You'll have to wait. Remember that classified cards have to be able to maintain the highest clock speeds and sometimes these types of cards also require beefier supporting elements. Keep your eye on the EVGA website

http://www.evga.com/articles/00872/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-980-970/#2988
 
Looks sexy as hell. Seems like the back panel IO was prior to the new 980 upgrade with 3x DP, 1x HDMI & 1x DVI though.

But is there any estimates, will take a month or two or day or two? Do you guys think I should go with regular or overclocked?

Hi will the classified cards have the remaining Missing power phases (2) replaced?
Will it also be able to use I2C commands?
Appreciate it if you could answer these questions please as depends on my purchase.
Thankyou. 

theveteran
How much more in price are the Classifieds over the 980 EVGA SC?
Can the Step up program be used?

You can only receive reference designs from the step up program.

Will the Classy have EVBot support?

theveteran
Can a waterblock be used with the classified version?

EK made blocks for the 780/780ti classified. I reached out to them on reddit. They said there's a chance the 780 classified block will fit the 980 classified(PCB's are essentially the same). But either way, they have every intention of making waterblocks for all 980's.

Rendezvous
Do you guys think water cooling would be mandatory for two 980 classifieds in SLI? Also will it be 599.99 or higher considering the price for the SC one it seems about right.

With the bottom outtake (I think?) design of the non-reference EVGA cards as well as the lower than usual TDP from Maxwell in mind, I would assume it would be the right choice to water cool IF your board has a layout that doesn't provide at least 3 slots between your VGA PCI-E slots. Otherwise, if you have a motherboard that allows you to SLI with some gap between your cards, throwing 2 GTX 980 Classified cards in with their stock air cooling should be perfectly fine. 
 
I think the GTX 980 Classified will probably be closer to $629 USD.
 
Everything in my post is just an assumption, keep that in mind.
 
I hope the output ports & back panel aren't the ones in that picture, though!

Do we have a rough ETA on these? Also is it possible to order these from EVGA direct from the UK?

Cial00
Will the Classy have EVBot support?

I doubt it since they discontinued the EVbot a while back.

jpapertowels

Rendezvous
Do you guys think water cooling would be mandatory for two 980 classifieds in SLI? Also will it be 599.99 or higher considering the price for the SC one it seems about right.

With the bottom outtake (I think?) design of the non-reference EVGA cards as well as the lower than usual TDP from Maxwell in mind, I would assume it would be the right choice to water cool IF your board has a layout that doesn't provide at least 3 slots between your VGA PCI-E slots. Otherwise, if you have a motherboard that allows you to SLI with some gap between your cards, throwing 2 GTX 980 Classified cards in with their stock air cooling should be perfectly fine. 
 
I think the GTX 980 Classified will probably be closer to $629 USD.
 
Everything in my post is just an assumption, keep that in mind.
 
I hope the output ports & back panel aren't the ones in that picture, though!

I currently have a ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z AMD AM3+ 990FX and CM storm trooper case  im not to sure if it has enough space in there for good ventilation with 3 cards. Ideally I would like to keep one of my old 770 4gb for deicated physx and have two 980 classifieds in SLI but i refuse to do water cooling because i dont have the money for it and all that water next to expensive pc parts scares the hell out of me. Just want to know and estimation how long will they last w/o water cooling and how hot they will run with demanding games. It seems with the setup i have now im gonna have to put the 980s directly next to eachother with the 770 a slot space below the two 980s...hopefully that wont be to hot in there...and if it does i'll just have to bring out the mini fan and put it next to my open case lol :P

EVGA_JacobF
Classified availability mid-late Oct.

Jacob, could you please confirm this madness? 

EVGATech_JaesonW
I also have confirmation back that the 980 Classified is indeed as pictured with one DP, one HDMI, and 2 DVI.

Hey guys I'm also looking at getting 2 of the 980 classified cards. I've got 2 evga gtx 980 cards on order from dabs but I'm thinking of cancelling and waiting for the classifieds but how long do you think it will be before they are released? it just says coming soon everywhere I don't really want to wait till next year so hoping its this or next month I have emailed evga so they might tell me but not counting on it lol any ideas though? Thanks.

I can't wait for the GTX 780 Ti Dual Classified and GTX 980 Classified battle.

If history holds true EVGA will go from 10.5" to a 11" card to suppy any Dual Classified or KING PIN (?) editions. This will be necsscitated by increases in memory clock, and larger cooler/heat pipe. The 780 ti Dual Classified (which i own) is only supplanted by the KING PIN which is the same lenght (11"), but about 1.5" wider. I think the most frustrating thing for us enthusiast is to think we have the latest and greates; then EVGA releases something that replaces that. This is why I am going to wait at least until there is a "Dual Classified" edition with the "suppoting elements", allowing a boost clock to around 1500 ghz.
 
It will take a new KING PIN edition to supplant the Dual Classified, and by that time the extra heat and energy comsumtion will not worth it (to buy a KING PIN edition). My Dual Classified will out perform the KING PIN under normal conditions. This is because it can be over clocked more, while additional overclocking of the KING PIN will lead to throttling due to temperatures. You can see by Digital Storm's testing that the KING PIN can only match the lower clocked Dual Classified.