Mopardart

Alex00322
Looks like a great board. Don't get me wrong. But it's a great board at $350 maybe $400. I don't think it warrants a $500 price tag in any way. Pretty disappointed with this as this is the board I've been waiting for. 

Agreed. The new Nu Audio sound card should be included then it will be worth buying at $500 

The Dark has Nu Audio available through front panel header.

d.burnette

Mopardart

Alex00322
Looks like a great board. Don't get me wrong. But it's a great board at $350 maybe $400. I don't think it warrants a $500 price tag in any way. Pretty disappointed with this as this is the board I've been waiting for. 

Agreed. The new Nu Audio sound card should be included then it will be worth buying at $500 

The Dark has Nu Audio available through front panel header.

 well then it might be  worth $500 if the sound quality is  the same as the Nu Audio sound card!

I would think its in stock because mostly people on the forums know about it being in stock. Do retailers have it or even advertise it yet? It came out yesterday. Future proof for me means it has current day features, is fast enough to accomplish the tasks that I need it to do on the OS and gaming. My previous computer is an everyday 4 ghz I have had overclocked for the past 5 years. So it depends on how you use it.

And intel updates are always 6-10 months away no matter what you buy. Wonder why they do that. LOL. Waiting for the next update will just leave you frustrated.

I was going to buy it but finally moved on. On flip side, I don't have all my parts so I could still switch. 1st loop is pretty much done so that's a killer.
Bottom line.... most who overclock will set this board up around 5ghz day to day. CPU is going to be the lottery.  Just about all the mid to high boards will do that. If your using nitrogen, then different story. I'll be curious what kind of clocks we see compared to asus, a asrock. Msi Etc. So maybe we don't see significant higher clocks on this board, but do lose bling. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Mopardart

Love this Guy  did he just get out of the Joint?
 

the ftw is not one step under the dark... that would be the nonexistent classified. the FTW with 5layer PCB its really a budget board
 
 
also someone from EVGA already came in n said the NU audio the mobo has is unrelated to the soundcard that was released yesterday.
 
 
I dont understand using this for future proofing though, it only has 2 dimm slots... usually the first upgrade after GPU on an aging system is ram. If i was concerned about cost-performance-longevity. I dont think intel would be on my shortlist this time around.     Maybe a 9700k-asrock taichi, and a dual channel 32gb kit.  but Id seriosuly be considering amd if I wasnt addicted to buying the new new

d.burnette

tatm mrk. RIVE
the ftw is not one step under the dark... that would be the nonexistent classified. the FTW with 5layer PCB its really a budget board
 
 
also someone from EVGA already came in n said the NU audio the mobo has is unrelated to the soundcard that was released yesterday.
 
 
I dont understand using this for future proofing though, it only has 2 dimm slots... usually the first upgrade after GPU on an aging system is ram

I don't think there is such a thing as future proofing.

 
16gb of ram has worked just fine for me since I did this X79 build in 2013, so am figuring 32gb for this new build should do the same.

8GB has been a little too full for me since 2015. half the reason I got out of OCing was because of the b-die price.
with programs getting as fat as ever and ddr5 possibly on the horizon, changing everything we know about ram again, who knows where you will be in 2-3 years, and this board does not have the slots for expansion... is all im saying... and performance is marrginal at best for daily use.
and then I dunno personally but I have heard EVGA bios suck cuz they are such a small outfit. Id stick with a larger company or asrock for life span..
 
I just retired my 4790k and z97 OCF daily build that i gave to my parents after I learned LN2 and froze the everloving crap out of PSC on it. Id say thats not bad life for an extreme use setup
especially since the mobo was 200-260

yeah my 4790K is ddr3.
 
 
I have a 50 tray full of binned 4gb ddr4 sticks.( ES MFR, near or better than ES AFR, and e-die)
 
and am taking a crack at finding b-die again.....
 
tbh I might just bother some old friends and beg for some good rescent ES   cuz b-die back then was a flippin nightmare and it doesnt sound like its improved much
 
 
 
 
lol   i pretty much just OC and bin mems other than trying to get a stable daily for gaming.
 
 
 
 
and the fastest ddr3 is 2gb modules... so where are we gonna end up

I don't think my ram usage has ever even hit 10gigs, let alone the full 16 lol. The Dark only having 2 slots caused absolutely zero concern for me, but that's just based on my use cases.

Delirious

tatm mrk. RIVE
the ftw is not one step under the dark... that would be the nonexistent classified. the FTW with 5layer PCB its really a budget board
 
 
also someone from EVGA already came in n said the NU audio the mobo has is unrelated to the soundcard that was released yesterday.
 
 
I dont understand using this for future proofing though, it only has 2 dimm slots... usually the first upgrade after GPU on an aging system is ram. If i was concerned about cost-performance-longevity. I dont think intel would be on my shortlist this time around.     Maybe a 9700k-asrock taichi, and a dual channel 32gb kit.  but Id seriosuly be considering amd if I wasnt addicted to buying the new new

what is the motherboard between the dark and the FTW?   If the answer is the nonexistent classified, then it is the next step down and offered in the z390 platform.   you don't need 4 slots of ram for future proofing.   just buy two dimms at a time. (by the time you think you need more RAM, it will be far cheaper in two dimms)  Personally, I've had 16 gb of RAM for the past 5 years and haven't maxed that out (guess I future proofed my RAM purchase last time I built a system).    Just get two dimms in a larger quantity to begin with to future proof.  32 GB not enough?  if you were were concerned over cost performance longevity, get a FTW.    This board for me will allow me to get the most out of a 9900K for probably years to come.  I don't upgrade every year and in a sense is future proof.....for me.  If you are one who needs new stuff every year, then this is the board to get, since it's the best EVGA has to offer until the next best thing. 

True, as far as products go the is no gap between the FTW and the Dark which I think is part of the problem. Another part of the problem is if there was a Classified would it be worthy of the label? It sure as hell wasn't on the Z370. Lets look over at Asus and their 370 line. Ok that might be an extreme example(pun intended?) but IIRC there 7 Z390 offerings starting at $179 and scaling up to $600. So how does the FTW stack up against the Z390-E Strix? How does the Dark square off vs the.....Code? and again vs the Extreme? I haven't looked in a while but I think either the Code(unless they made a Maximus APEX) would be the price point competitor to the Dark and the Extreme would be the top of the line, flagship competitor.
 
So I think that's why the Dark seems overpriced. There's no incremental jump between the "Base Model" Z390 and the Dark. What we need is a Classified K Z390 that lives up to that label, unlike the Z370 Classified. Even though EVGA seems to have replaced Classified with Dark it doesn't mean we couldn't use a board that has some of the Dark's QoL features but leave off the components which make it the overclocking beast that it is.

not sure how good the board is so far, had 2 9900k's here to test
 
#1 5ghz at 1.32
#2 5ghz at 1.19
 
 
unfortunately i have no other board here to test how they would go there, but that's nothing special so far. which might just be also bad cpus.

Alex00322
One thing I would have liked to see at this price is a 10 gig lan port. I have an Aorus Xtreme sitting here and I'm still considering the Dark. I know I'll never care to push my CPU past 5.2ghz, which I can already do on the Xtreme. I don't see much of a reason to get the dark since I've already got my CPU and memory clocked where I want them. I would just lose features. The only thing that would make me consider switching is if the sound quality was somehow vastly superior. I actually noticed a huge difference switching from my x79 build to my z390 build in terms of sound quality. I have a Hegel h160 and KEF LS50's for computer audio when I'm not gaming. If this board was out a month earlier. It'd probably be in my case. But I just don't think it's really worth my switching to. I was on x79 for a very long time, I don't think z390 will have the staying power that x79 had. I think this time around I'll be upgrading my platform before I upgrade this 2080ti. I've got another week or two till my return policy runs out on this Xtreme. Maybe if some reviews come out I'll get a reason to switch over. Until then, I'm pretty happy with the Xtreme. 

Most definitely not worth $500 because you won't be able to run your CPU past 5.5ghz " stable " that is if the board can even overclock that processor to run  that high...

If no one buys the board and there are no reports of hidden little issues then how are thy going to get things fixed and sorted out?

Mutt Slayer
I was going to buy it but finally moved on. On flip side, I don't have all my parts so I could still switch. 1st loop is pretty much done so that's a killer.
Bottom line.... most who overclock will set this board up around 5ghz day to day. CPU is going to be the lottery.  Just about all the mid to high boards will do that. If your using nitrogen, then different story. I'll be curious what kind of clocks we see compared to asus, a asrock. Msi Etc. So maybe we don't see significant higher clocks on this board, but do lose bling. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 
 
Asus Maximus XI Extreme ....9900K are OC'ing in the 5 Ghz - 5.2Ghz range (a few are able to Bench at 5.3 Ghz.....obviously 8c/16t heat is the issue)....vcore range between 1.265v (5 Ghz) as high as 1.4v for 5.2 Ghz....my Chip appears to be around 1.35v for any stable Benches at 5.1 Ghz...forget about 5.2 Ghz...Chips get HOT and im on a Custom 3 Radiator Loop...
I like the looks of the Dark,,,its pretty much Evga's answer to the Asus Apex .....whereby the Extreme Boards are both "bling n OC'ing".....Apex n Dark strictly OC'ing...
the Evga X58 vanilla and X58 Classified were "great solid" boards....but I saw the pains of the X79 generation (Classiified or Dark maybe ?....perhaps all those issues were eventually fixed w BIOS revisions) but I jumped off that cart.....straight to Asus Rampage IV E .....no real issues..UEFI / BIOS was pretty much "mature" out of the box....

Well currently they can hardly keep any stock in...