Tech Reaction

The EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified has been much heralded in the enthusiast and overclocking forums and for very good reason. This particular 965 was only able to clock to around 5040MHz on both the EVGA X58 3X SLI and DFI X58-T3eH8 for 32M SPi. On the Classified, however, I was able to push this processor almost 100MHz more at the same pot temperature of around -75C. This extra 100MHz mated with a solid set of Corsair Dominator-GT 3×2GB DDR3-1866 7-8-7 memory, got me below the 7 minute mark for the first time.

Complete Hardware Setup:
• EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified
• Stock NB, SB, PWM cooling
• Intel i7-965 Extreme Edition
• MM Rev3 CU Pot w/LN2
• Arctic Silver Ceramique
• Corsair Dominator-GT 1866 7-8-7 (TR3X6G1866C7GTF)
• ATI PCI Mach64
• Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 2000RPM 87.6CFM (DFS123812L-2000)
• Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATA II 8MB cache
• Custom N’lightnd Windows XP Pro SP3
• Corsair HX1000W

Using a fairly typical SPi setup, getting into the 6’s was a bit of a battle. At 5GHz it was evident that the setup had the chance to go sub 7 minutes but I had no idea how the CPU was going to clock on the Classified as this was my first session under LN2 working on 32M.

The only issue I had was getting a screen shot. After getting sub 7 a couple of times, the system insisted on freezing when trying to open CPU-Z for the screen shot. Even after an extensive copy wazza process and running 32M, the system didn’t like CPU-Z…which obviously wasn’t making sense. As it turns out, letting the pot temperature warm up to near -50C was what it took to get the screen shot. It only took about three Newcastle’s and a half dozen runs under 7 minutes for me to figure it out.

It isn’t the most efficient run out there and my copy wazza/32M OS needs some work but the goal was sub 7 minutes and that was accomplished. Thanks to EVGA for another fantastic motherboard and Corsair for a solid kit of memory. Next up is trying to get that time down by a couple seconds and break into the top 5 overall 32M on HWBot.org with this setup.