EVGA X99 Classified Motherboard Review

As with all of our reviews, we pit the default speed system against the overclocked one in a head-to-head byte match.  The effective overclock for these tests is 4.5Ghz @ 45x multiplier.  I had some issues getting the board to play nice with the Corsair LPX memory due to some BIOS tuning issues.  The results you see below are from a beta BIOS and will likley improve when the final one is released.

Overclocking the Haswell-E is a lot like overclocking a standard Haswell.  All of the same controls are available and they all react the same.  There are a few notable differences and all seem to be related to heat,  Given that the TDP is 140w you’re going to need a cooler that will dissipate 250+ Watts if you want to maintain decent temps. 

I found that the Core i7 5960X loves overclocking with BCLK provided that the motherboard allows that interaction to happen.  You see I started this review using the latest v1.06 BIOS and when you enable XMP it would set the BCLK to 125Mhz and match the multiplier so the processor ran at 4.0Ghz.  This would in turn set the memory clock to match the approved module speed.  This is actually an “incorrect” XMP adjustment but did prove that my processor would run that fast without voltage adjustments and that 125Mhz BLCK was possible.  I decided to push things a little further and was able to hit 4.4Ghz @ 130Mhz BCLK and got some amazing, and  yet inconsistent, results.

It was around that time I upgraded to a Beta of the v1.07 BIOS which improved stability and would set the XMP correctly.  A side effect was the removal of BCLK adjustments which also impacted my 2800Mhz memory scores.  Of course, this was a Beta BIOS for the review and your results will likely be better.