EVGA X58 SLI LGA 1366 Motherboard Review

Hardware Installation

The primary concern and discussion in forums regarding the EVGA X58 SLI thus far has been about CPU cooling, in particular, whether or not the Thermalright Ultra-120 (TRUE) will fit and if so; which orientations. With that being the hot topic, we will start there.

Starting without the fan shroud installed, the TRUE fits nicely in a north/south orientation. The wing span of the TRUE doesn't interfere with the PWM heat sink of the X58 SLI, which is a comforting reality. Unfortunately on the other side of the heat sink, the first memory slot becomes unusable with the TRUE in this orientation and oversized modules. The green slots are the first three slots that should be used on the X58 SLI so with only three modules, this won't be a problem, but if you are looking to populate all six DIMM slots, you will need to count this orientation out if using over sized modules like the Corsair Dominators. Looking at the third photo above, however, we can see that standard height modules have no problem snuggling underneath the wings of the TRUE in the first slot. So if you are looking for six modules and a TRUE facing north/south with the EVGA X58 SLI, you simply have to stick to standard height modules and you will be set. Let's now see how the fan fits in this orientation.

From the angle of the first photo, life looks rosy for the TRUE and its new fan holder in this orientation, but upon further inspection, life isn't perfect. It is close to fitting without so much as a whimper but the fan casing does have to come down and put pressure on the PWM heat sink cooling fins as the second photo shows. Whether you would call this an issue is up to you. We don't find this a huge issue and blame this more on a bloated fan holder than the motherboard. At the same time, there is contact and it does take a pinch of effort to get the fan to cover 100% of the TRUE face. The north bridge heat sink on the other hand is perfectly designed to accommodate this monster of a CPU cooler.

Turning the fan around to the other side of the motherboard, we can see that initial inspection might show no clearance issues. This is again not 100% the case as the fan holder is interfered with the 'antennae' from the heat pipe on the PWM heat sink. This again is minor enough for us not to call it a problem, but it does hinder the ability to lower the fan/shroud any lower than it is on the heat sink face. It is now time to see how an east/west orientation looks.

As we can see in the first photo, the fan situated over the PWM heat sink allows it to come down much further than either setup in the north/south orientation. This setup would be ideal for those with a rear exhaust fan above the I/O rear panel as the warm air from the CPU and PWM area would be removed out of the case. Taking a look from behind we see plenty of room on the NB heat sink side, but something that may be an issue on the right side towards the top of the motherboard. The TRUE hangs over the edge, and in some cases, that means it would have to be lodged about 2cm into the power supply or through the top of the case. This is definitely something you will have to watch for if looking at this combination. Also, in this orientation, with the fan on the side of the TRUE toward the DIMM slots, we would again lose access to the front slot with above average height modules, exactly like the north/south orientation. Now that we have put the question to bed about whether or not this motherboard can house this CPU cooler, let's have a look at the rest of the installation items we wanted to look at.

One concern a lot of folks are having with this motherboard is the location of the 8-pin EPS connection for CPU power shown in the first photo above. Although it is not an ideal location, we had no problem inserting or removing the connector. A little care not to get caught on the PWM heat sink fins is all that is required. Moving on to the fitting of video cards we can see that there is plenty of room between the bottom of the memory DIMM slots and the back of the top PCI-E 16X slot. In addition to the space there, our 90 degree SATA connectors are more than accessible with one or even two behemoth video cards occupying the top two slots.

Not only do we have plenty of space between the memory slots and the back of the upper most video card, the north bridge has plenty of room to breathe as well. With dual slot cards in a split formation, we can see that there is a useable PCI slot as well as the middle PCI-E 16X slot in case a need for a PCI-E peripheral was present. Keep in mind that we will be testing for whether or not this configuration would be detrimental to performance, and even if it is, having two cards in the top two PCI-E 16X slots still leaves the lower PCI slot available as well. So really, unless you are running triple video cards, an accessible PCI-E and PCI slot are there for use. The last photo in the group above outlines the tight but comfortable fit of the video card in relation to the bottom edge of the board. Recent forum chatter has resulted in the conclusion that there are a number of cases that will not work with some motherboards in TRI-SLI formation due to the last PCI-E 16X slot being at the very bottom of the motherboard and the bottom video card cooler hanging over the bottom edge of the motherboard. This is most definitely not the case with the EVGA X58 SLI.

There really are no words for this configuration, these last two photos are strictly computer hardware pornography, simple as that. I can't think of a more beautiful sight than three GPUs jammed together covering half a motherboard. Well, three GPUs wrapped in insulation and paper towels at -100C covering half a motherboard would trump these images but as far as stock setups go, it doesn't get any better than above.