We all knew it was coming – it had been teased by Vince “KingPin” Lucido. The GTX 980 Classified Kingpin edition is here. Complete with tons of power, better binned GPU cores, special PCB, special black caps, special back and front plates, special vrm tweaks, evgabot ports and presumably a bios without any limits! While we’re talking about Vince and the special ops team – I asked about the X99 dark and any possibilities there, but EVGA said that the team is the same as the kingpin team, so nothing has been started, and no decision has been made about it yet. Part of the problem are the existing x99 boards are so similar aesthetically to the old X99 dark which was a stunner. So maybe the way to go would the X99 White – afterall the Sabretooth Mark S generated a lot of buzz.
In addition we get funky control over the RGB LEDs individually which seems overkill but whatever I’m not complaining:
So let’s take a minute to bask in this beauty. EVGA confirmed that this shold be getting a hydrocopper block from EK that will make use of that sexy single slot bracket:
So yeah while this is really made for benching, the higher binning of the GPU cores and unlocked nature of the card means just about everyone will be wanting this card for outstanding clocks. I for one want at least four. Gonna need them for that 5K monitor amirite?
Now while this gpu was expected the others were not first up we had the GTX970 FTW+, this includes more VRM phases than the standard FTW, now up to 6:
It also gets a better version of the ACX cooler that we expect to propogated on to future models – apparantly the straighter heatpipes help with improving cooling:
Now while this was unexpected, it also is just another mildly improved 970. The real unexpected model was a prototype of a reference 980 with a AIO cooler attached:
The idea is you take the reference cooler, replace the core of the cooler with the aio unit and replace the shroud so as to have one with holes for the tubes in it. Presumably this would be compatible with any reference card, but none of the EVGA ACX cooler cards because you need to reuse the reference cooler parts.
The cooler is a standard 120mm type AIO which will no doubt give plenty of headroom for cooling given that this is just a reference card with a reference VRM. Most likely you’ll power throttle or run out of volts before running into thermal problems. I’d expect this to be quite popular, though Corsair’s HG10 may give it a run for the money when updated for the 980 given that the HG10 allows any old AIO you may have lying around to be reused.
Note that some of the other news sites are claiming this as the new hydrocopper. This is not the case. The hydrocopper will continue to exist as a real water block for now, and will continue to be made by EK.
EVGA had rumored their keyboard last year at CES showing a select few some drawings of how it would look, finally it was here and ready to launch as the Z10:
Cherry MX Red switches here for now. Of course the obvious features are the keyrest, the macro keys, and the LCD display. The more subtle thing is that the shroud around they keys is lower than most which makes it feel almost naked:
The wrist rest on the other hands looks like it might accumulate dirt quiet easily. The LCD Screen at the top can show GPU info such as clocks, frame rates etc which is nice for those games where you really don’t want afterburner’s on screen display obscuring important gui elements:
In the sunlight it’s hard to see and looks a weird color but in the dark it looks more normal:
Of course the keys are back lit, and you can dial the brightness up or down. There’s also a volume control and a USB hub built in.
We expect the pricing to be reasonably high given all the features i.e. $150-200.
Lastly we had PSUs – EVGA had hyped the 1600 T2 down the pipe ever since the G2 launched a while back. So it was no surprise to see it finally here. It is definitely huge and heavy and epic:
Specs are expected – yes 133A and a titanium rating.
Heatshrinkless sleeving kits will be optional in red white and blue.
Of course in addition to the flagship 1600 model there will be lesser models for the mere mortals amongst us like the 1200W delivering a mere 100A:
And the even lesser 1000W version:
Now if you’re not even a mere mortal but a lowly peasant then you might want to look at the lower GS line which are gold rated and 650W:
As well as 550W:
To be honest what I’d like to see from EVGA power supplies now is a 650W+ SFF supply. It’s hard to ask for anything else.
