Date:
Tuesday , March 18, 2008
Author:
Kyle Bennett
Editor:
Steve Lynch
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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.

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XFX 790i Ultra Conclusions

I need to preface my statements here with a few “confessions.” I do not like nForce motherboards, at all. To put it simply, we came away from our first 680i review in 2006 gushing and got left with crow on our plates and egg on our faces.

The eVGA nForce 680i motherboard is easily one of the best enthusiast motherboards I have ever used. I have been ready to build my own Core 2 Duo system with an overclocked E6300 and have been on the fence as to what motherboard I should use exactly. This motherboard has made up my mind and I am damn glad I waited to see what it was all about. A 680i NVIDIA reference motherboard will make it into my next system build, no questions asked.

A Gold Editor’s Choice award and a month later I was watching our readers lose data at the expense of their new 680i builds. NVIDIA was quick to react and did get things worked out on that front but the damage was done and what was a truly successful product launch was left in shambles.

Now, as mentioned earlier, we have editors that have killed as many as three 680i motherboards in the last year, but we also have another editor that has used the same 680i motherboard for video card testing all year long handling almost exclusively high-end power hungry graphics cards without a single issue. That editor also uses a 680i in his personal system, without issue. The difference on these two fronts is that the editor that has been killing off 680i motherboards left and right has been overclocking the hell out of them. The editor who has problem free 680i experiences never touches a front side bus speed. We have seen many users post in our forums about very similar experiences. Now we know that overclocking these motherboards technically voids the warranty, but it is without a doubt that the “Ultra” series motherboards from NVIDIA’s partners are sold with high end overclocking in mind. Surely what we see our readers going through makes us wonder if these NVIDIA designed motherboards are engineered well enough to handle long term heavy duty enthusiast abuse? NVIDIA has never come forth and said, “Yeah, those boards kinda suck once you start running them over 500MHz FSB.” But we have to admit that is the feeling we are left with...about the 680i.

This is a 790i Ultra NOT the 680i

If I had never been exposed to the 680i and had the 790i before me today, I would have to tell you that the XFX 790i Ultra motherboard was one of the best motherboards I have ever used. The 790i Ultra has exhibited incredible stability, performance, and touts a feature set that is hard to poke holes in. I still can’t help but shake this feeling though. Once bitten, twice shy? I think so.

The Bottom Line

The XFX 790i Ultra motherboard that we have used here today has left me with a very positive impression. And, as much as I hate to say it, I want one. The damn thing ran flawlessly for over four days with a 100% load on all its major system busses then did not blink an eye when I “cooked” it at 50C for another 15 hours. All the while exhibiting excellent stock component cooling. Our board turned in performance numbers right on par with Intel’s flagship X48 and X38 chipset motherboards. The 790i Ultra allowed problem free overclocking to extremes that most of us will never use with very little effort or tweaking needed. To top it all off, it is probably one of the best motherboard layouts I have ever used.

Still, I am going to wait, and watch, to see what happens with retail product with non-BETA BIOS. Our community is chock full of “early adopters” that are more than willing to take risks when they think solid returns are a good bet. I think the 790i Ultra is a good bet, I am just not going to bet with my own money quite yet.

Discussion

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