EVGA 270-WS-W555 Preview

CPU, RAM and PCI Express

Published: 9th March 2010 | Source: EVGA | Author: Bryan Waters

EVGA 270-WS-W555 Preview

EVGA have been pushing the technological boat out, firstly with the Classified and then the Classified Quad SLI. We recently had a glance at their 1366 dual-socket motherboard, which was truly a behemoth. Today we get a preview of it in all its glory, now named the 270-WS-W555. Hereafter referred to as the W555.

With many previews we get a sniff of the hardware and maybe some rumours about the potential possibilities, but EVGA have given us more than we get with some reviews, so by the end of this short preview you'll definitely be drooling as much as we are. Dual 1366. Oh momma. Our shot comes from EVGA themselves and as you can see the heatsink has been removed to expose the chips. Judging by the looks of the rest of the board it's safe to say it will be up to the usual EVGA standards.

Let's start our look at the specifications with the parts most of you will be interested in, especially those of you who love to Fold.

Specifications

CPU Socket
2 LGA1366 for Intel Xeon 5500 series processors.
Supports QPI up to 6.4GT/s, base on 20bit-width up to 25.6GB/s

Chipset
5520+ICH10R chipset with dual nVidia nF200 X16

System Memory
Six 240 pin DDR3 SDRAM DIMM sockets per processor, totalling 12 DIMM sockets
Supports 1.5v DDR3 1066/1333 DIMMs in triple channel
Supports x16 and x8, non-ECC, unbuffered DIMMs
Supports up to 48GB total system memory

Expansion Slots
Six PCI Express x16 slots compliant with PCI Express 2.0

Slot	nF200 controller	Configuration
PCIe 1	nF200A11	x16 or x8
PCIe 2	nF200A12	x8
PCIe 3	nF200A21	x16 or x8
PCIe 4	nF200A22	x8
PCIe 5	nF200B11	x16 or x8
PCIe 6	nF200B12	x8
PCIe 7	nF200B2	x16

As you can see, so far this definitely ticks every performance powerhouse box. Incredible capacity for CPU performance, coupled to more memory than most of us will ever use, and thanks to the two nF200 chips, vast amounts of PCI Express bandwidth too.

With dual Xeon processors and fully populated slots, this could break world records easily.

With the obvious parts out of the way, let's flick over to page two and see what else is provided.