EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

The Intel 5520 chipset is a two-chip solution and the motherboard manufacturer can chose between ICH9, ICH9R, ICH10 and ICH10R south bridge chips. The models ending with an “R” support RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 configuration. ICH9 only supports four SATA-300 ports, while all other chips (including ICH9R) support six ports.

The EVGA Classified SR-2 provides all six SATA-300 ports with support by the Intel Matrix Storage (i.e., RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10). These ports are black. Two SATA-600 ports (the red ones) are available, controlled by a Marvell 88SE9128 chip. These two ports support RAID 0 and 1. And two eSATA-300 ports are available on the rear panel controlled by a JMicron JMB362 chip.

The internal SATA ports are not rotated 90°, but due to the extreme length of this motherboard video cards won’t block them.

An ATA-133 port is also available, but no floppy disk drive controller is present.

Figure 4: Internal SATA ports.

From the 12 USB 2.0 ports supported by the chipset, EVGA Classified SR-2 offers 10 of them, six soldered on the rear panel and four available through two motherboard headers. The motherboard comes with an I/O bracket containing four USB ports.

One of the highlights of this motherboard is the presence of two USB 3.0 ports, controlled by a NEC μPD720200 chip. These ports are available on the rear panel of the product and painted blue (USB 2.0 ports are black).

No FireWire ports are available.

Audio is generated by the chipset together with a Realtek ALC889 codec, which provides professional-grade audio to this motherboard, with eight channels, 24-bit resolution, sampling rate of up to 192 kHz for both inputs and outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs and 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the outputs. With a high signal-to-noise ratio like this you can work professionally converting, mixing and editing audio from an analog source (e.g., converting VHS tapes and vinyl records to the digital format) with no background noise (white noise).

This motherboard doesn’t have on-board optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, which we think is a flaw for a motherboard that is probably the most high-end product available for Intel CPUs in the desktop market today. You can add these connectors by installing an adapter (that doesn’t come with the product) on the “SPDIF” header available.

It provides independent analog outputs, meaning that you don’t need to “kill” the mic in or the line in jack if you install an analog 7.1 speaker set.

EVGA Classified SR-2 has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Marvell 88E8057 chips, which are connected to the system using PCI Express x1 lanes, and thus not presenting any potential performance issues.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with PS/2 keyboard connector, clear CMOS button, header for the EVGA EVBot overclocking panel (which doesn’t come with the product), two USB 3.0 ports (blue), six USB 2.0 ports (black), two eSATA-300 ports (red), two Gigabit Ethernet ports and independent 7.1 analog audio jacks.

Figure 7: Motherboard rear panel.