EVGA X79 FTW Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

EVGA released a teaser picture of its X79 FTW motherboard. This is EVGA's third LGA2011 motherboard, after the E-ATX Super Record 3 and XL-ATX X79 Classified. This board confines itself to the dimensions of a standard ATX form-factor motherboard (240 x 300 mm). It targets the gamer-overclocker market. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 14-phase VRM, while the memory, 4-phase. EVGA completely did away with cylindrical conductive polymer capacitors, and used a 100% POSCAP capacitor design. Power is drawn in from a 24-pin ATX (angled) connector, 8-pin EPS, and a 4-pin Molex (for PCIe slot electrical stability). There are just four DDR3 DIMM slots, one per memory channel.

Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (two are x16 capable, all four are x8 capable), a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8), and one PCIe x1. NVIDIA 4-way SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported. The only internal SATA ports on this board are the ones the X79 PCH gives out, two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s. There are two eSATA ports, driven by a third-party controller. There are as many as eight USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel, and two via internal header. 8+2 channel HD audio, two GbE connections, a Bluetooth connection, and PCH-wired USB 2.0 ports (for keyboard/mouse) make for the rest of the standard connectors. There is an EVBot header on the rear-panel, that lets you connect to the EVBot monitoring/control module. The UEFI BIOS is stored in two separate EEPROMs, and a 2-way switch lets you manually switch between the two. Expect the X79 FTW to be a part of the company's first wave of LGA2011 motherboards.

[Animalpak]

Clean look

[naram-sin]

PCI (2.3) is dead, dead for EVGA, I tells ya...

[micropage7]

Originally Posted by naram-sin

PCI (2.3) is dead, dead for EVGA, I tells ya...

but newer pciex is backward compatible so it should run fine, except you aint gonna have full bandwidth that offered by the newer one

[Live OR Die]

If this is the FTW version the classified better be 8 slots no like that demo pic that was posted a few weeks back.

[random]

This will be my next board accompanied by custom watercooling

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by micropage7

but newer pciex is backward compatible so it should run fine, except you aint gonna have full bandwidth that offered by the newer one

Really? I didn't know that. I have quite a few PCI devices so this would be cool.

[Arctucas]

It is nice see eVGA getting away from over-sized coolers that are more for looks than cooling.

[Delta6326]

..... 4 ram slots on a FTW?

[TiN]

PCI (2.3) is dead, dead for EVGA, I tells ya...

Senseless comment, what does that mean?

..... 4 ram slots on a FTW?

You need more than 32GB or RAM ? Each slot support 8GB DIMMs max.

[Delta6326]

All the others got 8. But if they are going with 4 they might as well moved them more outwards for bigger air coolers.
You know like use the 2 far most outward slots on both sides.

[cadaveca]

This board looks great, I really love the 90-degree 24-pin connector.


Now, if only I could get a sample for review....

[Captain.Abrecan]

This is going to sound ignorant, but, when did they move from 7 slots to 6 (pci)? I guess most people don't need them, there are so many usb ports on these boards you might never need a expansion card. But I don't remember hearing about the trend officially changing.

I do find the number of SATA ports to be lacking, also ram. I wonder if there are less ram slots to make bandwidth for other features, such as larger number of full 16x pci slots.

[cadaveca]

Most users that buy such a product will use a VGA that is dual slot(very few cards these days in the mid- and high-end are singleslot). I see the lack of the 7th slot as a non-issue.


And yes, it IS starting to become a "standard" so to speak. I have like 20 boards here, and only three of them actually have all seven slots. Most are six.

This allows them to lessen wiring in the board for a slot that almost never gets used. At least they have dropped the second slot down, compared to other OEMs that drop the uppermost slot.

running eight HDD's plus two opticals, is going to be an issue for many PSUs. I do nto understand why users want so many ports...can you explain why 10 ports is not enough?

ram slots are enough for most users, fitting 4x2 GB for 8GB, or 4x4 GB, for 16GB. As nearly no user will make full use of the ram, I see no reason to have more except on workstation products. I'd rather have them save the plastic, and maybe it makes a differnce for ram clocking...I'll be finding out myself, for sure.

You do not sound ignorant, Captain.Abrecan, but I do feel that some of your concerns/needs are unfounded, and question whether such requirements are even needed in the first place for youself, as I have no question about most users having such needs...

I think you'll find many boards built for high-end overclocking configured quite similarily.

[naram-sin]

Originally Posted by micropage7

but newer pciex is backward compatible so it should run fine, except you aint gonna have full bandwidth that offered by the newer one

Nooo, I think you're referring to backwards compatibility of PCIe 3.0 with older PCIe 2.1, 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0a versions. 32-bit PCI (last version 2.3) is completely different story.

Originally Posted by TRWOV

Really? I didn't know that. I have quite a few PCI devices so this would be cool.

No it won't. You won't be able to use them in PCIe slots.

Originally Posted by TiN

Senseless comment, what does that mean? ...

Sorry, but for myself, it means I'm a bit out of the loop, since this is one of the first desktop boards that I saw in a long time, that doesn't have at least one 32-bit PCI slot, that aren't compatible with PCIe (i hear a parrot somewhere...) And I actually like it (no offense, TRWOV )

[stargazer7]

friendly advice PPL... EVGA is shit. the brilliant ppl that "Classified" the GTX 590 are doing an engineering insult considering what held the brand before it... the last amazing shit they did was the GTX 285 classy or 4way SLI x58. that was like what 2 years ago? let it go already.

[Captain.Abrecan]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Most users that buy such a product will use a VGA that is dual slot(very few cards these days in the mid- and high-end are singleslot). I see the lack of the 7th slot as a non-issue.


And yes, it IS starting to become a "standard" so to speak. I have like 20 boards here, and only three of them actually have all seven slots. Most are six.

This allows them to lessen wiring in the board for a slot that almost never gets used. At least they have dropped the second slot down, compared to other OEMs that drop the uppermost slot.

running eight HDD's plus two opticals, is going to be an issue for many PSUs. I do nto understand why users want so many ports...can you explain why 10 ports is not enough?

ram slots are enough for most users, fitting 4x2 GB for 8GB, or 4x4 GB, for 16GB. As nearly no user will make full use of the ram, I see no reason to have more except on workstation products. I'd rather have them save the plastic, and maybe it makes a differnce for ram clocking...I'll be finding out myself, for sure.

You do not sound ignorant, Captain.Abrecan, but I do feel that some of your concerns/needs are unfounded, and question whether such requirements are even needed in the first place for youself, as I have no question about most users having such needs...

I think you'll find many boards built for high-end overclocking configured quite similarily.

10 SATA slots? I took a quick look and saw 6. So thanks for that, I didn't see the other 4.

Full use of the ram in my case depends on a lot. If I have entire assemblies open in solidworks, plus the drawing vault, lotus notes with the project database open plus the browser with java parts libraries and timesheet etc. I could use 16 easy. Usually 12, unless Maya is open too because I am porting stuff between the two.

But I am not arguing with you either, there is no one board to rule them all. Workstation boards exist for these purposes. I just don't like buying them, I like gaming motherboards for new socket support.

[cadaveca]

No yeah, I hear ya, for sure. Like I mentioned, a workstation board should have everything you require, as technically, that's exactly what you need out of a PC..a SolidWorks Workstation.

This board, however, like most EVGA products, is centered around overclocking ability. Overclocking and long-term reliability don't go together in the same sentence from my perspective, altthough I do personally understand how the extra performance can greatly reduce time to complete projects, and save on labour costs.

There will be products that will meet your needs...for sure...just not every one is going to have the features you need, and will be overclocking-centric.

I truly feel that users with your requirements are a small part of the market, and I do not think it's realistic for every board to cater to every user. If such was the case, there would be no point in me reviewing boards.

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Nice and clean and lots of USB 3, but not enough SATA! comeon EVGA, dont skimp on SATA.

[D007]

I avoid EVGA like the plague now a days on Mobos.. Every mobo I ever got from them failed immediately or after a short time.
GPU's, I haven't had a problem with though.

[abeeftec]

Is it just me or does everyone notice that large heatsinks are now going to be double trouble on both sides trying to get a fan on them?

Also, The fact that they could have moved the ram slots farther away from the CPU on BOTH sides seems ridiculous that they didnt!!