Home » Graphics Cards • Motherboards • Power Supplies » EVGA Z87 Stinger Motherboard and GTX 760 FTW Graphics Card Review EVGA Z87 Stinger Motherboard and GTX 760 FTW Graphics Card Review Stuart Davidson February 12, 2014 Graphics Cards, Motherboards, Power Supplies Conclusion Starting off with the Z87 Stinger we have a pretty solid product. EVGA use a decent layout although on a board of this type having as many of the key connectors close to the edge, and close to each other, as possible would be beneficial to wiring in compact cases. The black/red colour scheme works well and there is plenty of room round the CPU socket for larger coolers, including some pretty massive ones from the likes of Noctua. Solid capacitors add to the quality and we like the inclusion of the mini-PCIe slot, on board buttons and debug led. An extra SATA port would have been appreciated, maximising potential for storage and maybe an extra fan header or two, plus moving of the 2nd USB 3.0 internal connector to a location which isn’t covered by the bundled cover. In fact, in that entire area, some extra external USB connectors would have been appreciated. That all said, the pricing for the Stinger is a little high for our liking. There are other boards in this form factor which offer more features for less money. Performance can’t be faulted though, as the results clearly showed. Taking a moment to speak about the PSU, we have a good quality bronze rated unit in the shape of the 500B. It offered decent electrical readings and efficiency well within spec while remaining quiet during our testing, where it powered our test components with ease. The real win for this unit though is the excellent retail price of just £40. Speaking of value, it is worth noting that EVGA have one of the best warranty plans around, and some decent software options too. Sticking with the positives we have the GTX 760 FTW edition. This is an excellent version of the midrange NVIDIA part and offers a high performance, low noise cooler with extras such as dual BIOS and a significant factory overclock. We also found it to have decent potential for manual overclocking on top of this but even at the factory speeds it breezes through gaming at 1920×1080 and maximum detail in the latest games. EVGA GTX 760 FTW! EVGA 500B Power Supply Where to buy – EVGA Z87 Stinger Scan.co.uk – £173.84 Where to buy – EVGA GTX 760 FTW! Scan.co.uk – £261.31 Where to buy – EVGA 500B Power Supply Scan.co.uk – £39.92 Where to buy – USA Store Visit EVGA to buy direct Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Share On
