The EVGA Z87 Stinger strikes me as an interesting product. The packaging and its esthetics are without a doubt top-notch, as is the base hardware. Yet the experience itself, well, was not everything I had hoped for.

Products like the EVGA Z87 Stinger are always hard for me to review. I can see the obvious intent EVGA had with this board, and with that said, they have executed it extremely well, with not a single item missing or having been implemented poorly, but the board is expensive, which will have many users expect more than this board provides. So what I am left with is a product that works really well and does not fail in any way, although it completely misses the mark of what I think its intended audience craves. Yet maybe I have missed the mark instead?

Having spent many many months with this board, I have learned to love it for what it is, and that is a great product with a great BIOS. At the same time, it is NOT a forgiving product. The Stinger in its name will immediately make sense if you do not know what to do with it and struggle to properly adjust those BIOS options EVGA provides. It will sting you back if you do not treat it right, but if you have the patience to tame this beast, you can. Tie in an EVGA videocard and EVGA's Hadron case and you have a sweet rig with the potential for incredible horsepower that can be thrown under an LN2 pot and hooked up to EVBot on the weekend, which definitely appeals to me.