EVGA X58 SLI LGA 1366 Motherboard Review

Test Setup & Methodologies

Test Platform:
Motherboard:	EVGA X58 SLI Intel 9.1.0.1007
Processor:	Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition
Processor Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme-1366 120mm AD1212MS-A73GL 2050RPM/80.5CFM
North Bridge Cooling:	Stock
South Bridge Cooling:	Stock
PWM Cooling:	Stock
Memory:	Corsair Dominator 3x2GB PC3-12800 8-8-8 (TR3X6G1600C8D)
Power Supply:	Ultra X-Pro 750W
Video Card:	BFG GTX 280 OCX / BFG GTX 280 OC GeForce Release 180.48 WHQL
Additional Fans:	120mm AD1212MS-A73GL 2050RPM/80.5CFM
Hard Drives:	Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache
OS:	Windows Vista SP1 (with all updates)

The first notable absence from the list of hardware above is the lack of a 3x1GB kit of memory for testing overclocks. This will have to be missed with this review as all we have in the house right now is the 3x2GB PC3-12800 Dominator kit from Corsair. The next hardware line that needs explaining is the use of video cards. The initial benchmarks will be with a single BFG GTX 280 OCX, but the 16X vs 8X SLI comparison section will include the GTX 280 OCX as well as a GTX 280 OC.

Stability Overclocking Methodology

The goal of our overclocking section is not to show you a CPU-Z screen shot or validation of the motherboard highly overclocked and exclaim that the motherboard is "amazing". Our goal for the overclocking section is to show what the average user, with the right knowledge, may be able to get out of the motherboard for everyday use. This is also known as 24/7 stability in the overclocking forums.

Obviously we won't be able to test everything for a literal 24/7 overclock because of time restraints with a review, but we have put together a virtual recipe that should equate to 24/7 overclocks. The following is a run-down of what all of the listed overclocks in the next section will have passed in order to be listed, screen shots are of course provided:

• 8 threads of 32M SuperPi Mod 1.5 (ran at the same time using Hyper Pi 0.99b)
• 2 hours of 8 threads of Prime95 using Prime95 v25.7 Stress Testing Blend
• 2 hours of OCCT Custom 2H Mix OCCT v2.0.0a - Except for Memory Overclocking
• 2 hours of HCI MemTest Pro in Windows using all available memory
• Multiple loops of 3DMark Vantage (60 minutes of looping the full test suite)

As we said, our overclocks posted in the Stability Overclocking Section are stable, without question. If you are looking for less than stable overclocks and a little bit more exciting numbers, we have you covered as well in our Sub-Zero Overclocking & Benching section near the end of the review.

Benchmark Methodology

Since the EVGA X58 SLI doesn't support XMP profiles, we are going to have to do a tiny amount of manual setting adjustment for the stock results instead of a straight plug and play like we would have for an XMP capable setup. All of the processor settings will be left at default excluding the Turbo function of the i7 965 processor. The processor will be locked in at 3.2GHz with the QPI set to the default 6.4 GT/s. The only settings that will be adjusted are the memory ones changing the frequency to 800MHz or DDR3-1600 and the rated 8-8-8-24-2T timings.

For the red results in the benchmarks, we will be running our Overall Stability Overclocking result that we will look at in the next section. These results will depict the fastest we could stability get this set of components to run after finding maximums of the various hardware components. The video card used for all results will be the pre-overclocked BFG GTX 280 OCX running at its default clocks of 602/2214/1296. Keep in mind that these are overclocked values from the reference GTX 280 specifications when looking at the 3D results. Here is how the rest of the test setup will be derived as far as operating system and software goes:

1. Windows Vista x64 w/SP1 is installed using a full format
2. Intel Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed followed by a defragment and a reboot
3. At time of benchmarks the latest drivers were downloaded from their official web sites as the latest drivers, most notable, NVIDIA GeForce Release 180.48 WHQL
4. Programs and games are then installed followed by another defragment
5. Windows updates are then completed installing all available updates followed by a defragment
6. Benchmarks are each ran three times after a clean reboot for every iteration of the benchmark unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged