Motherboard Roundup: 7 Products On NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI (Socket AM2)

Even though the nForce 680a chipset has been launched already, nForce 590 SLI is still the leading chipset for Socket AM2 — in other words, motherboards based on this chipset are the most rigged retail offers (for early March, 2007). Active promotion of nForce 680a and its competitor-to-be from AMD with similar functions, as well as Quad FX on the whole, generally depends on the launch of AMD quad-core processors. They will certainly be more interesting to the target audience of such systems, who is keen on breaking records, than modern dual-core Athlon 64 FX processors of the 70th series. Prices are not important, because the radical philosophy rarely takes into account such a boring factor as the price/performance ratio.


At the same time, nForce 590 SLI-based motherboards are getting more and more practical: initially high prices are going down, and the cost of these functional motherboards has become quite attractive. It goes without saying that there is a point in buying a motherboard with SLI support (especially based on the top chipset) only if you are interested in modern 3D games or if you build a graphical station and need expanded peripheral functionality of this chipset.

If you have a High-End video card (or even a SLI system), you can play games no matter whether you have a processor for $250 or $500. The inverse is also true — if you save on a video card, you'll have to reduce video settings accordingly, regardless of your CPU. Now what concerns the comparison of competing platforms. Equally-priced Core 2 Duo and Athlon 64 X2 processors demonstrate similar performance. But if you compare platforms in general, you'll find out that motherboards with nForce 590 SLI-like functions for AMD are always cheaper than those for Intel.

However, we are not going to persuade our readers, we'll test motherboards and draw conclusions. We have tested many nForce 590 SLI-based motherboards. So this article will sum our reviews up. So it's comparision of Asus, Ecs, Foxconn, Gigabyte and Msi motherboards!

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XFX Redefines Motherboards with the nForce® 650i Ultra

Overclocking is no longer the exclusive realm of veteran gaming enthusiasts, thanks to the recent release of the XFX 650i Ultra motherboard. This new NVIDIA® nForce® 650i media and communications processor (MCP) comes enabled with comprehensive overclocking tools for greatly expanded performance right out of the box.
Specifically, the nForce® 650i Ultra MCP will immediately expand the power of a user’s PC. The motherboard features NVIDIA® nTune™ utility, which enables users to adjust CPU and memory speeds without rebooting. Users also can access most BIOS settings from inside Windows and are able to save and automatically load profiles for each application that is run.

The 650i Ultra also features a state-of-the-art Dual DDR2 memory controller that ensures that data and information are relayed through the user’s system super fast for incredible performance.
In addition, the motherboard comes with NVIDIA® FirstPacket™ technology, which gives users crystal-clear phone conversations and exceptional online gaming performance. Game data, VoIP conversations and large file transfers are delivered based on preferences established by the user through an intuitive wizard.
Other outstanding features include NVIDIA® MediaShield™ Storage, Multiple Disk Setup, DiskAlert, RAID Morphing, Bootable Multidisk Array, four SATA 3Gb/s drives, High Definition Audio and USB 2.0.
To learn more about the XFX nForce® 650i Ultra or to locate a participating e-tailer, go to www.xfxforce.com.

XFX 680i LT SLI

Several months ago the first 680i SLI motherboard first appeared on the US market. On paper this board appeared to be solution that the enthusiast community had been long awaiting to take their Core 2 Duo processors to the next level of performance. After several BIOS revisions and a less than auspicious beginning what was initially seen on paper transcended by most accounts into a fully functional, kick-ass motherboard.

Let's fast-forward a couple of months which puts us about two to three weeks ago. NVIDIA® and the same group of partners brought to market the 680i LT SLI motherboard. This product contained much of the heart and all of the soul of its big brother but was aimed more at the "Extreme Gamer" and cost approximately $50 less. We'll expound in detail on the differences other than cost later in this review.

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Comparative tests of chipsets for Intel's CPUs

While choosing a motherboard, many of the readers proceeded from their own knowledge and experience, advice from friends, from conferences, and our comparative tests. Normally, comparative tests cover 10-15 motherboards, which is rather hard to perceive. Therefore, we made the task of choosing a motherboard easier and compiled a reference material on the chipsets. In particular, today we are reviewing chipsets for the Core architecture processors.
We have repeatedly mentioned advantages of these CPUs. So we are not dwelling at them and just briefly note their very high performance level at very low power consumption. We are not including all the known chipsets for Intel products but rather stop at those used in the manufacture of motherboards for Core 2 Duo.
It should be noted here that all the motherboard of the previous generation are incompatible to new processors (although are of LGA775 Socket). And it is neither the developers nor chipsets that are to blame for that, because the motherboards had been developed before the Core 2 Duo specifications were received. The power supply module of these motherboards does not allow using Conroe processors (a module meeting the VRM 11 specification requirements is needed). Many of the previous-generation boards built on i975X and NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition, as well as i915/925X, i945/i955X fall within this category.
For now, there exist motherboards with support for Core 2 Duo based on Intel 975X and P965 chipsets, as well as NVIDIA nForce 570/590 SLI IE and nForce 650i/680i SLI

Just my quick comment is that you can see that nForce chipset has really matured, and is able to overclock like Intel-chipset motherboards


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DFI LANPARTY UT NF590 SLI-M2RG AM2 Motherboard

With the introduction of Intel’s’ Core 2 Duo, AMD has been beaten performance wise when it comes to high-end market segment. In the lower budget market AMD has still a decent piece of the pie.It has not only the reputation of the well know Athlon 64 architecture that has proven itself before, but also the price advantage. In my opinion Intel doesn’t really have a CPU that fits in that segmentation of the market.Today we’ll be testing a DFI NF590 SLI-M2R/G. This is a mainboard for AMD AM2 CPU. In combination with an Athlon 64 3500+ we’ll take a closer look at this board. This review will consist out of several parts.

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Galaxy designs own nForce 680i SLI and claims 30 per cent power reduction

It seems as if NVIDIA's graphics card partners have realised that diversifying out to producing motherboards is a sensible move. We've now seen a handful of partners team up with the green team's chipset division and launch nForce 680i SLI offerings. Galaxy stands out because it hasn't run with the excellent reference design. Rather, its engineers have redesigned the PCB to achieve, it reckons, a 30 per cent reduction in wattage for its custom design. The layout is good and overclockability should be excellent. We'll see just how good when we get one in for review. Launch is currently slated to be one month away.

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EPoX 5P965+ GLI — a Motherboard Based on Intel P965 Chipset

EPoX hasn't presented new products for Intel for a long time: in fact, the manufacturer made a pause after i945-based models. Indeed, these models provided support for dual-core Pentium D processors. And hard-driving enthusiasts (the traditional target audience of motherboards from this company) were much more interested in AMD solutions, so EPoX launched all new models for this platform. The situation has changed drastically with the release of Core 2. Now this segment of the market is of most interest. The announcement of several i965-based motherboards looks only natural. In future we can expect the chipset base to expand — in particular, to use cheap products from the NVIDIA nForce 600i series.

5P965+ GLI has three PCI slots (quite a lot for these days). Access to them may be blocked only by a large video card installed into the second PCIEx16 slot. As this motherboard does not officially support SLI, all the three PCI slots will be accessible in most cases.

Just my quick comment is that this board is first of it's kind that has second PCIEx16 slot. And it seems that it supports second PCIE graphic card, it's just that in scope of that test nobody tested this board either in SLI or Crossfire mode. Well maybe they will do it in the future. I think it's just great that it's possible to connect second PCIE card to Intel chipset motherboard, without having to be an Ati type of card.

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NFORCE 650I Ultra overclocking result

We already introduced the fundamental characteristics of standard motherboard on base of chipset nForce 650i Ultra . It was possible to note that this new chipset has some limitations in comparison with elder . In any case, if support SLI does not interest you, then the chipset nForce 650i Ultra is a good choice.

Associates published one of the first motherboard review on base of chipset nForce 650i Ultra with standard design. Such motherboard have four-layer design and passive chipset cooling . The authors of this review recommend focusing attention on improvement in the cooling of the north and south bridges, to gain stability with high fsb frequency

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AM2 SLI-capable Main boards - 2*Asus and 1 MSI

In the today's Review we regard now today three Main boards with NVIDIAs current chip corroding of the 500-Serie, which have at present a not insignificant portion with sold Main boards for AMD CPUs. ASUS made us available with the model Crosshair a copy for the Over the Top Enthusiast, which flanks the M2N32-SLI Deluxe already mentioned. Both use NVIDIAs Top model nForce 590SLI, while the third Main board in the federation, a K9N SLI Platinum of MSI, which nForce 570SLI represents smaller brother.

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ECS NF650iSLIT-A Motherboard – Much more affordable than 680i

The platform for Core 2 keeps growing on a daily basis - chipsets are coming left, right and centre - and we are more than pleased about that.

Intel has chipsets for their processor and it is no surprise that both are for high-end (975X), mainstream (P965) and value (G965). While Intel does make their own chipsets and some are very solid indeed, they aren’t always the most feature rich or technically impressive, what the market even wants. I do remember the old Intel I820 chipset and the attempt to push people on to RDRAM (Rambus) but that was a total failure, which they seem to have learnt from.

nVidia is definitely the major player in the Core 2 market. AMD/ATI does have a chipset for this market, but we haven’t heard much more about upcoming chipsets for this platform. VIA has no intention of pushing into the market as the major player, only SiS has the opportunity, and they are starting to work on this.

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DFI Launches LANPARTY UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R Series

This is a good news for all of you core2duo enthusiasts out there. DFI has just release nForce 680i LT SLI motherboard!

It looks like that DFI Corp. has released new motherboard featuring NVIDIA's nForce 680i LT SLI chipset and NVIDIA MCP55P southbridge. The LANPARTY UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R mainboard supports all Intel Core2 Duo/Quad/Extreme, Pentium D and Intel Pentium 4 processors with 1333/1066/800MHz FSB. There are also 3x PCI Express x16 slots: two x16 slots for SLI and one x8 for future physics cards. Click for more details..

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ASUS M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition Motherboard

Microsoft's recent release of the new Vista Operating System has changed the software and hardware landscape in ways that are just now becoming apparent. Motherboards with integrated graphics have become almost passe, as the requirements for the Vista Premium OS are high. The vast majority of CPUs on the market today are Dual-Core or more. Memory requirements for applications are fast overcoming the 1GB level. Manufacturers have to work harder and harder on drivers as the XP model has completely changed.

NVIDIA is one of the leading companies on the computer market today. With 2006 revenue exceeding 3 Billion USD, NVIDIA has diversified itself from being the video card chipmaker to entering into handheld, console, motherboard chipsets and more. ASUS manufactures motherboards based upon NVIDIA chipsets among other chipsets. One of the most popular ASUS motherboards over the last year has been the M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. ASUS has recently updated the motherboard to better serve the Vista customers in the form of the ASUS M2N32-SLI which is on the test bench today.

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Nvidia lets more partners to make motherboards - EVGA, XFX, BFG and Colorfull to makes i680i LR / 680i

Nvidia had a great success with its Nforce 680i chipset. It is a buggy one but what can we do when the EVGA motherboard is the best memory overclocker we ever had in our hands. DFI board based on RD600 chipset never seen the light of the day and we never got an alternative.

Nforce 680i SLI remains the best SLI motherboard for Core 2 Duo, Quad and extreme beating the Intel 975 / 965 by quite a margin. We will see does the upcoming P35 has any fighting chance. Design by Nvidia program will involve a few partners including EVGA, XFX, BFG and Colorfull and it means that Nvidia engineers created all hardware, software, driver and bioses for the boards.
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Nforce 650I SLI - 680I LT SLI - 680 SLI review benchmark and overclocking

NVIDIA is historically known for its graphics card, this company also developed for several years chipsets. Since the first chipset nForce dedicated to Athlon processors, division chipsets of NVIDIA made big jump,.
In the beginning, the chipsets nForce were exclusively dedicated for AMD processors . Nvidia succeeded in taking INTEL license in 2005 , which allowed them to propose chipsets compatible with intel processors . The chipsets nForce for INTEL processors do not have for the moment big success as those intended for AMD platform . It should be noted that the first nForce 4 for INTEL was a full disaster, ( is was not fully compatible with intel processors ), whereas nForce 590i SLI corrected the situation , but as u already know this chipset was coupled with the arrival of Core 2 Duo and this chipset showed poor overclocking potential for such processor .
In order to correct this situation, NVIDIA released the nForce 680i, chipset launched at the end of 2006. This chipset as u already know has various problems with Serial-ATA, but this was corrected later , the price of motherboards was very high ( about 300 euros ).

This article is a must-have for everyone because of directly compares nforce 650/680 with Intel's 965/975 chipsets

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EVGA 680i LT SLI: NVIDIA's 680i Cost Reduced

Since Anandtech's first look at the 680i SLI chipset back in November we have been impressed with its performance and overall features. What was even more impressive was the fact that the chipset debuted on a motherboard that was designed by NVIDIA and built for NVIDIA's launch partners. This launch basically followed the path of the successful AM2 590SLI introduction except this time NVIDIA introduced and marketed the only board available with the 680i SLI chipset through a select number of partners. Although the 680i SLI motherboard was a reference design, it catered to the computer enthusiasts with a long list of features and a BIOS specifically aimed at the overclocking community.

It was several weeks before a motherboard manufacturer would offer a competing 680i solution. ASUS was the first non-reference board partner to offer competition to NVIDIA's reference design and it would take a few months before the likes of abit and Gigabyte were able to respond with their internal designs. We are still waiting on DFI's version to come to market and other motherboard manufacturers such as ECS and Biostar decided it was in their best interest to offer the reference board design that is built by Foxconn. The majority of NVIDIA's motherboard reference partners are actually heavily involved in the distribution of their graphics solutions with EVGA being the focal point of NVIDIA's reference program at this time.

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XFX showcased 680 LT SLI at CeBit

XFX wants to make a lot of noise with Fatal1ty and we saw Jonathan playing around XFX boot and fragging some butts. If you didn’t get yourself arrested by XFX police girls you would be able to take a picture of a new stuff that is coming from this company.
The most interesting one is of course Mother board how XFX calls it branded as 680LT SLI. This is nothing more than 680I stripped for some features. The board looks very reference to me and you can notice that two PCIe 16X are far from each other and there will be a lot of place for two 8800 GTX dual slot cards. The board also has two PCI slots but its clear that if you have two 8800 dual slot cards inside that you will lose one PCI slot. You can plug four memory modules DDR2 only of course. The board supports socket 775 CPUs only and it is designed by Nvidia. Lets simply say it’s a reference board as much as EVGA is reference but with a nice XFX sticker on.

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eVGA's nForce 680i SLI Special Edition - pre-fitted with FOUR waterblocks

EVGA has a rightful claim to be considered NVIDIA's most enthusiast-oriented partner. In addition to launching a number of overclocked GeForce SKUs, the company has branched out into motherboard production, headlined by its excellent nForce 680i SLI board. Bring to bear its close relationship with innovatek - the cooling specialists - EVGA is launching a pre-fitted four-waterblock nForce 680i SLI that's designed to complement the Black Pearl series of cards. Innovatek's high-quality blocks are used for the CPU, PWM, northbridge and southbridge - the hottest-running parts of the board. We like the fact that the CPU block installs via the reference push-fit clips, making removal and reapplication a cinch. The southbridge block is small enough to allow a long-ish PCIe card to fit into the third slot, as well. Pricing is reckoned to be around Ł330. Expensive, yes. Quality, definitely.

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