nForce® 780i 3-Way SLI

nForce® 780i SLI

Delivering explosive 3-way SLI technology, the 780i motherboard also arms users with the real-time component monitoring and tuning features of the first-ever ESA-certified platform. A full-throttle DirectX® production, the 780i features true 3 X 16 PCI Express slots, supports Intel Yorkfield and Wolfdale CPUs and up to 1200 MHz DDR2 SLI-Ready memory.

KEY FEATURES

Designed for next-generation technologies, the XFX nForce 780i SLI motherboard fully utilizes the new NV Monitor features, that includes full overclocking for Intel Yorkfield and Wolfdale CPUs. Other features include NVIDIA FirstPacket™, NVIDIA DualNet™ and MediaShield™ technologies; up to 1200 MHZ of DDR2 (SLI memory); three x16 PCI Express slots; six SATA drives; ten USB ports; up to 1333 MHz FSB. Pick one up today and turn your fanasty into reality.

SPECIFICATIONS

NVIDIA SLI Technology N/A	√
Socket Socket type supported	775
CPU Type CPU type supported	Intel
NVIDIA Control Panel NVIDIA Control Panel allows you to take full advantage of ESA. Easily adjust PC characteristics for maximum performance. Features NVIDIA System Monitor, so you can seamlessly monitor characteristics in an intuitive and customizable 3D environment.	√
NVIDIA System Monitor A new 3D application for seamless monitoring of PC component characteristics. Its unique and intuitive architecture is the ultimate foundation for delivering optimized system, thermal, and acoustic performance of your NVIDIA nForce based PC and ESA certified components.	√
NVIDIA nTune Now with access to more settings from this Windows-based utility, the NVIDIA nTune performance manager allows automatic tuning for optimal performance. Once configured and customized, nTune automatically chooses the right system settings for the application that is being run based on your saved profiles and personal rules.	√
NV BIOS NV BIOS delivers easy-to-use tuning to let you have full control over your hardware including processor voltage tables and memory drive strengths.	√
Multiple Disk Setup Through a simple wizard-based interface, you can effortlessly set up your drives for better data protection, faster disk access, or maximum storage capacity. MediaShield automatically selects RAID 0, 1, 0+1 or 5 configuration according to your needs. Advanced users can access RAID options directly.	√
DiskAlert System In the event of a disk failure, MediaShield users see a real-time image of the motherboard that highlights which hard drive has failed, making it easier to identify, replace, and recover.	√
NVIDIA MediaShieldTM RAID Suite of features that safeguards your most important digital media assets; always reliable, scalable, and accessible. Includes support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 configurations and up to six SATA 3Gb/s drives.	√
Bootable Multidisk Array MediaShield storage fully supports the use of multi-disk array for loading the operating system at power-up.	√
Native Gigabit Ethernet Connection The industry's fastest Gigabit Ethernet performance eliminates network bottlenecks and improves overall system efficiency and performance.	2
NVIDIA FirstPacketTM Technology Be the 'King of Ping' with NVIDIA FirstPacket technology. Get the crystal-clear phone conversations and online gaming performance you expect. NVIDIA FirstPacket technology assures your game data, VoIP conversations, and large file transfers are delivered according to preferences set by you in an intuitive wizard.	√
TCP/IP Acceleration Delivers the highest system performance by offloading CPU-intensive packet filtering tasks in hardware, providing users with a PC networking environment that is faster.	√
Support for NVIDIA SLI-Ready memory with EPP 1.0 N/A	√
Support for NVIDIA SLI-Ready memory with EPP 2.0 N/A	√
Chipset Generation of NVIDIA nForce MCP included on this motherboard.	780i 3-Way SLI
FSB (MHz) Through overclocking, the nForce 600i series can deliver FSB speeds well beyond specification. The front side bus (FSB) in the nForce 600i series is specified to run at 1333MHz to support existing and future FSB speeds. Through overclocking, however, the nForce 600i series can deliver FSB speeds well beyond specification*. Get the headroom today for overclocking and/or future FSB speeds.	1333
Memory Speed (MHz) N/A	800 MHz
Memory w/ EPP (MHz) N/A	1200 MHz
Memory SLI Memory Support N/A	√
Memory Type Type of memory supported by this motherboard.	DDR2
Memory Max (GB) Maximum GB of total memory supported by this motherboard.	8 GB
Memory Slots Number of memoryexpansion slots available onboard.	4
USB Ports Number ofUSB ports supported on ATX	6
Onboard USB (Expansion) N/A	4
Firewire Ports N/A	1
Onboard Firewire (Expansion) N/A	1
SATA Combine up to 12 SATA drives into 2-4 volumes for bigger, faster RAID. More drives mean more configuration options such as 2x RAID 0 for boot partition, 2x RAID 0 for enhanced gaming, 4x RAID 5 for multimedia applications, and 4x RAID5 for media data storage. Take advantage of the latest SATA 3Gb/s hard drives with full support for hot plugging and native and tagged command queuing which can provide higher disk performance in a multi-threaded environment by performing out-of-order disk accesses.	6
SLI NVIDIA SLI technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows users to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce SLI MCP.	3
Native Gigabit Ethernet Connection The industry's fastest Gigabit Ethernet performance eliminates network bottlenecks and improves overall system efficiency and performance.	2
ESA-Certified Provides real-time and complete PC performance management. Tested by a comprehensive certification program for system compatibility and reliability, ESA-certified components and applications bring you unprecedented control to manage and tune thermal, electrical, acoustic and operating characteristics to maximize your PC’s performance.	√
Audio Channels High definition audio brings consumer electronics quality sound to the PC delivering high quality sound from multiple channels. Using HDA, systems can deliver 192kHz/32-bit quality for eight channels, supporting new audio formats.	8
SPDIF-Out Digital S/PDIF for access to the Dolby® Digital 5.1 real-time encoder	1
Vista Ready NVIDIA nForce-based motherboards are perfect for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ when coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce® GPU and 512MB of system memory.	√
Vista Premium Ready NVIDIA nForce-based motherboards are perfect for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ when coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce® GPU and 512MB of system memory.	√
RoHS The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This Directive bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.	√
Dimensions L (Inches) N/A	12
Dimensions W (Inches) N/A	9.6
Dimensions H (Inches) N/A	2.3
Dimensions L (Metric) N/A	30.5
Dimensions W (Metric) N/A	24.4
Dimensions H (Metric) N/A	5.7
1394a Cable N/A	1
USB 2.0 Cable (4 ports) N/A	1
SATA Data Cables N/A	6
IDE Cable N/A	1
Floppy Cable N/A	1
SATA Power Cable N/A	3
2-Way SLI Bridge SLI Bridge connector capable of linking two SLI compatible GeForce graphics cards.	1
3-Way SLI Bridge SLI Bridge connector capable of linking three SLI compatible GeForce graphics cards.	1
I/O Shield N/A	1

REVIEWS

XFX 780i SLI - Surprise Performance

PCPerspective

The overclocking performance of the 780i SLI chipset was a surprise - I actually expected it to be lower than that of the 680i chipset. That wasn't the case though as with both quad-core and dual-core processors the new NVIDIA chipset performed exceptionally well. I was able to hit an overclocked front-side bus of 512 MHz with my E6750 processor, just a few MHz behind our top overclock on an X38 motherboard.

XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI Review

Boot Daily - Worthy Award

The XFX doesn’t have the slick utilities but the ones it does have are still functional. It runs cooler, offers good overclocking and is priced ultra-competitive. If it were my money, I’d go with the XFX board in a heartbeat. What should be a deal-break in this comparison is the fact that the XFX board is significantly cheaper than the ASUS, has better CPU support, great overclocking and stability and comes with XFX’s 2yr warranty.

XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI - New King of the Hill

Legit Review

The aging NVIDIA 680i SLI motherboard finally loses it's flagship status as the latest and greatest SLI board on the market. The NVIDIA 780i SLI motherboard is the new king of the hill for those that want the ultimate in Intel/NVIDIA platforms.