NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI and GeForce 8800 GTX Preview - Page 2 of 7
Review By Mike Chambers - November 8, 2006
EVGA NFORCE 680i SLI
EVGA sent us an nForce 680i SLI motherboard along with the ACS3 Edition of their e-GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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All of the motherboard accessories to assemble a system are provided. The user guide even lists some of the other components that are needed like a CPU, memory, power supply, etc.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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A key feature of the nForce 680i and nForce 650i is SLI Technology. A third PCI Express slot (blue) is reserved for a three GPU configuration.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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The Core 2 Due E6600 CPU came from a Gigabyte motherboard that was designed with Intel's 965P chipset.
Although on-board audio is provided, a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS was used for compatibility testing. Standard printer support is via USB connection.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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White-colored power on/off and reset buttons are along the the left edge of the motherboard beneath the last expansion slot.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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A close-up of the southbridge, which is passively cooled. All of the fan headers were functioning and fan speed controls are available in the BIOS.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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The ability to dynamically change BIOS settings under Windows with nTune is a compelling feature. I installed the bundled northbridege chipset fan and was able to turn it off using nTune.
NVIDIA nTune - Adjust Motherboard Settings
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The next three pictures are examples of various graphics card configurations.
The first configuration consists of two BFG GeForce 7900 GTX graphics cards. The sound card sits between them and is closer to the lower graphics card.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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With two dual-slot graphics cards, some expansion slots may not be accessible, like the bottom expansion slot in this particular example. Using three graphics cards will likely cause additional restrictions.
Here are a couple of GeForce 7900 GS graphics cards.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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Pictured below is EVGA's e-GeForce 8800 GTX with ACS3 cooling. The cooler makes an already large graphics card larger, but it was effective in lowering GPU temperature. The GPU temperature increased around 5° C with the enclosure removed.
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
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nForce 680i SLI motherboard specifications are provided below.
