EVGA X299 Dark, LGA 2066, Intel X299, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.1, USB 3.0, EATX, Intel Motherboard 151-SX-E299-KR

So far all is good, I haven’t booted past bios and have some more stuff on the way to finish working on it. M.2 is easy to get to 3 screws and a plate to get past. Cpu and cooler are easy to get on and everything fits well so far. Tested a card and with some ram with long heat sinks it still fit well in slot 1. CMOS reset worked fine on first test and getting ready to throw it all into a mineral oil tank for fun.

This is my first EVGA mobo and was by far the easiest setup and install. The UEFI menus are clear and intuitive and show that there was a lot of thought into the ease of use and not just the looks.Pros:Build quality: This is the first mobo I have ever used where the ATX power connectors could be easily be plugged and unplugged without some amount of wiggling or busting a finger on the case when the plug finally lets go.No bloat: You don't need special vendor software to unlock all of the features or setup correct fan curves.Plug layout: The overall layout and then having the more intrusive connections at 90 degree makes cable management much easier.Look: The entire Dark series is great for those of us that want a stylish mobo but not all of the RGB and color scheme. This allows an overall system design that doesn't have to work around "what matches my mobo lighting and colors?" Stylish, classic design and coloring.Cons:It's wide: EATX - make sure you have space.Fan Headers: There are a lot but not all are fully PWM capable.No front USB type C header. Not a deal breaker by any means (it has one on the back I/O) but something people may just assume is there.

The Kings of motherboards.

Absolutely amazing board, was really close to buying the Rampage VI Apex but decided to buy the x299 Dark instead due to the VRM components used on this board. The build quality of the board is also top class with a massive heatsink on the underside of the board which i've never experienced before in any motherboard and with Active VRM cooling what more can you ask for.

New built.. Dark Mtherboard boot in the first try. Had to upgrade BIOS but that went smoothly . Sad is not PCI4 even when it says it is.. After 15 days no issues.. after 3 years the bios died, it literally fell off from the motherboard, not solder but appears glued. NOT FOR LONG TERM USE..

Super amazed at this boards capabilities. I needed to learn a few new things, which was fun. But out of the box, it clocks your CPU to optimal performance. Be aware that this isn't a "workstation" replacement. This chipset is specifically built for HEDT overclockers, not like X58, X79, X99 series workstation chipsets. It's finicky unless you LEARN how to make it sing to you. Rest assured that higher memory clocks AND lower timings will be more stable, and CPU's will rage... without the VRM temps budging.LOVE this board!! And STILL learning its secrets.

To give you a little perspective on my review, my first EVGA motherboard was the 680i. Followed by the 780i, 790i, x58 Classified, 4-way classified, and the SR-2 (still own the last two). All of them were fantastic boards and I had a lot of fun with them. Then, intel released the x79 platform and I preordered the x79 Classified. Unfortunately, that was a nightmare. Never have I had the worst experience with a motherboard. It was so bad I ventured off to an ASUS board and been with them up until now. I thought that enough time has passed and it was time to give EVGA one more try. So I bought the x299 dark. Installed it on a workbench and powered it up. Everything looked fantastic. I updated to the latest bios and got my self familiar with It. Everything was going great until I decided to move it which required it to be unplugged from the power. Once I plugged it back in and powered it on, I got a cmos error and my bios settings returned to default. No boggy, I reset everything back to the way I wanted it. And then thought, let’s unplug again just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke...cmos error again. So I did some googling and discovered that this is a common issue. Cmos batteries that are DOA with these Dark boards. So I popped one out of my ASUS board, tore down the Dark board since you need access to the back of the board and installed it. After that, no more cmos errors.So to get to the point, besides the cmos error, everything is working great. I am glad I switched back to EVGA . Hoping to recapture the fun and excitement back from the tool old x58 days.

Probably a great board, but was shipped out with the wrong bios chip, and couldn't even post to do an update. After a couple hours of trouble shooting and an hour on the phone (on 1/11) found out I might get the chip by 1/17. Guessing the board would work great at that point, but with a 1/17 deadline to meet, my system is currently useless and I'm going to have to go with another board. For the record, I believe it's jus the i9 10XXX chips that are impacted by this.TLDR - don't purchase if you're in an enterprise environment or have critical tasks.