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EVGA prepares AMD attack

Theo Valich — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:30:22 +0000

The story about EVGA’s motherboards was always about a combination of Nvidia chipset and Intel processors. This changed a little with the introduction of X58 chipset based motherboard, but it still features Nvidia’s nForce 200 chip.
But, those products addressed Intel Socket 775 and Socket 1366. When I inquired EVGA’s reps about motherboards for AMD, I was often told that “until the company is able to deliver a product for enthusiasts, we’re not interested”. But then again, the moment EVGA acquired EPoX’es engineering team, I knew that there were souls in that team that created one of best nForce 2 motherboards on the market, the legendary EP-8RDA+. Yep, these folks don’t forget the glory days.
During Computex 2008 in June, little has changed in the attitude of the company towards AMD, but there were talks about nForce-7 based product for AMD platform.

EVGA's AMD motherboard features all the nice things EVGA is known for: EMI-shielded chokes, solid-state caps, overclocking BIOS... what will happen when Phenom II arrives?

That product is now in stores, retailing for around $95 under the name nForce 730a (GeForce 8200+730a, the 113-M2-E113). The board comes with custom design cooler, all passive, and features solid-state caps all around. But, you can expect real fireworks coming in time for Phenom II and Dragon platform launch. EVGA will not depart from nForce chipset world, but you can expect something spectacular, as far as overclocking is concerned. After all, EVGA didn’t poach Shamino and joined him with Vince for the sake of burning hundreds of kilos of LN2 on trade shows – expect some heavy-duty overclocking expertise on improving every enthusiast motherboard that EVGA will manufacture.
I could bet my red hair that first folk to reach 7 GHz on Phenom II platform would be either Shamino or Vince, since now they have a whole motherboard R&D team tweaking not just the BIOS, but hardware components as well – and bear in mind, that whoever has the highest clocked board that works, it will work “all peachy” in regular conditions, yet alone overclocking.
I wonder what’s brewing in EVGA’s halls… after all, nForce 8 chipsets (MCP8A series) for AMD are around the corner.

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EVGA debuts final version of its X58 motherboard

Theo Valich — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:25:51 +0000

Today is Monday, November 17, 2008, the official launch and availability date for the Intel Core i7 platform. The whole platform is officially on sale, just in time for Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness.
As revealed weeks ago, the motherboard itself is designed by ex-EPoX/now-EVGA design team, hand-tuned by K|ngP|n and Shamino, and manufactured by Jetway. This combo is responsible for (probably) the world’s first motherboard with limited lifetime warranty, and 90 Day Step-up program should be available for this motherboard as well (upgrading from, probably not upgrading to ).
In Europe, customers will not get lifetime warranty, as that is impossible by EU laws (in case you’ve been asking yourself why EUropeans can’t get same warranty as US counterparts), but EVGA Europe will offer 10 year limited warranty, (maximum allowed by the same EU law) joining the ranks of Corsair, OCZ Technology and few other companies that go “beyond industry standards and practices”.

X58 motherboard in its final production form...

Official packaging... hope there is one 8-pin power extender inside.

The motherboard, as far as several engineers is concerned, has only one design flaw: placement of 8-pin 12V rail. If your PSU comes with rigid cabling, you’ll have hellish time trying to get that cable connected to the motherboard without cutting the cabling insulation or bending the dual heat-pipe cooler for Digital PWM. On a second note, the reason for this placement is exact reason why this motherboard overclocks like there’s no tomorrow – since EVGA board supplies that whole rail into the CPU with no questions asked, the power transfer is as direct as possible.
Now, there is just one thing I am really hissy about. In product description on Tiger Direct, it states that EVGA motherboard allows customers to “Take advantage of the most significant architectural change in the x86 architecture in 13 years, the Intel Core i7.”
What kind of marketing BS is that? Core i7 is to Intel platform what Athlon 64 was to AMD’s one (even though first reviews of Bloomfield don’t show same performance jump), it is a majestic overclocking monster, but 13 years? C’mon, grow the heck up.
13 years ago, Intel introduced Pentium Pro architecture, and no, Core i7 cannot compare with the Pentium Pro (even though, there are some similarities between Pentium/Pentium Pro and Core 2/i7). In the halls of fame in IT industry, 8086, 80386, P6 (PPro), Athlon, Athlon 64 and Core 2 are the only CPUs that can be hailed as “great ones”. When Intel or AMD release a 128-bit CPU, we can talk about next “the greatest…” that came to the world of CPU architecture. Sorry.

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UPDATE: EVGA to launch Intel X58 motherboards

Theo Valich — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:00:52 +0000

When it comes to add-in board vendors, EVGA is probably the most faithful company in the business. Ever since the company launched, Nvidia was the only name EVGA wanted to hear about. But, things are about to change.
Here are the facts:
1)    EVGA does not want to miss the Core i7 train
2)    Nvidia is not making a chipset for Intel Core i7
3)    EVGA poached excellent engineering team from now-defunct EPoX and does not want that team to do nothing until MCP8-series show up
Well, those facts end with a really simple result. EVGA is preparing to launch its first non-Nvidia based motherboard, but it will still have Nvidia chips on it. You’ve guessed it right – X58+nForce 200 bridges for full Triple-SLI capability.

EVGA's first non-nV-based motherboard - all SATA connectors are angled, so your storage expansion is not limited even with 3-Way SLI. Good move.

The motherboard is being designed by ex-EPoX engineering team, bringing plentiful of overclocking capabilities, Digital PWM, and fully solid-state caps across the board. Special attention is being given to providing top juice to graphics cards, so if you decide to go for the gold and grab 3-SLI setup with three water-cooled GTX270 boards, be our guest.
But, that is not all. This is the first motherboard, which will be followed by ultimate motherboard for this Christmas, no questions asked. The enthusiast motherboard is actually being designed by a world class overclocker. Yes, the one and only Peter Tan a.k.a. Shamino, who is making “Shamino special”.

For those unaware – Brian Flood from Mushkin, Shamino, Kinc and I share a special connection. According to German police, we all had the honor of dying and resurrecting. Last year, we were all pronounced “missing presumably dead” when some east-German thieves stole helluwa stuff from our brand new VW Passat Variant, en route to the airport. Well, VW is one car I will *never* buy. Piece of alarm-unsecured junk.
Getting back to the subject, EVGA is bringing several things to high-end X58 market that nobody has. First of all, the company will offer limited lifetime warranty (just as with all of their high-end products) and yes, 90-day Step up program.
If that is not making ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and other motherboard makers sweat, we don’t know what will. Lifetime warranty on a motherboard? Free upgrade program? Bloody hell, I am buying that one.

UPDATED: Inserted picture of the motherboard. Courtesy of XtremeSystems forums.

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EVGA completely moving to custom board design

Theo Valich — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:54:47 +0000

One of largest Nvidia partners out there decided the time has come to turn the screw back on engineering, and reduce its dependency on current parts that are mostly built by Flextronics and similar ODM giants.
The company acquired engineers from now-defunct EPoX and started working hard on creating products that are not of now typical “sticker stamper” kind. After introducing the 790i Ultra SLI FTW motherboard with own layout and features (digital power regulation, to name a few), EVGA is now coming to market with a series of own-designed graphics cards.

FTW series is proving to be quite a success...

Under a current plan, every product is slowly being upgraded to an own design, enabling higher overclocking margins and making sure that future of Superclocked, SSC, FTW and Black Pearl parts is safe.
During our visit in EVGA’s European HQ, we learned that custom design GTX series is also coming to market. All in all, things are getting interesting. Sadly for EVGA’s motherboard team, Nvidia will not make chipset for upcoming Core i7 processors using LGA-1366 socket, but who knows, we just might see X58 chipset with two nForce 200 chips on it.
Company has rather aggressive plans for 2009, and it will be interesting to see how will their alternative business lines will develop (dual LCD display, DisplayLink adapters, TV tuners, waterblocks).

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