EVGA X58 SLI Micro LGA1366 Motherboard Review

BIOSRundown

Like all EVGA motherboards before it, the X58 SLI Micro is powered by a Phoenix AwardBIOS. The X58 SLI Micro uses an identical layout in the BIOS to the rest of the X58 lineup. So for those familiar with the EVGA X58 lineup, you will be right at home with the X58 SLI Micro.

From the main headings like Integrated Peripherals to the Onboard Device sub-headings, the BIOS layout is identical to previous X58 EVGA offerings. This is definitely a good thing as from the first time we booted with the EVGA X58 3X SLI, we were comfortable with the BIOS. The location of all items and settings are very intuitive and should come quite naturally for most users. We really don't anticipate anyone not being able to find their way through this BIOS.

All of our Power Management options are available including the ability to wake the system at a set time or enabling hot key power on features. The PC Health Status section is also virtually identical to other EVGA X58 motherboards including the ability to monitor vCORE, vTT, vDIMM, and IOH vCORE. We can also see CPU, NB, and VREG temperature monitoring. Other X58 motherboards offered this identical monitoring page but failed to provide us the ability to monitor NB temperatures in Windows.

After many public and private requests to EVGA to allow us the option of monitoring NB temperatures in Windows, we will have to wait and see if they complied. With any motherboard, the ability to monitor temperatures of key components is essential for trouble shooting or simply preventing issues from even coming up. The platform that this ability is most vital too would be the mATX platform in our minds. With the cramped cases these motherboards will find themselves in, temperature monitoring in Windows is an absolute for as many components possible...including the NB.

We now find ourselves in the familiar confines of overclock central. Like the rest of the BIOS, EVGA has done great with the overclocking section breaking the options up nicely when needing too, while leaving as few sub-menu's as possible. Once you are familiar with this section, you can easy flip through the screens adjusting settings as you go. There are a couple additions we would like to thank EVGA for tucking into the X58 BIOS which we complained about previously, the ability to see our Target CPU and Target Memory Frequency. These options were added right around the time the Classified review was posted and we are glad to see that the X58 SLI Micro has seen every single BIOS enhancement the rest of the lineup has been privy to. The screen shots above outline all of the options at our finger tips including memory timings available, voltage adjustment options, and the available CPU settings we can enable or disable. These for the most part are pretty self explanatory so we will simply move on to the available voltages chart.

This chart outlines all of the available voltage minimums and maximums that the EVGA X58 SLI Micro has to offer.

Aside from the missing options for the PWM frequencies along with QPI and impedance signal options, this little board has about the same voltage options as the EVGA X58 Classified. Obviously the flagship Classified has a couple extra perks that aid in extreme overclocking, but the X58 SLI Micro looks like it really should hold its own in that arena as well. Overall, the X58 SLI Micro shows no deficiencies in the voltage department to accommodate all users. We are happy to see this as we had the perception that perhaps EVGA would cripple the X58 SLI Micro when it came to voltages. We were completely wrong with those thoughts.

The last screen is again another replica of previous X58 motherboard BIOS's. Having an almost identical BIOS to previous X58 boards has its positives such as rock solid stability and great overclocking with a ton of features. It also has its downfalls when those previous boards were lacking in certain areas. We really would like to see more extensive BIOS saving capabilities of the EVGA X58 motherboards. Being able to name saved configurations, saving to hard drive or thumb drive, things like that. ASUS, Gigabyte, DFI, and others all have these setting saving features and it is one skill that EVGA really could improve in their BIOS.