nForce® 790I 3-Way SLI

nForce® 790i Ultra

The 790i Ultra SLI motherboard ensures a premium gaming experience, with world record-setting memory speeds and ESA component control. Currently the only platform to support DDR3-2GHZ, this motherboard delivers top performance for 1600MHz FSB Intel CPUs with extreme CPU overclocking, as well as unmatched DirectX® 10 gaming with 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology.

KEY FEATURES

Supports DDR3 Memory

8 Channel Integrated Audio

Supports up to 3-Way SLI Bridge

SLI Memory with EPP 2.0

Up to 1600 FSB HMz Intel CPUs

ESA Certified

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 2.0 N/A	√
Chipset Generation of NVIDIA nForce MCP included on this motherboard.	790I 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.	1600
Memory Speed (MHz) N/A	1333 MHz
Memory w/ EPP (MHz) N/A	2000 MHz
Memory SLI Memory Support N/A	√
Memory Type Type of memory supported by this motherboard.	DDR3
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
eSATA N/A	1
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	Yes
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 nForce 790i Ultra: Fit Every Possible Expansion Option

TweakTown Must Have - Best Features

One thing is for sure, NVIDIA has done a fantastic job on its reference design. Not only have they managed to fit just about every possible expansion option into their boards, but 3-Way SLI is standard, it overclocks quite well and it supports the latest generation of CPUs.

XFX has gone for an extremely well rounded cable setup. For the mass storage controllers; out of the seven SATA ports the board is equipped with, six data cables are provided. A single IDE cable with two drive support and one FDD cable make up the data portion. For power adapters, there are three molex to 2-port SATA power cables, giving you a total of six drives supported out of the box. Great work XFX.

XFX nForce 790i Ultra: A Usual Top Product

Digit-Life

if we take into account only functionality of the motherboard, without its supposedly excellent overclocking potential, we should admit that it's a usual top product, nothing more. A number of solutions (POST controller with a display, chipset cooling system) detach this reference motherboard on nForce 790i Ultra SLI from the usual products. General performance: Very good.

XFX nForce 790i Ultra 3-Way SLI Review

[H]ARDOCP

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.