EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard

More Features

EVGA Classified SR-2 has a POST diagnostics display, where you can see through a two-digit code which component is malfunctioning if your computer doesn’t turn on. This display will show CPU 0 temperature after the system has loaded the operating system. The CPU sockets are clearly labeled CPU0 and CPU1 on the motherboard and CPU 0 is the one farther from the rear panel and is the primary CPU.

Figure 6: POST diagnostics display.

You probably have seen motherboards with two BIOS chips, but this is the first time we’ve seen a motherboard with three BIOS chips! The additional BIOS chips are useful if the motherboard main BIOS gets corrupted (which usually happens in three different ways: forcing the BIOS upgrade utility to flash the wrong BIOS file, when power goes down during a BIOS upgrade process, or when a virus like Chernobyl/CIH attacks). In such a situation the computer won’t turn on anymore, as if the motherboard was “burned.” If this happens you just need to move a switch to select which backup BIOS you want to use.

Figure 7: Three BIOS.

Another debugging feature available on the SR-2 is the presence of individual jumpers to disable each one of the PCI Express x16 slots. Since on an extreme system with several video cards, removing and reinstalling video cards can be troublesome, you can simply move the jumper and disable the video cards in order to check whether each one is working properly.

Figure 8: Jumpers for disabling the PCI Express x16 slots.

The Classified SR-2 also comes with jumpers for you to individually disable each CPU (see Figure 9). This tool allows you to check if a CPU is defective or is presenting bad contact without needing to remove it from its socket.

Figure 9: Jumpers for disabling each CPU.

This motherboard should have come with an ECP V3 (EVGA Control Panel version 3), but the sample we received came without this peripheral but with a small flyer explaining that you need to register the motherboard on EVGA’s website and they will ship the panel to you once it becomes available.

This panel has the following functions:

• POST diagnostics display;
• Power button;
• Reset button;
• Clear CMOS button;
• Enable/disable switches for some of the PCI Express x16 slots;
• CPU disable switches;
• Button for increasing CPU0 core voltage in +0.1 V steps;
• Button for increasing CPU1 core voltage in +0.1 V steps;
• Button for increasing the speed of all fans to their maximum.

This panel puts all these features outside the computer, but a lot of cables and wires must be installed: basically you have to remove all the straps from the CPU jumpers and some from the PCI Express x16 jumpers (the panel only supports four slots and not all seven) and install wires to connect them to the panel, plus a flat cable that must be installed on the front panel header and on a header labeled “JP80P” that is located on the left-hand side of the BIOS selection switch. So when this module is installed you lose the reset and power switches of your case, plus the LEDs like power and HDD activity.