For DDR5, other motherboard manufacturers really ought to copy this EVGA board. 2x slots with short traces for maximum signal integrity. If you want to run at any speed that lets DDR5 perform better than DDR4, you should only buy 16GB modules, and 32GB of ram should be plenty for most desktops. If you are buying 8GB modules for DDR5, you are doing it wrong.
The price for this board is fine, considering all the LN2 overclocking features it has. It's just really sad Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, and MSI decided to go for 4x DDR5 slots for most of their DDR5 mobos, because that is literally hurting their memory OC performance.
While gamers may not need more than 32GB, that's not nearly enough for many other users. My laptop has 64GB and I need more actually. This is a gamer only board.
99.995% of every person with a computer would be just fine with 64gigs of ram. just because you need it doesn't really solve the issue of ddr5 running like balls on 4 dimm motherboards.
And here we see another g*mer who has no idea that desktop computers are the standard hardware format for people who do actual work on a computer.
Loads of professional software will eat 32GB of RAM in one bite, and then proceed to ask when the main course is going to be ready.
And most of these professional workloads are not nearly as latency-sensitive as gaming. That's the reason DDR5 prioritizes bandwidth in the first place: the goal is enabling performance improvements for servers and professionals, and not driving your stupid 300hz monitor.
yawn. I forget so many people think making youtube videos is work these days, and even then that wont use 32gigs unless your dog videos really need that many after effects. I have a pc at my "work" where I work in autodesk all day long. That computer only has 32 gigs. yea i can get to around 28 gigs doing work, but you will notice I never said 32gigs of ram. ddr5 supports 32gig and 64gig sticks of ram. ultimately in the near future you will be able to get 128 gigs in a 2 stick format. jeez.
"Another gamer"... as if the gaming market isn't the single most disruptive space in computers/tech. I work in STEM and a lot of my tools exist because gamers want lower latency, or accessibility to features that were previously locked behind a paywall. This isn't a hot take, it's just you looking like an elitist.
austinsguitar that's not a general rule as software and hardware evolves, 64 GB right now is limit for price to performance reasons. Reason is that since DDR3 entered, 64 GB was hard limit, and even ddr4 anything more was either server board or a miracle. software will adapt, and it will be utilized as soon as at least 5% of users will have 64GB. Think with ram is that it never hurts to have more, but once you run out, it's very crippling. My laptop have 32GB and I fully load ~25, stuff start to slow down a touch. I will run out as soon as anything scales, so for me 64GB or 128GB laptop option is a great thing. it might not be necessary right now, but soon people will find a way to use it, and benefit from it.
There are 32GB DDR5 modules, if you wanted 64GB, but they run like ass, just like 4 modules. Like, really, if you need more than 64GB, maybe just get a workstation board?
This is no gamer board. A gamer will take $500 from the price of the board, $300 from the price of RAM and $200 from the price of the processor and jump from an RTX 3060 Ti to an RTX 3080. This is like a 50 caliber sniper rifle, or a Bugatti Veyron - an immense number of drawbacks were made for it to excel at one single task.
No gamer will touch this with a 20 feet pole. 2 DIMMs disqualify it for anything "enterprise-y" (workstation, ...). Higher board power consumption (those 21 phases do not power themselves) will put another nail in the coffin.
All these being said, the price is most probably right for the ones who actually want it - considering that there are no economies of scale (no scale) in its production.
No it's not fine and you are wrong. This board is gutter trash. Let me explain it.
ASUS already leads all the world top ranks. Memory layout for Dual Rank and 2 DIMM slots is there on Gigabyte Aorus Tachyon, ASUS Maximus APEX, MSI Unify X.
Yes DDR4 or DDR5 this is the best way to get maximum performance. Be it high performance DRAM kits like Dual Rank for DDR4 or the new DDR5, esp with the new memory and as per Intel Datasheet DDR5 memory is best operated at Dual DIMM slot as having 4x makes the speed lower.
Now why this board is bad, first they came too late to the party like always, next is EVGA's policy of the BIOS is pathetically bad, esp the fact that TiN left the company it's all Kingpin now, and their standards have fallen have you seen their X299, Z490, Z590 having LED issues ? Next their BIOS updates are very very slow, only advantage of EVGA is the BIOS but ASUS leads them by a huge factor.
Now the board itself, there's no PCIe x4 slot, there's basically 2 x16 slots. With the super massive Z690 chipset you have ton of lanes to bifurcate and add a PLX chip with another one or a pair of x16 slots they did not, and more over you have just 3x NVMe SSD slots, this is a gigantic rip off. You have MSI, GB, ASUS have 4xM.2 slots on even old Z590 series and X570 but this big chipset has just 3x. It's inexcusable when you are paying such top dollar. On top yeah the PCH is limited which ix 4.0x8, max bandwidth. But the problem was never that even on Z390 or Z590, as many do not completely saturate the PCH bus on the Mainstream machines.
And next, the board doesn't have 10G LAN, no Thunderbolt either. Look at the I/O it's laughable piece of junk, like WTF ? You have just 6 USB-A ports and one USB C. That's pathetic. Look at Z590 Ace for instance, 10x USB ports !! Z690 Apex has 10x USB ports.
I said the other makers should copy the 2 DIMM slot design with shorter traces, because DDR5 is already capable of 32GB and 64GB configurations with 2 slots, while 32GB is the optimal configuration where you will actually get faster DDR5 speeds. Rather than having 4x DDR5 slots with long traces, and echoing, which cause poor signal quality , and poor speeds, that you are literally better off with a good DDR4 kit.
Do you know that this board is aimed at the LN2 overclocking market?
It has two PCIe 16x placed exactly like that, because the top slot can become unstable under LN2. You should literally only buy this if you want to do LN2, which is why it's price tag is perfectly fine.
So, again, this board is priced just fine, but it does have a feature, having only two DIMM slots, that should exist on medium and lower end DDR5 boards.
You do not even know what you are talking. As I clearly said, dude go and look at MSI Unify X, Aorus Tachyon and ASUS Apex they have 2DIMM slots only and short trace path only and geared for high Memory OC, Z390 Dark and up all of them had same thing, ASUS also same since Z390.
And as I clearly addressed your "muh LN2" Apex takes all Hwbot ranks from Cinebench, CPU frequency, and for instance top 10900K ranks and yes LN2 only since top ranks are mostly LN2, no EVGA board exists in top ranks. It's always ASUS Apex. Even below ranks EVGA is seen very less.
Again this board is not the only one which has 2DIMM slots, EVGA lost that edge a long time and MSI and GB also started doing it since Z490, Z590. Plus EVGA Z590 was a total trash board for Memory OC too (it cannot clock DDR4 at 5000MHz not even on Gear 2. Forget Gear 1. While ASUS took 5000MHz+ and Aorus Tachyon also failed at that) and esp the BIOS is garbage for 10th gen as well while Z590 ASUS and MSI do very well.
Finally this board has small x4 slot as I checked pictures again. No this board is not good for the price at all. They do not even ship a damn manual. Too overpriced, too much brand value money much more than ASUS.
You're absolutely correct. EVGA is high-end wannabe. They use mediocre components for their "high-end" products to maximize profits. Nevertheless, they do have the best customer service and easy RMA. I would never want any EVGA component for my personal rigs.
Anecdotal as it may be, I've come across a number of EVGA boards, and have two Z77 ITX's in service still running BlueIris DVR's (one of few ITX boards with dual Gbe at the time) and have never had a stability problem or otherwise. Great boards.
I have had a great deal of luck and performance delight with EVGA products including MB’s. EVGA’s RMA service turned out to be unequaled and even better than dealing with AMAZON. I had several products where I simply changed my mind on and EVGA had no problem in taking them back. Store credit or cash return! I also check AMAZON reviews quite often and particularly the ‘verified buyer’ comments. Opinions of people who actually have the product on hand and paid for it goes a long way with me. EVGA in the reviews is usually on top. For that matter I will continue to favor EVGA (and Seasonic) simply on the fact of their continued tech-service and RMA processes. In a way it’s like people coming back from Disney World and the only thing they comment on is “Clean Restrooms!” and not the performance of the rides. Or favoring McDonalds not exactly for the food but getting the same quality served nationwide every time.
"So, again, this board is priced just fine, but it does have a feature, having only two DIMM slots, that should exist on medium and lower end DDR5 boards." Everybody wanting that board will already have a perfectly functional workhorse (laptop or desktop) with enough RAM, enough disks, enough performance for any foreseeable task. These boards are toys that will only run benchmark software for (hopefully) new speed records. Just like cars - while $50,000 is very expensive for a "workhorse" car, $1,000,000 is cheap for a toy Bugatti.
On the other XOC boards (Unify-X, Tachyon, Apex, Aqua OC). are also 2 dimmers. The dark Kingpin is the second most expensive XOC board, second only to the Aqua OC with the waterblock, and has the least amount of world records despite being sent out to several top tier overclockers such as Luumi :p just buy the Apex or Tachyon, unless you want to deal with EVGA's bios team (aka one person) "optimizing" DDR5 just like they "optimized" for DDR4 (aka only optimized for one IC and even then several issues.
So you need to pay 800 bucks to get an actual VRM heatsink, with things such as *heatpipes* and *fins*, instead of some terrifyingly mediocre extruded aluminium modern art piece.
EVGA unleashes motherboard branded with the screen name of some old guy that was willing to sell usage rights to his faux identity for money! Come see the bog standard feature set! Gaze in awe at the bullet points made and checkboxes checked in the marketing materials! Stare in fascination at the blinkenlights! Most importantly, please give EVGA your money because they made a monumental effort to target a specific, gullible market segment of potential buyers. Oh and don't forget to brag to people you barely know over Discord about your purchase because word of mouth advertising helps.
Lots of EVGA haters here. I have not had a problem with the half dozen EVGA motherboards owned over the years. I have had several problems with ASUS, a bad ASRock board and never have had a board from MSI work. I have given MSI several chances. They have made the worst of each. I had zero problems with Gigabyte
Then again, not a single problem with DFI and EPoX was great. Yet I have seen/heard/read/watched the rivers of tears about these two until they were finally out of business. Too bad. We need choice and innovation. Competition pushes innovation and helps to keep prices down.
We have lost a lot of this. For decades we were told there wasn't enough room to add more 3 pin fan headers by motherboard makers. Four-pin PWM headers were out of the question. Then suddenly we get RGB and ARGB headers galore with lots of blinky things jamming up our vision. That is what passes for innovation now that a few board makers control the space of many in the past.
I won't pay the kind of money this board and others like it demand. However, there is nothing that would keep me from buying another EVGA motherboard product in general, be it board or PSU. My experience with the brand has been nothing less than stellar.
Indeed…lots of EVGA haters here. Amazing the more expensive the MB or product the more haters. I wonder why that is? For me like with many other enthusiasts it’s never the pricing but the performance and purpose. Just like my blond girlfriend. Her assets like with the 'Kingpin' are clearly visible. She can also walk the walk and talk the talk. As such beauty and need are in the eye of the beholder.
There are different ways and different methods to do it, some of them are new other ways are old, but they all work one way or another. https://unblockedrun3.us
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meacupla - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
For DDR5, other motherboard manufacturers really ought to copy this EVGA board.2x slots with short traces for maximum signal integrity.
If you want to run at any speed that lets DDR5 perform better than DDR4, you should only buy 16GB modules, and 32GB of ram should be plenty for most desktops.
If you are buying 8GB modules for DDR5, you are doing it wrong.
The price for this board is fine, considering all the LN2 overclocking features it has.
It's just really sad Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, and MSI decided to go for 4x DDR5 slots for most of their DDR5 mobos, because that is literally hurting their memory OC performance.
stephenv2 - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
While gamers may not need more than 32GB, that's not nearly enough for many other users. My laptop has 64GB and I need more actually. This is a gamer only board.austinsguitar - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
99.995% of every person with a computer would be just fine with 64gigs of ram. just because you need it doesn't really solve the issue of ddr5 running like balls on 4 dimm motherboards.Wereweeb - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
And here we see another g*mer who has no idea that desktop computers are the standard hardware format for people who do actual work on a computer.Loads of professional software will eat 32GB of RAM in one bite, and then proceed to ask when the main course is going to be ready.
And most of these professional workloads are not nearly as latency-sensitive as gaming. That's the reason DDR5 prioritizes bandwidth in the first place: the goal is enabling performance improvements for servers and professionals, and not driving your stupid 300hz monitor.
austinsguitar - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
yawn. I forget so many people think making youtube videos is work these days, and even then that wont use 32gigs unless your dog videos really need that many after effects. I have a pc at my "work" where I work in autodesk all day long. That computer only has 32 gigs. yea i can get to around 28 gigs doing work, but you will notice I never said 32gigs of ram. ddr5 supports 32gig and 64gig sticks of ram. ultimately in the near future you will be able to get 128 gigs in a 2 stick format. jeez.littlebitstrouds - Tuesday, March 1, 2022 - link
"Another gamer"... as if the gaming market isn't the single most disruptive space in computers/tech. I work in STEM and a lot of my tools exist because gamers want lower latency, or accessibility to features that were previously locked behind a paywall. This isn't a hot take, it's just you looking like an elitist.deil - Monday, February 21, 2022 - link
austinsguitar that's not a general rule as software and hardware evolves, 64 GB right now is limit for price to performance reasons. Reason is that since DDR3 entered, 64 GB was hard limit, and even ddr4 anything more was either server board or a miracle.software will adapt, and it will be utilized as soon as at least 5% of users will have 64GB.
Think with ram is that it never hurts to have more, but once you run out, it's very crippling.
My laptop have 32GB and I fully load ~25, stuff start to slow down a touch. I will run out as soon as anything scales, so for me 64GB or 128GB laptop option is a great thing.
it might not be necessary right now, but soon people will find a way to use it, and benefit from it.
meacupla - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
There are 32GB DDR5 modules, if you wanted 64GB, but they run like ass, just like 4 modules.Like, really, if you need more than 64GB, maybe just get a workstation board?
Averant - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
This is strictly for XOC. This is not, -not- a gaming board.Calin - Tuesday, February 22, 2022 - link
This is no gamer board.A gamer will take $500 from the price of the board, $300 from the price of RAM and $200 from the price of the processor and jump from an RTX 3060 Ti to an RTX 3080.
This is like a 50 caliber sniper rifle, or a Bugatti Veyron - an immense number of drawbacks were made for it to excel at one single task.
No gamer will touch this with a 20 feet pole. 2 DIMMs disqualify it for anything "enterprise-y" (workstation, ...). Higher board power consumption (those 21 phases do not power themselves) will put another nail in the coffin.
All these being said, the price is most probably right for the ones who actually want it - considering that there are no economies of scale (no scale) in its production.
Silver5urfer - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
No it's not fine and you are wrong. This board is gutter trash. Let me explain it.ASUS already leads all the world top ranks. Memory layout for Dual Rank and 2 DIMM slots is there on Gigabyte Aorus Tachyon, ASUS Maximus APEX, MSI Unify X.
Yes DDR4 or DDR5 this is the best way to get maximum performance. Be it high performance DRAM kits like Dual Rank for DDR4 or the new DDR5, esp with the new memory and as per Intel Datasheet DDR5 memory is best operated at Dual DIMM slot as having 4x makes the speed lower.
Now why this board is bad, first they came too late to the party like always, next is EVGA's policy of the BIOS is pathetically bad, esp the fact that TiN left the company it's all Kingpin now, and their standards have fallen have you seen their X299, Z490, Z590 having LED issues ? Next their BIOS updates are very very slow, only advantage of EVGA is the BIOS but ASUS leads them by a huge factor.
Now the board itself, there's no PCIe x4 slot, there's basically 2 x16 slots. With the super massive Z690 chipset you have ton of lanes to bifurcate and add a PLX chip with another one or a pair of x16 slots they did not, and more over you have just 3x NVMe SSD slots, this is a gigantic rip off. You have MSI, GB, ASUS have 4xM.2 slots on even old Z590 series and X570 but this big chipset has just 3x. It's inexcusable when you are paying such top dollar. On top yeah the PCH is limited which ix 4.0x8, max bandwidth. But the problem was never that even on Z390 or Z590, as many do not completely saturate the PCH bus on the Mainstream machines.
And next, the board doesn't have 10G LAN, no Thunderbolt either. Look at the I/O it's laughable piece of junk, like WTF ? You have just 6 USB-A ports and one USB C. That's pathetic. Look at Z590 Ace for instance, 10x USB ports !! Z690 Apex has 10x USB ports.
meacupla - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
Do you have reading comprehension issues?I said the other makers should copy the 2 DIMM slot design with shorter traces, because DDR5 is already capable of 32GB and 64GB configurations with 2 slots, while 32GB is the optimal configuration where you will actually get faster DDR5 speeds.
Rather than having 4x DDR5 slots with long traces, and echoing, which cause poor signal quality , and poor speeds, that you are literally better off with a good DDR4 kit.
Do you know that this board is aimed at the LN2 overclocking market?
It has two PCIe 16x placed exactly like that, because the top slot can become unstable under LN2.
You should literally only buy this if you want to do LN2, which is why it's price tag is perfectly fine.
So, again, this board is priced just fine, but it does have a feature, having only two DIMM slots, that should exist on medium and lower end DDR5 boards.
Silver5urfer - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
You do not even know what you are talking. As I clearly said, dude go and look at MSI Unify X, Aorus Tachyon and ASUS Apex they have 2DIMM slots only and short trace path only and geared for high Memory OC, Z390 Dark and up all of them had same thing, ASUS also same since Z390.And as I clearly addressed your "muh LN2" Apex takes all Hwbot ranks from Cinebench, CPU frequency, and for instance top 10900K ranks and yes LN2 only since top ranks are mostly LN2, no EVGA board exists in top ranks. It's always ASUS Apex. Even below ranks EVGA is seen very less.
Again this board is not the only one which has 2DIMM slots, EVGA lost that edge a long time and MSI and GB also started doing it since Z490, Z590. Plus EVGA Z590 was a total trash board for Memory OC too (it cannot clock DDR4 at 5000MHz not even on Gear 2. Forget Gear 1. While ASUS took 5000MHz+ and Aorus Tachyon also failed at that) and esp the BIOS is garbage for 10th gen as well while Z590 ASUS and MSI do very well.
Finally this board has small x4 slot as I checked pictures again. No this board is not good for the price at all. They do not even ship a damn manual. Too overpriced, too much brand value money much more than ASUS.
sonny73n - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
You're absolutely correct. EVGA is high-end wannabe. They use mediocre components for their "high-end" products to maximize profits. Nevertheless, they do have the best customer service and easy RMA. I would never want any EVGA component for my personal rigs.Samus - Monday, February 21, 2022 - link
Anecdotal as it may be, I've come across a number of EVGA boards, and have two Z77 ITX's in service still running BlueIris DVR's (one of few ITX boards with dual Gbe at the time) and have never had a stability problem or otherwise. Great boards.Tom Sunday - Monday, May 23, 2022 - link
I have had a great deal of luck and performance delight with EVGA products including MB’s. EVGA’s RMA service turned out to be unequaled and even better than dealing with AMAZON. I had several products where I simply changed my mind on and EVGA had no problem in taking them back. Store credit or cash return! I also check AMAZON reviews quite often and particularly the ‘verified buyer’ comments. Opinions of people who actually have the product on hand and paid for it goes a long way with me. EVGA in the reviews is usually on top. For that matter I will continue to favor EVGA (and Seasonic) simply on the fact of their continued tech-service and RMA processes. In a way it’s like people coming back from Disney World and the only thing they comment on is “Clean Restrooms!” and not the performance of the rides. Or favoring McDonalds not exactly for the food but getting the same quality served nationwide every time.Calin - Tuesday, February 22, 2022 - link
"So, again, this board is priced just fine, but it does have a feature, having only two DIMM slots, that should exist on medium and lower end DDR5 boards."Everybody wanting that board will already have a perfectly functional workhorse (laptop or desktop) with enough RAM, enough disks, enough performance for any foreseeable task.
These boards are toys that will only run benchmark software for (hopefully) new speed records.
Just like cars - while $50,000 is very expensive for a "workhorse" car, $1,000,000 is cheap for a toy Bugatti.
firewrath9 - Tuesday, February 22, 2022 - link
Majority of the world records is held by Splave on the Aqua OC, not on the Apex. Sergmann also has the majority of the locked chips WR on the tachyon.firewrath9 - Tuesday, February 22, 2022 - link
On the other XOC boards (Unify-X, Tachyon, Apex, Aqua OC). are also 2 dimmers.The dark Kingpin is the second most expensive XOC board, second only to the Aqua OC with the waterblock, and has the least amount of world records despite being sent out to several top tier overclockers such as Luumi :p
just buy the Apex or Tachyon, unless you want to deal with EVGA's bios team (aka one person) "optimizing" DDR5 just like they "optimized" for DDR4 (aka only optimized for one IC and even then several issues.
DigitalFreak - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
They should have just called it the Z690 E-Penis Edition.Wereweeb - Friday, February 18, 2022 - link
So you need to pay 800 bucks to get an actual VRM heatsink, with things such as *heatpipes* and *fins*, instead of some terrifyingly mediocre extruded aluminium modern art piece.PeachNCream - Saturday, February 19, 2022 - link
BREAKING NEWS!!!EVGA unleashes motherboard branded with the screen name of some old guy that was willing to sell usage rights to his faux identity for money! Come see the bog standard feature set! Gaze in awe at the bullet points made and checkboxes checked in the marketing materials! Stare in fascination at the blinkenlights! Most importantly, please give EVGA your money because they made a monumental effort to target a specific, gullible market segment of potential buyers. Oh and don't forget to brag to people you barely know over Discord about your purchase because word of mouth advertising helps.
Questor - Sunday, February 20, 2022 - link
Lots of EVGA haters here. I have not had a problem with the half dozen EVGA motherboards owned over the years. I have had several problems with ASUS, a bad ASRock board and never have had a board from MSI work. I have given MSI several chances. They have made the worst of each. I had zero problems with GigabyteThen again, not a single problem with DFI and EPoX was great. Yet I have seen/heard/read/watched the rivers of tears about these two until they were finally out of business. Too bad. We need choice and innovation. Competition pushes innovation and helps to keep prices down.
We have lost a lot of this. For decades we were told there wasn't enough room to add more 3 pin fan headers by motherboard makers. Four-pin PWM headers were out of the question. Then suddenly we get RGB and ARGB headers galore with lots of blinky things jamming up our vision. That is what passes for innovation now that a few board makers control the space of many in the past.
I won't pay the kind of money this board and others like it demand. However, there is nothing that would keep me from buying another EVGA motherboard product in general, be it board or PSU. My experience with the brand has been nothing less than stellar.
Tom Sunday - Tuesday, June 7, 2022 - link
Indeed…lots of EVGA haters here. Amazing the more expensive the MB or product the more haters. I wonder why that is? For me like with many other enthusiasts it’s never the pricing but the performance and purpose. Just like my blond girlfriend. Her assets like with the 'Kingpin' are clearly visible. She can also walk the walk and talk the talk. As such beauty and need are in the eye of the beholder.Bulis - Monday, February 28, 2022 - link
There are different ways and different methods to do it, some of them are new other ways are old, but they all work one way or another. https://unblockedrun3.us