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Introduction:

Today we will be taking a look at the EVGA P55 Classified 200 the brother to their X58 Classified and X58 4-Way Classified motherboards.  This board follows in the footsteps with the same color scheme as well as the same EATX form factor.  The EVGA Team along with Peter “Shamino” Tan packed this board with all the features and overclocking options even the most hard core overclocker or enthusiast would want.

Packing:

Let’s take a look at the board and what it comes with.  The EVGA P55 Classified 200 comes in a very nice box as seen above with plenty of accessories inside.  Here we see all the specs and accessories on the back of the box.

When you first open the box you will be greeted by the manual, driver CD, and quick install guide.  The quick install guide is a no nonsense guide easy enough for the beginner or even the most experienced users to quickly find the information the need to install this board.

All of the accessories are individually wrapped inside EVGA anti static bags.  Some of the accessories include the probe for EVGA show-volt, 2-Way and 3-Way SLI bridges, EVGA Control Panel (ECP), SATA cables, I/O shield and more.

Features:

The P55 Classified board gives you all of the normal features you come to expect from EVGA and more.

• 10 Phase Digital PWM
• Dual EPS 12v power connectors
• EVGA E-Leet motherboard tuning utility
• EVGA Easy voltage read points
• EVGA Show-volt
• 300% more gold content in the CPU Socket
• EVGA ECP and Ev-Bot support
• Triple bios support

Let’s take a look at EVGA’s newest feature EVGA Show-volt.  Built into the corner of the motherboard is a volt meter to check voltages.  This way you can easily check all of the easy voltage read points on the board without a multimeter.  It will also allow you to check other DC voltage readings as well such as the 12v or 3.3v from your power supply. Take a look at the video below to see how easy to use it is.

Another feature of this board is the external EVGA Control Panel.  This panel allows you start the machine, reboot, and add voltage to the CPU v-core and CPU VTT voltage.  It will also allow you to disable up to 4 PCI-E x16 slots of your choosing.

Another one of the features to mention would be the triple bios support.  Right on the motherboard is a switch to change between bios chips.  This is useful in case of a bad flash or if you want to test out different bios versions to maximize your overclock.  Finally another useful feature is the LED post code read out will start reading your CPU temperature after the system has completed posting.

System Configuration:

• Motherboard: EVGA P55 Classified 200 (A58 bios)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 661
• Memory: Corsair GTX1 2x2GB
• Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU850TX
• Graphics Card: Dual GeForce 7900GT
• DangerDen Torture Rack
• Cooling:
  • Thermalright Ultra Extreme Black Edition
  • Single Stage low power phase change
  • K|ngP|n Venom LN2 Pot

Bios OC Options:

This board gives tons of bios options for you to maximize the overclock of your CPU no matter if you’re running on air or on the edge with LN2.

Overclocking:

With a little tweaking on air this board was able to run the Core i5 661 at a frequency of 4.6-4.7GHz stable.

Getting the CPU colder using a single stage phase cooler the CPU was able to be pushed even further to a frequency of 5.1GHz stable.  With the CPU running colder the board was able to run the B-clock all the way up to 255MHz!  Although we were able to reach an overall B-clock frequency of 260MHz the system was not stable most likely due to the memory controller within the CPU.  We did run into a few issues with this as well when trying to run tighter timings however it was caused by the CPU.

CPUZ Validation

Pushing the board to very extreme and running it at -190C with the CPU cooled by liquid nitrogen we were easily able to reach a frequency of 6.3GHz.  The board was able to run for two 10 hour sessions without any issues at all at frequencies above 6GHz!

Conclusion:

The EVGA P55 Classified certainly lives up to its name and provides everything you need to max out your components.  The board also has many great features that come in handy even if you are the most extreme overclocker.  The board is expensive for the P55 series of boards but the features and overclockability definitely are worth it.  If the board isn’t in your budget you may want to look into EVGA’s P55 FTW board which is almost as good.

This board has earned the TechReaction Gold Silicon Award

Please be sure to check back with us for extreme overclocking results with this motherboard as well as an OC guide on the board.

For some more expert reviews of the EVGA P55 Classified 200 you should check out TestFreaks.