EVGA Debuts the Z77 FTW Motherboard

[Cristian_25H]

EVGA has today introduced the Z77 FTW (aka 151-IB-E699-KR), its first motherboard powered by Intel's new Z77 Express chipset. Pictured below, EVGA's board features support for both 2nd gen and 3rd gen (LGA 1155) Core processors, four DDR3-2133 memory slots, two 8-pin CPU power connectors, two 6-pin PCIe power plugs, POSCAP Capacitors, an active cooler, five PCI-Express X16/x8 slots for up to 4-way SLI/CrossFireX setups, plus four SATA 6.0 Gbps and four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports.

The Z77 FTW also packs dual Gigabit Ethernet, six USB 3.0 ports (four on the back panel), two eSATA connectors, 7.1-channel audio, a debug LED, UEFI BIOS, and one display output (mini DisplayPort) . This motherboard has an EATX form factor and is available for pre-order @ $329.99.

[johnnyfiive]

That fan makes the board seem cheap and I'm not sure why, but it does.
I wish EVGA would've fixed their LGA 2011 boards before focusing on their Z77 lineup. It seems like their motherboard section doesn't care anymore lately.

[sc]

I wish Asus Z77 full ATX ROG boards have the slot layout of this one. Having the first slot unusable is bad...

[Ikaruga]

The first thing I would have to do is to get rid of that fan thingy, which would void the warranty Don't want.

[OneMoar]

Originally Posted by Ikaruga

The first thing I would have to do is to get rid of that fan thingy, which would void the warranty Don't want.

unplug it ? DUH Owait I am sure the monkeys at EVGA just put it there for looks ... makes sense
board has a bridge chip THEY run hot like 70c hot they need active cooling I do wish they had taken the trouble to run a set of
heat-pipes down to the fan tho

[micropage7]

look at the board, dual 8 pins and one 6 pins

hungry power?

[Chaitanya]

Originally Posted by micropage7

look at the board, dual 8 pins and one 6 pins
http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-04...z77_ftw_01.jpg
hungry power?

Look at bottom left hand corner, this board has 2*8 pin + 2*6 pin power connectors.

[micropage7]

Originally Posted by Chaitanya

Look at bottom left hand corner, this board has 2*8 pin + 2*6 pin power connectors.

yep, is that board will draw so much power so they put so many pins on that
just for oc-ing?

[hhumas]

dint like it .. AsRock fatality or extreme 6 both are awesome and cheap

[DOM]

They need to make a 1155 that can run 4@x16

[rpsgc]

A fan? Really? What is this, the '00s again?

[urza26]

Positive:
- Angled ATX-24pins connector is a major plus
- So are the dual ethernet connections
Negative:
- They could have sleeved the fan cable of the PCH cooling fan
- They could have colored the USB3 front connector black... red and blue do not go well together on the same motherboard (you hear me Sapphire?)

[HuLkY]

Amazing Board, but come on, the design is a bit awkward? this board is so beefed with stuff that might enable one of a kind OC for Ivy stuff, also it says a 4WAY SLI support? how come?
EVGA should work on the UEFI to be more like ASUS and MSI ones, this BIOS thing is dummy now.

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by DOM

They need to make a 1155 that can run 4@x16

Or you can get a SB-E that has twice as many PCI-E lanes, Z77 is still mainstream.

[DOM]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

Or you can get a SB-E that has twice as many PCI-E lanes, Z77 is still mainstream.

SB-E you just get 2c2t more not worth the money imo

especially if you want a unlocked multi they cost to much

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by DOM

SB-E you just get 2c2t more not worth the money imo

especially if you want a unlocked multi they cost to much

I was unaware my 3820 was a 6-core... I'm running a healthy 4.75ghz. That isn't worth it?
1 multi bin + 125mhz strap and your cooking with gas.

I got it for 300 USD which costs less than the 2600k. You only pay a little more for the motherboard but if you want a quality build your not going to skimp on that anyways.

Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz (3.8GHz T...

[blibba]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

Or you can get a SB-E that has twice as many PCI-E lanes, Z77 is still mainstream.

I presume they're using a 3rd party PCI-E switch of some sort just to reach x8/x8/x8/x8?

[Random Murderer]

i've seen boards with extra power connectors to feed more power to the pci-e lanes, but they've always been in the form of a 4-pin molex. 2x 6-pin pci-e power connectors? that's just ridiculous. by the time you've powered the board's pci-e slots, you don't have enough pci-e power cables to power the cards to populate said slots!
bad design by EVGA, most of us will have to upgrade our already beefy PSUs if we want to use this board.
on top of that, it's E-ATX, meaning the number of people who can use it gets even smaller.
Great job, EVGA.

[blibba]

Originally Posted by Random Murderer

i've seen boards with extra power connectors to feed more power to the pci-e lanes, but they've always been in the form of a 4-pin molex. 2x 6-pin pci-e power connectors? that's just ridiculous. by the time you've powered the board's pci-e slots, you don't have enough pci-e power cables to power the cards to populate said slots!
bad design by EVGA, most of us will have to upgrade our already beefy PSUs if we want to use this board.
on top of that, it's E-ATX, meaning the number of people who can use it gets even smaller.
Great job, EVGA.

I think it's safe to say that this product isn't aimed at you.

Remember also that you don't have to connect those PCI-E 6-pin power connectors - they're just to provide additional power if you want to use a lot of hungry graphics cards. Remember that any PCI-E 1.0 device can pull up to 75W through the socket itself (more for later PCI-E revisions), so if you fill 4 slots, that's 300W. Do you really want to pull all that extra current through the 24-pin connector?

[Chaitanya]

Originally Posted by micropage7

yep, is that board will draw so much power so they put so many pins on that
just for oc-ing?

I really want to see OC potential of this board with a 3770k, there is too much power being delivered to the CPU as the pci-e power might be isolated from the board.

[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by blibba

I think it's safe to say that this product isn't aimed at you.

how would you know? i am looking to build a new high-end pc, so what's to say i didn't come in here looking at a potential candidate for my new mobo? even now, i'm running three graphics cards.
i'm not trying to start a flamewar, so you don't have to direct comments at me.
try and be more tactful when talking to other members.

Originally Posted by blibba

Remember also that you don't have to connect those PCI-E 6-pin power connectors - they're just to provide additional power if you want to use a lot of hungry graphics cards. Remember that any PCI-E 1.0 device can pull up to 75W through the socket itself (more for later PCI-E revisions), so if you fill 4 slots, that's 300W. Do you really want to pull all that extra current through the 24-pin connector?

i understand why you would put them there, and i have built high performance systems in the past that have required these.
what i'm trying to say is that TWO pci-e power connectors PLUS two 8-pin eps connectors is blatant overkill. they could have done just as well with a single 8- or 6-pin pci-e connector, since most if not all cards that support 4-way teaming have two dedicated power plugs already, and even the most power hungry card, when supplied with two pci-e power connectors on its board, will draw on average less than 45 watts from the motherboard.
again, overkill.

[Ikaruga]

Originally Posted by OneMoar

unplug it ? DUH Owait I am sure the monkeys at EVGA just put it there for looks ... makes sense
board has a bridge chip THEY run hot like 70c hot they need active cooling I do wish they had taken the trouble to run a set of
heat-pipes down to the fan tho

I obviously understand that it needs adequate cooling ofc, but that thing there is still noting but a cheap and gimmicky solution. And, no you can't just unplug it, because there will be not enough airflow under that shield, so the only option is the get rid of it which (as I already said) will ruin your warranty.

Everybody who worked with mainboards knows that those little things are good for nothing but gathering dust and making noise (imho).

[EarthDog]

Originally Posted by micropage7

yep, is that board will draw so much power so they put so many pins on that
just for oc-ing?

The 6 pins are to support the PCIe section, the 8 pins are for the board/CPU.

by the time you've powered the board's pci-e slots, you don't have enough pci-e power cables to power the cards to populate said slots!

Yeah, if you have 3 cards, you likely have a PSU that could power them which would also have enough connectors to supplement.. OR you can simpl use the shed load of molex to PCIe connectors that likely came with your GPU's in the first place.

[blibba]

Originally Posted by Random Murderer

how would you know? i am looking to build a new high-end pc, so what's to say i didn't come in here looking at a potential candidate for my new mobo? even now, i'm running three graphics cards.
i'm not trying to start a flamewar, so you don't have to direct comments at me.
try and be more tactful when talking to other members.

That you would consider buying it does not imply that it is aimed at you. I felt that your criticisms were fairly specific to your own needs, as opposed to those of the intended market, which is why I directed the comment at you. It's like considering purchasing a Quadro just for gaming and complaining that it's uncompetitive vs. Geforce (extreme example).

Originally Posted by Random Murderer

i understand why you would put them there, and i have built high performance systems in the past that have required these.
what i'm trying to say is that TWO pci-e power connectors PLUS two 8-pin eps connectors is blatant overkill. they could have done just as well with a single 8- or 6-pin pci-e connector, since most if not all cards that support 4-way teaming have two dedicated power plugs already, and even the most power hungry card, when supplied with two pci-e power connectors on its board, will draw on average less than 45 watts from the motherboard.
again, overkill.

In that case, you can buy the board, and just connect one 8-pin and one 6-pin. Nobody's forcing you to connect them all. Extra features for sub-zero overclocking and the like aren't something that people generally complain about, so consider these features as in that category.

[EarthDog]

One 8 pin should be fine. In the X79 series, you only need one 8 pin up from 5Ghz+.