eVGA nForce 680i SLI

Print
by Rob Williams on June 11, 2007 in Motherboards

eVGA has released numerous motherboards in the past two years, but we are going to take a look at their most recent top offering, the nForce 680i SLI. Coming from a company who knows how to cater to enthusiasts, will the board leave us impressed like their graphics cards do?

Page 1 – Introduction


When you think of NVIDIA products, eVGA is not usually far from mind. They’ve been producing video cards utilizing NVIDIA’s GPUs for quite a while now, but recently they have been trying to make a name for themselves in the motherboard market. Things started off slowly, but they are quickly gaining momentum and are releasing some quality boards, one of which we will be taking a look at today.

The 680i SLI board has been available for many months now, so we are going to take a fresh look at it and see how it compares to our 975X and P35 boards.

As the name gives away, the board is based on NVIDIA’s 680i SLI chipset, their current top offering on the Intel platform. It supports all of the latest Intel CPUs with an 800/1066/1333 FSB. It also supports up to 8GB of ram with frequencies up to DDR2-1200.

The board we are looking at today has an A1 in the product code. T1 revisions are also available, with the primary difference being that it includes a Quad-Core fix. If you have an A1/AR board and are having problems with overclocking your Quad-Core, eVGA will fix it for you.

 

Closer Look

 

Before we jump into our look of the board itself, here are the complete specs. In addition to what’s mentioned above, we have a total of 10 USB 2.0 ports, 6 on the board itself, then four more to be used with your case or add-in card. We also have two LAN ports, which will be appreciated by those who need them.

Feature
Specification
Performance Based on NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Chipset chipset
Supports Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium EE, and Pentium processors
1066/1333 Mhz Front Side Bus
Memory 4 x 240-pin DIMM sockets
Dual Channel DDR2
Maximum of 8GB of DDR2 533/667/800/1200MHz SLI-Ready memory
Expansion Slot 2 x PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe Graphics expansion slot, 2 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
2 x 32-bit PCI, support for PCI 2.1
Storage I/O 1 x UltraDMA133
6 x Serial ATA 300MB/sec with support for RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 0+1
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
Integrated Peripherals 7.1 Channel, Azalia (HDA) 7.1 Channel, Azalia (HDA)
2 x 10/100/1000 LAN via
Multi I/O 1 x PS2 Keyboard
1 x PS2 Mouse
1 x Serial Ports
10 x USB2.0 ports (6 external + 4 internal headers)
Audio connector (Line-in, Line-out, MIC)
Form Factor ATX Form Factor
Length: 12.0in – 304.8mm
Width: 9.6in – 243.6mm

The 680i arrived in one of the largest motherboard boxes I’ve ever seen. The reason behind this is that the board is kept safe in a large clamshell like packaging. Whereas many motherboards are kept in the direct bottom of a box, here it’s kept in the center.

 

 

Here is the inside packaging I was speaking about. On one side of this is where all of the accessories and manuals are kept.

 

 

Within these accessories is all of the required IDE, S-ATA and floppy drive cables. They also include adapters to add another firewire and four more USB ports.

 

 

 

 

Next up, the board layout.


Support our efforts! With ad revenue at an all-time low for written websites, we're relying more than ever on reader support to help us continue putting so much effort into this type of content. You can support us by becoming a Patron, or by using our Amazon shopping affiliate links listed through our articles. Thanks for your support!

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

twitter icon facebook icon instagram icon