I love EVGA a lot, but I would never recommend a motherboard from them. This time around in particular they seemed to really drop the ball, coming in late with something put together really quickly.

 

I just got the latest BIOS update from them. Every time I hope they've finally fixed their overclocking issue. Keep getting disappointed time and time again. I probably wouldn't even have built "Main" if it weren't for craigslist. I got that board as I said for $125 when it was like $350. I got the HAF 932 for $65 (when it was on NewEgg for $160), and my 6950 for $100. Definitely made the build a reality.

Edit: So I updated to 047 and it caused my CPU to sit at 8% on idle. Noticed a lot of complaints about this exact issue too. Gonna try 041 (I believe that was my stock update) because a number of people claim you can successfully overclock. I too was able to get to 4.5 without problem until after updating (the only reason I didn't revert is I couldn't remember when exactly I couldn't OC any longer).

 

My X79 FTW K2 has been great so far, i've had it for around three months now, at first some usb 3.0 ports wouldnt work at random but once i installed the usb 3.0 driver v1.14.3.0 they have been working since. I have the cpu strap set to 1.25, and use multiplier of x36 for 4.5ghz, the usb 3.0 ports still work with these settings, if i had better cooling it could go higher but im using the Thermalright Venomous X for now.

I paid $330 for my X79 FTW it originally had bios 32 and currently has bios 41, the bios is nice and simple in my opinion, everything works good so far.

 

I was about to say you must have an older revision. Do NOT upgrade as you have the golden one lol. I feel like UEFI's have so much more potential than what they did with it. I've seen graphical user interfaces. I mean you're paying over $300. Boards with GUIs are less than the FTW and generally have similar features.

I did go to 047 and noticed an 8% CPU increase on idle. Windows 8 showed it from System/System Interrupts. I benchmarked both on 041 and 047 and found a consider performance decrease (041>047).

http://imgur.com/a/7UOS7 Take a look!

 

Funny i almost forgot about this, when the X79 FTW arrived the box was in bad condition and one of the Evga seals was cut along with multiple full cuts along the top of the box and it was still under the shrink wrap so it must mean it was re shrink wrapped to look new, it certainly wasnt brand new. I then read about all the usb 3.0 issues and decided to just keep it since nothing was wrong with it, maybe that made it special haha.

Wow thats a good difference, thanks for posting this, i was thinking about updating the bios just to see whats new but i think i will stick with bios 41 now especially if updating effects overclocking

 

I'm one of the lucky ones that got a new revision FTW board with no issues.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrad

Funny i almost forgot about this, when the X79 FTW arrived the box was in bad condition and one of the Evga seals was cut along with multiple full cuts along the top of the box and it was still under the shrink wrap so it must mean it was re shrink wrapped to look new, it certainly wasnt brand new. I then read about all the usb 3.0 issues and decided to just keep it since nothing was wrong with it, maybe that made it special haha.

Wow thats a good difference, thanks for posting this, i was thinking about updating the bios just to see whats new but i think i will stick with bios 41 now especially if updating effects overclocking

I believe if your current settings work and you updated, those OC settings will still work. If you change them, it won't work any longer (I believe if you tried for a higher OC). That's what happened to me. I couldn't ever get back to known good OC settings.
Quote:

Originally Posted by superericla

I'm one of the lucky ones that got a new revision FTW board with no issues.

Which revision are you?

 

My first X79 board was a FTW board, and possibly my last EVGA board. Virtually the same issues as you, and to top it all off the board NEVER had a problem with a 3820 chip, but it hated my 3930K.. Replaced it with a Rampage IV Formula, never looked back and perfectly fine running strong.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dustin1

My first X79 board was a FTW board, and possibly my last EVGA board. Virtually the same issues as you, and to top it all off the board NEVER had a problem with a 3820 chip, but it hated my 3930K.. Replaced it with a Rampage IV Formula, never looked back and perfectly fine running strong.

How are your temps with the H100 (idle and full load)?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmontney

How are your temps with the H100 (idle and full load)?

Stock - Idle : 34-35*C / Load : 57-60*C (Gaming, P95 a little higher.)
4.5Ghz - Idle : 38-40*C / Load : 62-66*C (Gaming, P95 a little higher.)

That;s a rough estimate. It really depends on what I'm doing. However, I'm not running a p/p setup, so they do have room for improvement.

 

EVGA is a joke. Never understand why people go so gaga over them. Their motherboards this gen are garbage, they should pay people to use them.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by amtbr

EVGA is a joke. Never understand why people go so gaga over them. Their motherboards this gen are garbage, they should pay people to use them.

Well I think people in general need to relax a bit when it comes to one bad product. For example, I've seen over 500 perfect reviews and ONE person got a defective/DOA one and was like "I'm never buying from them again". True, their X79 being pretty much a failure all around is unacceptable. Although I myself don't know if EVGA has gotten worse over the years. I do remember them being good.

I also thing it's ridiculous that "they don't guarantee their overclocking features". Um. Excuse me? I understand if OC fails due to the processor. But when my components are all suffering because you've incorrectly/poorly implemented features, that's your fault. Especially when you've really advertised your overclocking features and is a major selling point. The very least EVGA could do is owe up ("We acknowledge failure in the overclocking features on our X79 boards and are trying our best to sort it out") rather than telling people that they simply don't guarantee it. It's just like when Best Buy screwed up a ton of orders a few years back and then said "We apologize about your delay/problem/etc and is due to unforeseen circumstances". This isn't a weather forecast. They knew very well it was their fault. Could've just owed up to it.

 

I loved their P67/Z68 FTW boards but their Z77 FTW was a train wreck at a fertilizer plant

I probably went through 4-5 of them before I got an old but very good P67 WS.

I'm shopping around to maybe got back to X79 and i see a few of them priced very low. But I'm glad I found this thread. It confirms what other EVGA owners were experiencing (EVGA forums) on both platforms.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by wermad

I loved their P67/Z68 FTW boards but their Z77 FTW was a train wreck at a fertilizer plant

I probably went through 4-5 of them before I got an old but very good P67 WS.

I'm shopping around to maybe got back to X79 and i see a few of them priced very low. But I'm glad I found this thread. It confirms what other EVGA owners were experiencing (EVGA forums) on both platforms.

Yeah and that's the reason those are priced so low

I mean for anything other than overclocking, they're good. As I said, $125 warranted me getting the board (despite its issues). Although I didn't know about them until after buying. Using an older BIOS revision (I believe 39), I can OC to 4.3 on my 3820. As I said, ONE time I got it to 4.5 stable.

 

All of the Z77s I got were able to hit 4.9 w/ only 1.325v on the same 2700k. But there was a long and hard road to get to anything stable. One of the annoying ones that took a while was board down clocking the oc'. So setting it up to 4.9 (for example) after loading it for a few seconds, it would drop to 4.0 and stayed there. Its got a great design on paper but the execution is just terrible. I can't imagine how crappy it felt being an EVGA mod on their forums trying to help a lot, and I mean a lot of ppl with issues on both Z77 and X79. Heard some lucky Canadians last summer got their Z77 FTW for $90 brand new. Yet a lot of them returned them because they were so bad! I think this psu and new gen of cards took up a lot of their time and maybe they just did a half a$$ job this time, ? I mean, where have the good ol' days of X58 Classy/4-way/SR2 gone too???

 

I miss those days too wermad...
It baffles me that EVGA is STILL having issues with z77 and x79, honestly I would focus more on motherboards now to try and fix the issues...

I was going to upgrade when x79 came out but after reading so many horror stories I said nvm, then Ivy came out*I wanted to run an EVGA motherboard for either x79 or z77*, but these boards still have issues.

I love my X58 Classified it's still badass, but for me to upgrade.. the dang thing has to be on par with it.. and last me a while.. with out much hassle....