ConclusionIf you managed to read through all of that, congratulations, because I barely managed to go through it myself. There are a lot of things to look at with the EVGA P55 Classified 200 and we think we managed to cover most of it. What more can we say though; the P55 Classified 200 lives up to its name. From the aesthetics of the Classified color scheme to the absolute punishment we put this board through in the Extreme Overclocking section, it did not disappoint. That isn't entirely true actually, we wanted to clock memory much higher than we were able to but after working with Peter from EVGA, it was demonstrated that our memory or CPU simply wasn't willing to cooperate with our desires.
Aside from that, the overclocking of this motherboard is superb. These days the motherboard seems to play a smaller and smaller role in the ability to overclock as the CPU's generally are the limiting factor in BCLK overclocking. But the 10-phase digital PWM plays a big role in the high end overclocking on this motherboard. The wPrime results are quite impressive, especially the 1024M result holding our CPU over 5GHz indicates a very strong motherboard ranking the result #2 on HWBot.  As always though, there are still some issues that we have to talk about with the EVGA P55 Classified 200. The biggest item on our list is simply the price. A premium board on a mainstream platform just doesn't quite compute and given the price tag of this motherboard, you are well up the X58 price list before you start getting more expensive motherboards. We have to question many people's decision to go with this motherboard instead of simply going with a high-end X58 motherboard. The i7 860 & 870 processors are equal in cost if not more expensive than X58 compatible i7 920 & 950's. The biggest benefit of the P55 platform we understand to be the cheaper processors like the i5 750 and soon to be released Clarkdale dual core processors, but if you are on a tight budget, the most expensive motherboard possible isn't likely on your shopping list...do you see the angle we are trying to explain?
Forgoing the price discussion, we have a lot of praise for the P55 Classified. Items like passive heat sinks that can fully function passively is great, unlike the X58 motherboards we have tested which need air moving over them from somewhere. The new AMI BIOS EVGA is using with these motherboards is really coming into its own and maturing every day with consistent updates that fix problems give us hope for more updates down the road. So despite the odd mash of a premium board in a mainstream segment, we commend EVGA for pushing the envelope and offering the P55 Classified 200. For the simple fact that economics shouldn't dictate the success of a motherboard in our opinion, we are giving the EVGA P55 Classified 200 our Dam Good & Dam Innovative award. How can a motherboard with an onboard digital multimeter not qualify for that? Pros:- Classified heritage is carried on in aesthetics and performance
- EVGA listened to users of the X58 Classified and updated accordingly like the front panel connectors
- Innovative design allowing for multiple GPU configurations
- Small things like adding Socket 775 mounting holes let us know EVGA is really catering to its users
- Full feature set utilizing everything the P55 Chipset offers
- Plenty of BIOS updates with marked improvements, especially as of late
- Overclocking monster, on air, and especially under sub-zero conditions...definitely this reviewers P55 benchmarking board of choice
Cons:- The mainstream segment is going to be hard pressed to spend $350+ on a motherboard
- Plenty of BIOS improvements with the change to AMI, but we want direct value input for voltages
- The BIOS false boot is apparently a problem for many users in the EVGA forums
- Lack of CrossFire Bridges of appropriate length included in package
We would like to thank all of the folks at EVGA for their continued support, especially Peter Tan and Jacob Freeman for answering all of our inquiries!
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