HEXUS enjoyed a hands-on preview of the EVGA SR-3 Dark at the firm's suite during Computex Taipei back in the summer. EVGA has just announced that it has started taking pre-orders for this top-end single socket E-ATX Intel C622 motherboard. The board was built especially for the Intel Xeon W-3175X and highlights include its hexa-channel memory support, 23 phase power design, 16-layer PCB, dual-10GbE LAN ports, and pre-installed VRM waterblock.
To recap on the use of this platform, the Intel Xeon W-3175X processor was released nearly a year ago costing just short of US$3000. It boasts 28 cores / 56 threads, a base clock of 3.1GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 for frequencies up to 4.3GHz, an unlocked multiplier, up to 68 platform PCIe lanes, 38.5 MB Intel Smart Cache, plus support for 6-channel DDR4 memory, with a TDP of 255W. The processor has already been leveraged by some of the world's best overclockers and dominates the Time Spy Extreme world records hall of fame CPU scores tables, for example. If you look at the fifth placed entry in that link you will see that KingPin has already been working with an early model EVGA SR-3 Dark.
Official highlights of the EVGA SR-3 Dark (160-CX-W999-KR) follow:
- Highly-Efficient 24 Phase Digital VRM
- 300% Increased Socket Gold Content
- Intel VROC Support
- 4-Way SLI Support
- Creative Sound Core3D Audio with Output Amplifiers
- Reinforced PCIe slots
- EVGA's Latest GUI BIOS Featuring OC Robot and In-BIOS Stress Testing
- SafeBoot button to reset the motherboard and go into the BIOS with last known good settings without clearing CMOS
- Slow Mode switch locks CPU multiplier to lowest possible setting to allow users to switch between max OC and low speeds in real-time.
- SPI flashing via USB allows you to flash your BIOS without a CPU
- Onboard Temperature and Voltage Monitoring
- Onboard Clear CMOS, Power and Reset Buttons
- Dual EVGA Probe-It Connectors
- Triple BIOS Support
- EVGA ELEET X1 Software Support
- 100% Solid State Capacitors
- 3 Year Warranty
As you can see from the board images the 16-layer E-ATX sized PCB is crammed with expansion options and features. Flanking the high-gold content processor socket there are triple DIMM sockets enabling hexa-channel RAM configurations up to DDR4 4000MHz+ and 192GB. The six PCIe x16 slots present are individually switched (DIP switches) for easy trouble shooting and so on. In a similar vein there is a triple BIOS select, and a SafeBoot button further enhances advanced tinkering attempts.
At the time of writing there are few after-market coolers available for this chip/board. I can only find the EKWB's EK-Annihilator Pro and Asetek 690LX-PN that are compatible. Furthermore, the EVGA SR-3 Dark is only the third Xeon W-3175X compatible board available, alongside the Asus ROG Dominus Extreme and Gigabyte C621 Aorus Xtreme.
Of course the EVGA SR-3 Dark is somewhat on the expensive side of the market. It is listed at US$1,999 but with an instant rebate of $200 bringing the price down to $1,799 - expected to ship on 13th January 2020. There is a limit of two per household for pre-orders but it is currently out of stock.
