the high traffic areas of the EVGA X58 SLI motherboard.

Well, here it is, home base. The LGA 1366 socket is a new one and the first change in the Intel socket in a long while. LGA 775 served us well but it is time to move on, with that comes some interesting developments. First off, The LGA 1366 socket is a bloody monster. CPU socket layouts were already tight with LGA 775 but this larger socket squeezes even more space from the motherboard and companion components. We won't discuss space any more than that right now as the Hardware Installation section will get into some heat sink installation discussion shortly. EVGA has gone with an analog 8-phase power design that is capable of handling up to 430W continuous load. Another inventive feature of the CPU PWM is the fact that the frequency can be adjusted in three steps depending on the user’s need, from power saving to extreme stability at high load.

Cooling of the CPU PWM is done by a rather large heat pipe heat sink, but the best part is that it is not attached to the north bridge and south bridge heat sink assembly. This means that water cooling the motherboard will not require changes to the PWM heat sink which will be a welcome sight to the water cooling crowd. Another drawback on the change to a new socket is the fact that current LGA 775 heat sinks and water blocks will need new hold downs in order to be compatible. The good news is that there are some companies that have already started this transition, again, more on this in the Hardware Installation section.

As mentioned, the addition of two more DIMM slots to enable triple channel memory has really put a squeeze on motherboard real estate, the market for a plot of land is really booming these days, unlike the real world; except in Saskatchewan. EVGA has managed to maintain the standard 9.6" ATX form factor width and still has a nice gap between the DIMM slots and the CPU socket area. We can also see that EVGA has gone with a three phase analog PWM utilizing low RDS MOSFETs driving the power. Two fan headers and the 24-pin ATX power connector are also located here along the back side edge of the motherboard. The most interesting aspect of the DIMM slots we found was that the memory slots maintained the NVIDIA green despite the lack of an NVIDIA chipset on board. Perhaps EVGA would have been better served with grey or even blue DIMM slots to match the PCI-E slots, giving the motherboard a more cohesive look. I guess NVIDIA roots run deep in EVGA due to their GPU partnership.

What we like to call "I/O corner" on the EVGA X58 SLI is fairly typical to what we have seen on motherboards to date. We are presented with front panel headers, a total of eight SATA II ports, a single IDE connector, two USB onboard headers, our diagnostic LED display as well as a couple fan headers. We also have our BIOS chip and CMOS battery down here. Hopefully the CMOS battery doesn't need to be removed during overclocking, but if it does, the battery is very accessible. The key though are the six 90 degree SATA connectors. There will be no issue with SATA cables when using large video cards. The red SATA ports are run by the JMicron 363 controller with the six other black SATA connectors powered by the Intel ICH10R south bridge.

Further down the bottom edge of the motherboard we find not only power and reset buttons, but a clear CMOS button as well. These buttons here are another sign that EVGA is catering to the extreme overclocker and benchmarker as these buttons are useless for a motherboard that is mounted in a case. The placement of these buttons on the PCB is strictly for those that run their systems in an open bench setup. Another item found down here that seems almost out of place is an onboard speaker. Onboard speakers have become almost extinct in recent years but EVGA has and apparently will continue to place them on the PCB. We think it is nice having a speaker onboard still but the option to disable it through a jumper or something would be a nice addition.

The heart of this beast is in the three PCI-E 2.0 16X slots seen here. There has been a lot of confusion over the electrical makeup of these physical 16X slots. When running two cards, the top two 16X slots will run in a 16X/16X configuration. When running TRI-SLI, however, they operate in a 16X/8X/8X configuration. With PCI-E 2.0 bandwidth though, the drop to 8X of the bottom two slots really shouldn't limit the performance of the bottom cards. Current GPU solutions are reported not to have the ability to saturate that type of bandwidth so a loss in performance should be negligible if any at all. This means in order to run 16X/16X though, we will need to use the top two slots which will hinder cooling a good bit. Again, this might be all for not and equate to no performance loss but testing in our SLI Benchmark session will provide a conclusive answer on this...if of course the motherboard allows us to run two cards in either the top two slots or slot one and slot three.

As mentioned earlier in this section, running three double spaced cards such as GTX 280 or 260's will result in all other expansion slots being unusable. It will be interesting to see if we can run two cards in any of the three slots in order to provide flexibility in other expansion slot use for two card SLI configurations. The last item on the agenda before we get into the task of installing hardware, is a quick look at the cooling solution provided by EVGA on the X58 SLI.

As we can see in the photos above, the north bridge is cooled by a similar heat sink to that of the 790i FTW Digital PWM motherboard that EVGA released not too long ago. The north bridge is then connected to the passive south bridge to provide cooling to the ICH10R chipset. The most exciting aspect of the entire cooling setup for this reviewer is the fact that the north bridge and south bridge cooling is completely separate from the PWM cooling. This makes it easy as pie to change the north bridge and south bridge cooling solutions or the PWM heat sink for that matter.

The north bridge heat sink works in the same fashion as the EVGA 790i FTW Digital PWM motherboard pulling the air through the heat sink and then blowing the air out the side of the fan through the opening seen above. This then moves the warm air to the rear of the case where we would like it. The only downside is that this will also pull the hot air from the CPU socket over the heat sink which won't help to keep north bridge temperatures down. With the stock Intel heat sink, this will definitely be something to look for. With larger stand up CPU coolers, the heat will likely be raised above the north bridge heat sink and this solution should work quite well.

EVGA has gone to great lengths to make sure adequate cooling is provided to the PWM but might have gone a little too big with their solution. Upon initial inspection, the PWM heat sink is among the beefiest we have seen on a CPU PWM before and immediately sets off alarm bells as to the heat output of the PWM on this motherboard. It is quite difficult to judge what temperatures are going to be like on this motherboard with such drastic changes to the chipset but our Heat & Acoustical Testing section will answer all the questions we have on the subject. The installation section will determine if the PWM heat sink is going to play havoc with larger CPU coolers.

Mush to our dismay, EVGA has jumped on the bandwagon for the movement against legacy PS/2 mouse ports and gone with an additional two USB ports instead. We have managed to find a solid little PS/2 > USB converter though that works with our KVM so it really isn't a big deal. The rest of the rear I/O panel is quite straight forward. We have a total of 8 USB 2.0 ports, the dual gigabit network connections, and the 8 channel audio tower as well as coax and optical outputs. Rounding the rear I/O panel off are six pin 1394a firewire and eSATA ports. If we look hard we can also see another little red button and just like the one seen earlier, it is a CMOS clear button. This may seem rather insignificant but allows for CMOS clearing without having to even open your case, and for those that have to use it, it is a blessing. The backside of the motherboard is rather non-descript but we can see the chipset and PWM heat sinks are mounted with screws, not just plastic push-pins. This is one feature I like to see that has been carried over from the EVGA 790i solutions.

Overall, the layout is strong with a few minor issues that we pointed out. The real test of a layout though comes when installing hardware, especially large hardware components. We have managed to put together a premium hardware package for a premium platform and motherboard, so let's see how it all fits together...if it does at all.