EVGA Classified SR-2 - DUAL LGA 1366 Intel 5520 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HPTX Motherboard (270-WS-W555-A2)

Pros: After running a great Dell XPS for a few years, I wanted to go back to the self-build route again and put together something wonderful :). Was highly debating EVGA's 4-Way Classified or this (as it'd be easily $600+ more for the dual-Xeon route). Glad I went the SR-2 way now! Running 2x Megahalems / 2x EVGA 580s / SR-2 PSU with Xeon E5620s at 3.7 Ghz. If you're looking for a render machine or for video crunching, this board seems to simply beat anything else out there. I had to tap the mounting board of my PC-P80 for the last standoff to make it fit so this isn't a quick plug-and-play job. If you would like a fun project however, this board is superb and has nearly every feature you could ask for.

Cons: One would suggest price here but if you need the horsepower of dual Xeons, you know what you're getting yourself into. Noticed the E5645 six-cores are "only" a few hundred bucks more (they seem to have come down in price since I built this a few months ago) Oh well. That PSU does crank the volume up a bit there once you're pushing over 1,000 watts... Not unbearable but just a note there. As to whether a more adaptable solution suitable for the SR-2 exists without as much noise, I can not say firsthand. If you do plan on a fully loaded system though and use 2 or more 580s, certainly plan on 1,200+ watts. Apparently my previously highly rated review was removed for mentioning other aftermarket notes. Wow.

Overall Review: It's wonderful to pull up task manager and see 16 threads working away! Using this system as a production backbone and it really chews through whatever you put on it. Things like rendering compared to a traditional LGA 775 qua core are sped up by 4x or greater; video is a great deal faster for sure. If you crank out science, it will run BOINC / Rosetta at Home or Folding at Home at the equivalent of anywhere from 2 to 8+ traditional systems - it just has that much power going for it, coupled with the Westmere architecture. Haven't tried putting in more than 12 GB of RAM yet, but the Mushkin Redlines have generally been running fine. Timings are very lax as I've not gotten everything to be stable with them at JEDEC Spec. Maybe I've just hit the limits of what a good air cooling set up can do? It's an expensive purchase / investment but one that should serve for many years and I couldn't be happier with it. Highly recommended.

Pros: After running a great Dell XPS for a few years, I wanted to go back to the self-build route again and put together something wonderful :). Was highly debating EVGA's 4-Way Classified or this (as it'd be easily $600+ more for the dual-Xeon route). Glad I went the SR-2 way now! Running 2x Megahalems / 2x EVGA 580s / SR-2 PSU with Xeon E5620s at ~3.7 Ghz. I'll admit, I could almost hit 4Ghz with these but the lower multiplier had me hit (IMO) a limit of about 200-205 BCLK on this board (which is fine). Not too bad for my first real overclock I suppose. Temps are high-60s to mid-70s so that's as far as I want to go. If you're looking for a render machine or for video crunching, this board seems to simply beat anything else out there. I had to tap the mounting board of my PC-P80 for the last standoff to make it fit so this isn't a quick plug-and-play job. If you would like a fun project however, this board is superb and has nearly every feature you could ask for.

Cons: One would suggest price here but if you need the horsepower of dual Xeons, you know what you're getting yourself into. Noticed the E5645 six-cores are "only" a few hundred bucks more (they seem to have come down in price since I built this a few months ago) Oh well. That PSU does crank the volume up a bit there once you're pushing over 1,000 watts... Not unbearable but just a note there ;). As to whether a more adaptable solution suitable for the SR-2 exists without as much noise, I can not say firsthand. If you do plan to OC though and use 2 580s, certainly plan on 1,200+ watts.

Overall Review: It's wonderful to pull up task manager and see 16 threads working away! Using this system as a production backbone and it really chews through whatever you put on it. Things like rendering compared to a traditional LGA 775 qua core are sped up by 4x or greater; video is a great deal faster for sure. If you crank out science, it will run BOINC / Rosetta at Home or Folding at Home at the equivalent of anywhere from 2 to 8+ traditional systems - it just has that much power going for it, coupled with the Westmere architecture. Haven't tried putting in more than 12 GB of RAM yet, but the Mushkin Redlines have generally been running fine. Timings are very lax as I've not gotten everything to be stable with them at JEDEC Spec. Maybe I've just hit the limits of what a good air cooling set up can do? It's an expensive purchase / investment but one that should serve for many years and I couldn't be happier with it. Highly recommended.

Pros: I have built many, many PCs using Supermicro and Tyan quality workstation boards over the years - I look for quality and reliability so was hesitant about buying a product like this. No regrets - this motherboard is not a toy and was actually one of the easier ones to get up and running that I've owned. The board uses high quality components with well designed & dimensioned heat sinks, and has good connectors. Overclocking the Xeon processors is a brilliant idea well executed on this mobo. Kudos to EVGA for having the testicular fortitude to produce and market this unique board for computer enthusiasts.

Cons: I've been building PCs as a hobby since 1978 - these eyes have seen a lot. A few cost/benefit observations to pass on: (1) An upgrade has to improve performance by at least 50% to be noticeable for most real world use cases. (2) Never reuse mobo, CPU and RAM in new projects, they tend to evolve together in each new generation. (3) Always add as much memory as you can afford. (4) Always buy quality components, even if they are not the fastest. The only con with the SR-2 is that you are stuck with no way to build a noticeably faster machine, so the PC build hobby is on hold for a while...

Overall Review: * To get triple channel RAM working (which is a must) you will need 6 DIMMs (three for each CPU). I used 3 kits of Crucial CT3KIT102472BB1339 ECC memory with good results. * You will likely need a new case to fit the large HTPX form factor; I used the Lian Li PC-90 which works well with this board. * The Supermicro SNK-P0040AP4 CPU coolers fits this board + case perfectly, resulting in a very quiet PC even with moderate overclocking (X5675 CPUs). * Samsung 830 SSDs work with no issues on SATA 6. I do not use RAID on this machine so can't comment on RAID performance or issues. However, streaming video edits from one SSD disk to the other on this machine has to be seen to be believed...

Pros: Very Very fast, for 3D rendering in Maya and other software apps. Running: DangerDen DD SR-2 expansion case evga SR-2 Intel Xeon's 5690 @ 4.3 ghz 48 gigs of CORSAIR DOMINATOR GT @ 2000 mhz nvidia quadro 6000 1200w CORSAIR

Cons: Its very large, which limits your desision in what case you want to buy.

Pros: So far its working extremely well. I bought this for a video workstation build for AE, C4D and video editing programs. AE eats cpu cores and ram for breakfast so the more then better. I have 2 Xeon Westmeres in there OC'd to 3.8GHz without breaking a sweat. A few tweaks in BIOS and in business. The temps didnt change on air with 2 Venomous-X coolers. 24GB of Dominator ram. Loose timings but I have no concern for benchmarking. When the 6 core Westmeres come down from their 1.7k$ mark to a price mere mortals can afford Ill switch over to them. AE can use 4GB ram per core x12cores= 48GB- the max this board can accept.

Cons: The first one I received was DOA. First DOA thing Ive gotten. I was annoyed but its not neweggs fault. I was able to get an advanced replacement so it came 3 days later and I sent the old one off when it came. Other than having thousands $$$ in parts sitting around it wasnt a disaster. Even the EVGA tech did a good job of isolating the issue on the phone and when he realized it was bad he said so. There was some sort of grounding issue that kept it from booting or even getting the boot code to come on.

Overall Review: This is just under 2 weeks so I hesitate to even write a review but I doubt Ill remember to get around to it later. Unless theres a problem....

Pros: This is the best mobo I had in the last 20 years! No problems no fuss it just works! I waited quite some time to write this review as I wanted to make sure it performs on the long run. I am a programmer and use it daily. I have a Nvidia 570 because I like to game here and there too, mostly BF2142 and BF3. The triple channel RAM is awesome. The BIOS is easy no navigate and leaves nothing to wish for. Sata ports are plenty and the Sata III work flawless with my Crucial SSD. I love this board so much that I am thinking on buying another one as a backup if something should go south.

Cons: None!

Overall Review: It's one large mobo, but I knew this before I purchased it.

Pros: - Dual CPU sockets - More than enough SATA plugs - Easy to OC - BIOS reset buttons X 2

Cons: - Size (not really a problem as long as you know what you're getting) - Only 2 internal USB plugs

Overall Review: Overall a great mobo. The OC settings in the BIOS are super easy to use. This is a really BIG mobo, plan accordingly. This board runs cool, I am OC'ing and only have air cooling and it never gets very hot even under load. I would not recommend this board to someone who does not know a lot about building systems. MOBO: EVGA SR-2 CPU: Intel Xeon E5645 2.4Ghz OC'ed to 2.8Ghz X 2 MEMORY: DDR3 1333Mhz DIMM X 48GB GPU: GTX580 X 2 in SLI + 8800GTX X 1 (dedicated to PhysX)

Pros: This is a very powerfull piece of hardware. Have two X5680's running @ 4.4ghz with idle temps <40c. Has USB 3.0 Getting a CPU Cinebench score of 22.08!!! EVGA just released a new BIOS for this board this last month.

Cons: Took a little bit of playing with before it was stable. This board is not a standard single socket 1366 board so you should expect a little bit of troubleshooting and time before hand. Very picky with memory. Check in the EVGA forums to find out what everyone else is running. Takes at least 20 seconds before this board posts. Not many applications use all 24 cores Not stable with >200 bclk

Overall Review: Even though this board is 3 years old it is still fantastic. It scores over 22 points on Cinebench with 2 of my x5680's OC'd to 4.4ghz. Buying this setup was kind of expensive but worth it.