Wednesday, May 29th 2019
EVGA SR-3 DARK Will Challenge the ROG Dominus for W-3175X Supremacy
EVGA at its Computex 2019 booth showcased its flagship HEDT motherboard, the SR-3 DARK. This socket LGA3647 motherboard based on Intel C621 chipset, is purpose-built for squeezing the most out of the Xeon W-3175X 28-core HEDT processor Intel rolled out last year to challenge the Threadripper WX. The SR-3 DARK competes with only two other motherboards of its kind, the ASUS ROG Dominus Extreme, and GIGABYTE C621 Aorus Xtreme. EVGA deployed many of the innovations it introduced with the Z390 DARK that make it arguably the best LGA1151 motherboard for record-seeking overclocking.
For starters, the CPU socket is oriented sideways, just like the Z390 DARK, to position the DDR4 memory slots north and south of the socket. There's only one slot per memory channel, so you don't have to worry about multi-slot topology hindering your memory OC in any way. The CPU VRM is located east of the socket, directly next to the board's angled power inputs that include one 24-pin ATX and four 8-pin EPS inputs! There are additional inputs such as two SATA power, and one 6-pin PCIe, to stabilize the other power domains. The VRM area, along with the C621 PCH, are liquid cooled by a monoblock embedded into an aluminium heatsink. This block has a clear-acrylic top, and its coolant channel runs over the CPU VRM first, before guiding the coolant through a fin-lattice over the PCH, and then onto the outlet.The EVGA SR-3 DARK offers four NVMe storage interfaces, two each of M.2-22110 slots and U.2 ports. Six PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots make for the rest of the expansion area. USB connectivity includes eight USB 3.0 and two USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (including a type-C port) on the rear channel, and six USB 3.0 ports by headers. Networking includes two 10 GbE interfaces, and one 1 GbE. Premium 10-channel HD audio makes for the rest of it. The board offers a plethora of CPU and memory overclocking features designed keeping the W-3175X in mind. When it goes on sale later this year for around $2,000, the SR-3 DARK could be available to EVGA Associate Members.
For starters, the CPU socket is oriented sideways, just like the Z390 DARK, to position the DDR4 memory slots north and south of the socket. There's only one slot per memory channel, so you don't have to worry about multi-slot topology hindering your memory OC in any way. The CPU VRM is located east of the socket, directly next to the board's angled power inputs that include one 24-pin ATX and four 8-pin EPS inputs! There are additional inputs such as two SATA power, and one 6-pin PCIe, to stabilize the other power domains. The VRM area, along with the C621 PCH, are liquid cooled by a monoblock embedded into an aluminium heatsink. This block has a clear-acrylic top, and its coolant channel runs over the CPU VRM first, before guiding the coolant through a fin-lattice over the PCH, and then onto the outlet.The EVGA SR-3 DARK offers four NVMe storage interfaces, two each of M.2-22110 slots and U.2 ports. Six PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots make for the rest of the expansion area. USB connectivity includes eight USB 3.0 and two USB 3.1 gen 2 ports (including a type-C port) on the rear channel, and six USB 3.0 ports by headers. Networking includes two 10 GbE interfaces, and one 1 GbE. Premium 10-channel HD audio makes for the rest of it. The board offers a plethora of CPU and memory overclocking features designed keeping the W-3175X in mind. When it goes on sale later this year for around $2,000, the SR-3 DARK could be available to EVGA Associate Members.