As you'd guess from its name, the $350 XFX nForce 790i Ultra motherboard introduces nVidia's new nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset, which brings nVidia into direct competition with Intel's X48 by supporting a 1,600MHz front-side bus (FSB) and up to 2,000MHz DDR3 memory.
We tested the XFX motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and ultra-fast Crucial 2,000MHz DDR3 memory. It supports SLI-ready memory, so bumping Crucial's RAM from the standard 1,333MHz speed to its top-rated 2,000MHz was a simple matter of changing one setting in the BIOS. We didn't have to mess with timings, voltages, and other often-confusing settings that, if adjusted incorrectly, can seriously damage your system. Fortunately, the motherboard does have extensive support for configuring individual component speeds and voltages; however, we also found that we could overclock our computer simply by altering the FSB, CPU, and memory speeds and relying on the automatic settings to handle voltages. That's a welcome change from most motherboards, where the “Auto” settings often don't produce good results.
To keep the chipset cool, the board includes a heat pipe/vapor chamber assembly, with an optional clip-on cooling fan. This assembly is large enough that it blocks usage of some heat sinks popular with DIYers, such as the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.
The XFX nForce 790i Ultra board has three PCI Express (PCIe) x16 (two 2.0 and one 1.0) slots and supports dual video card usage with any SLI-ready GeForce video card, or 3-Way SLI with a trio of GeForce 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra cards. You can also run Quad SLI using a pair of 9800 GX2 cards. (You probably won't be surprised to learn that the board doesn't support competitor ATI's CrossFire.)
There's also a pair of PCIe 1x slots and two PCI slots. The rear panel sports two Gigabit Ethernet ports (which can be teamed to double network throughput), six USB ports, digital and analog high-definition audio, FireWire, and an external Serial ATA (eSATA) connector. On the motherboard, you'll find six SATA ports with RAID support, IDE and floppy connectors, and an additional SATA port for an optical drive. An LED debug display helps you track down startup errors.
The nForce 790i Ultra supports Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA), a new standard in which the motherboard monitors and controls a variety of parameters. Installing the motherboard in an ESA-compatible case with an ESA power supply let the system not only monitor temperatures and voltages, but also automatically control the case and power supply fans to minimize noise when system heat was low.
The downside is that each ESA component connects to a four-pin internal USB header. The nForce 790i Ultra has only four of these headers, and two were already taken up by our case and power supply. If you add, say, an ESA water cooler and an internal flash card reader, you won't have any headers left for connecting front USB ports. If ESA is going to take off, nVidia is going to have to support additional motherboard USB headers with its chipsets.
nVidia's System Monitor software gives you the full scoop on your ESA data—everything from voltages and speeds to the coolant temperature of an ESA-compatible water cooler. There’s an impressive 3D interface for navigating between components, but even more useful is the ability to select the individual readouts you’re interested in and place them on the desktop.
Despite a few drawbacks, the XFX nForce 790i Ultra motherboard's excellent capabilities, ease of overclocking, SLI support, and innovative ESA features make it a top-notch foundation for building a high-performance PC.
, i could've waited and got this one. DAMNIT!
