Date:
Tuesday , March 18, 2008
Author:
Kyle Bennett
Editor:
Steve Lynch
Google +1

XFX nForce 790i Ultra Motherboard Preview

NVIDIA has a new nForce motherboard chipset for Intel’s newest CPUs that brings with it support for DDR3 and SLI. Some of you are excited, while I can already hear groans of agony from others. Let's give you the straight dope on 790i Ultra.

continued...

XFX 790i Ultra Features

So what features does this 790i Ultra have? Well, just about everything except the kitchen sink and a wireless router. ASUS seems to think the wireless module on their motherboards is a big deal, but to this day, I don’t think I have ever had anyone mention it to me except ASUS…anyway.

Layout

First and foremost the 790i Ultra looks to be laid out extremely well, which is something we will get into more detail on when Dan reviews the board. It is put together very smartly to allow you access to all the components on the board. Amazingly enough, it looks to me that even with three 8800 GTX installed in a 3 Way SLI configuration, that nothing on the board is blocked, besides of course the PCIe or PCI slot that is covered by the 2-slot cooler on the video card. Somebody that has built a PC before was actually involved in laying out this motherboard.

The CPU area is relative clear and certainly within Intel specification, and it looks as though it will give most folks the room they need for larger air coolers and waterblocks. Of course, given the fact that you can buy an air cooler now days that resembles an 8-ton air conditioner condenser, your mileage may vary. Make sure and measure twice, purchase once.

On-board Cooling

I have not had a lot of time to do power measurements for this motherboard, but if I had to just guess, I would suggest it is much more efficient that previous 680 and 780 chipsets. I have seen rumors to the contrary, but I am just discussing my gut feeling. The XFX motherboard ran very cool and obviously as you have seen on the previous torture testing page, it fared just well even when the ambient temperature was 50c…for over 12 hours….under full load!

This XFX 790i Ultra motherboard’s cooling system is not one of these BS coolers that is an afterthought that is just taped onto the board. It is properly affixed with real fasteners. Notes with the board even go into detail about how to specifically remove it and discusses flexing of the PCB causing issues with mating surfaces. With the considerations given, it seems to be one of the more serious on-board chipset cooling solutions we have experienced.

Included Ports & Slots

  • 3 - 16x PCIe support up to 3 Way SLI

  • 10 – USB 2.0 (6 external)

  • 2 – FireWire (1 external)

  • 6 – SATA II 3.0GB/s

  • 2 – eSATA (1 powered external – 1 non-powered internal)

ESA

While I have still yet to truly take the time to experience NVIDIA's Enthusiast System Architecture, I would be remiss to not mention it. ESA basically allows many of your system components to talk to each other and be monitored from one software application. For those of your interested, you can find out much more directly from NVIDIA.