14 DAY TRIAL // EVGA has announced just a bit earlier today the release of its LGA 2011 series of motherboards for Sandy Bridge-E processors including that of the company's flagship Intel X79 board, the X79 Classified.
EVGA's latest creation looks pretty similar to other high-end solutions based on the X79 chipset, although it does use the XL-ATX from factor.
This enabled the company to add to the X79 Classified a series of features that enthusiasts will surely appreciate.
These include not only the now familiar on-board Power and Reset buttons, but also a series of DIP switches for disabling each one of the six Gen 3 compliant PCI Express x16 slots installed, dedicated voltage measurement points, and a rear panel Clear COMS button.
This is accompanied by no less than eight USB 3.0 ports driven by a VIA Labs controller, a pair of eSATA ports, two Gigabit NIC’s, 8 channel audio with S/PDIF out, a Blutooth transmitter and of course a connector for the bundled EVBot.
Two additional USB 3.0 ports are available through an on-board header, so the X79 Classified is definitely a motherboard that isn't lacking in this department.
Power to the board is provided via two 8-pin CPU power connectors and a 24-pin power plug, the latter being angled to ease cable management inside the case, a design that will be used in all of EVGA's future motherboards.
As far as storage is concerned, we get only the standard ports that are provided by the Intel X79 PCH, meaning that the motherboard packs four SATA 3Gbps ports and just two SATA 6Gbps connectors.
The EVGA X79 Classified is already listed in the company's online store where is priced at $449.99, roughly 327 EUR. Sadly, the LGA 2011 motherboard isn't available in stock, and EVGA hasn't mentioned when the first boards are expected to arrive into its inventory.