EVGA P55 Classified 200 LGA1156 Motherboard Review

A Closer Look at the EVGA P55 Classified 200

If you are familiar with the Intel P55 chipset, something may seem slightly off at first glance in this photo above. The EVGA P55 Classified 200 appears to have brought back the north bridge, but that isn't the case. Where the north bridge has been traditionally located, sits the NVIDIA nForce 200 chipset and what puts the 200 in the name of this board. The other profound aspect of this layout is the immense gathering of PCI-E 16x slots and complete lack of PCI slots. This board is designed to be the monster of the P55 landscape so legacy devices obviously have been let as an afterthought. Of course, the Classified name brings the Classified color scheme and we couldn't be happier about it. There is a fair bit to look at here, so let's get started.

EVGA has done a wonderful job with this CPU socket area. Heat sinks on all sides are nice and low, there is decent spacing to the DIMM slots - a little tight perhaps - and the CPU power connectors are placed exactly where they should be and orientated correctly. The addition of the nForce 200 chip in the traditional north bridge spot does add a bit of bulk to the CPU socket area but the heat sink sits low enough that it shouldn't cause any issues when it comes time to mount the CPU cooling solution. The PWM heat sink is of identical height and again, should facilitate any current CPU heat sinks without issue. The 10 phase digital PWM is the highlight of this motherboard and something we will take a closer look at in the Voltage Regulation section, but also the reason that such a small PWM heat sink can be used.

The specifications and features page has already covered it but keep in mind EVGA has gone with a higher gold percentage in the CPU socket pins with this board and included both LGA1156 and LGA775 mounting holes. Again, we'll look at this a little later on during installation. The last of the mentionables here is that in addition to the 10 phase digital PWM for the CPU power regulation, the VTT circuit which includes Uncore and PCI-E/Memory controllers has a separate 2 phase PWM. This circuit is powered by dual Renesas R2J20651 integrated MOSFETs. These MOSFETs are an all-in-one solution that have become the standard for PWM circuits on modern motherboards. These lead free integrated drivers are known - advertised by other manufacturers - as DrMOS. EVGA uses these on the vDIMM circuit as well that we will look at right now.

Moving toward the DIMM slots we first look at the familiar - to EVGA users - voltage read points along the top edge of the motherboard. These read points have gone one step further by aligning alongside an onboard digital multi-meter, who's test probe mount can be seen in the first picture in the photos above. This combination of voltage reading hardware makes the P55 Classified 200 the only motherboard able to monitor actual voltages using hardware inclusively.

The rest of the memory area is pretty elaborate with a total of three fan headers, the 24-pin ATX connection, and of course the large LED display for the digital multi-meter. There are also the PCI-E jumpers for disabling the PCI-E ports individually and the three phase Renesas powered PWM mentioned earlier. The last item of note, or should we say lack of item, is the connecter location void of a connector - the infamous Braidwood slot. Obviously the dumping of Braidwood didn't come early enough for EVGA as they had already included it in their PCB design.

We now make our way down to southbridge corner, which should be renamed PCH corner as it stands with P55. Along the outside edge of the motherboard down toward the major I/O hub of the motherboard we find six SATA II ports at a 90 degree angle for easy cable management that are driven by the Intel P55 PCH. Next to these ports are the front panel and ECP connection pins. Now if you look closely at the next photo above, we can see a second set of front panel pins - the color coded ones - in the very bottom corner of the motherboard. EVGA obviously listened to feedback from users of the original X58 Classified that wanted to use the ECP panel, but still maintain full front panel function on their case, the P55 Classified 200 allows this without having to modify the ECP connector cable.

Down here we also have the standard onboard headers for additional front panel USB ports as well as a 1394 onboard header and another two fan headers. If you are keeping track, we are up to six onboard fan headers already including the CPU header. The LED POST diagnostic display and CMOS battery are also nicely located down here. The last of the elements of interest are the PCH heat sink (separate from the other two heat sinks) and the three BIOS ICs. Supporting a total of three separate BIOS's is something new to EVGA boards and a very welcome addition, one BIOS chip is removable while the other two are soldered onto the PCB. So even if you manage to corrupt all three at the same time, you can replace the removable one and be back up and running.

The bottom edge of the motherboard is home to the onboard power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons in addition to an onboard speaker. The last of the features down there is the BIOS selector switch. As we just saw, the P55 Classified 200 sports three BIOS ICs, so we need a way to pick which one we want the system to boot with; an onboard switch is the ideal choice.

The rest of the expansion port section of the motherboard is pretty self explanatory by the photos. We have a single PCI-E 1X slot right at the very top followed by six PCI-E 16X slots. The black one always runs at 4X and is linked to the PCH while the other five run either through the nForce 200 chipset. Now, this whole 8X/16X thing gets tricky so we'll just leave the explanation for the testing section a little later on. We are simply concerned with the layout for now. Obviously the choices are almost endless with this many PCI-E slots but in essence, we can run single, dual, triple, or quad crossfire - and single, dual, or triple SLI.

The last photo above simply shows the Realtek ALC889 onboard audio and dual Marvell 88E8057 gigabit network controllers in use on this motherboard.

Moving to the rear I/O panel we can see the standard assortment of USB, audio, gigabit ethernet, and eSATA connections, but the two bonus's back here are the little red button next to the PS/2 tower on the left and the five pin connector next to it. The red button is another CMOS clear button which is nice as it allows easy clearing of the CMOS with the motherboard mounted in the case. The five pin connector next to it is a hookup for the very recently released EVBot control pad. This exciting feature will allow for hardware control and monitoring on a small device with an LCD display enabling on the fly voltage adjustments, frequency changes, and a host of other features.

The last two photos merely show the Marvell SATA controller in use for the rear eSATA ports as well as the backside of the motherboard. As with all recent EVGA motherboards, they have gone with a complete set of screws to hold the heat sinks in place, no pushpins seen here, thankfully.

Speaking of heat sinks, the last three photos we are going to look at are the three individual heat sinks on this motherboard. We use the term 'individual' because none of the three heat sinks are connected, which is something we can't stress enough. Moving away from the snaking heat pipe assemblies of years past is something we encourage as it facilitates water cooling of motherboard components without having to change every single heat sink. Needless to say, it also poses the question, can these heat sinks work passively or with limited air flow? That is something we will explore in the Heat & Acoustical testing section at the end of the review.

Let's now move on to the hardware installation section.