First Look: Nvidia nForce 780i SLI

Gigabyte GA-780iSLI-DS5

Gigabyte was quick to get us its own custom designed nForce 780i SLI board, and while the board shown is PCB version 0.2, the retail one will be identical. We only received the board in a white box, without bundle, that's why we've only featured a first look at the board itself here.

The DS5 moniker started with the GA-X38-DS5 we recently reviewed, and it is meant to provide the feeling of enthusiast without having to pay for the usually quite expensive DQ6. However, depending on the chipsets available, it can mean that Gigabyte provides a confusing overlap between DS3, DS4 and DS5 motherboards, where the DQ6 generally offers quite a bit more.

Given that there's quite a difference between the Nvidia nForce 750i SLI and nForce 780i SLI, this should provide enough of a substantial difference in Gigabyte’s range. As it is though, the GA-780iSLI-DS5 should be far cheaper than the XFX and is tipped to retail at just £129+VAT.

Feature List

• Support for Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo (including 45nm Wolfdale and Yorkfield), Pentium 4 EE, Pentium D and Pentium 4 CPUs.
  
• Nvidia nForce 780i SLI SPP (north bridge)
  
• Nvidia nForce 570 MCP (south bridge)
  
• Support for dual channel DDR2 533, 667, 800MHz DDR2 memory and SLI-Ready memory to 1,200MHz
  
• 10 USB 2.0 ports
  
• Six SATA 3Gbps and one IDE port with Nvidia MediaShield (including RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD support)
  
• Two Physical Layer Gigabit Ethernet ports with teaming function
  
• Realtek ALC885 High-Definition audio codec supporting 7.1 channel surround sound
  
• Two IEEE1394a Firewire ports
  
• Two PCI-Express x16 2.0 slots
  
• One PCI-Express x16 1.1 slot
  
• One PCI-Express x1 1.1 slot
  
• Two PCI slots

Layout and Power Regulation

First off, I have to say I like the look of the XFX board much more – in comparison the Gigabyte looks almost childish in its coat of many colours. Maybe it's my personal tastes changing, but I think that Gigabyte needs to get with the times a bit more and become more stylish for the enthusiast.

The layout is very similar to the XFX nForce 780i SLI board (the expansion slots are identical, for example) but there are a few subtle changes – the SATA ports are now all aligned at the edge and the floppy port has been paired with the IDE. The USB 2.0 pin-outs have been moved down which could make them inaccessible when long, dual slot graphics cards are installed. Unfortunately the front panel audio pin-out and 12V 8-pin CPU socket sits right behind the rear I/O, meaning you'll have to drag cables across the board and possibly the CPU cooler to get to them.

Unlike the XFX board we now have an all solid aluminium capped capacitor design that should provide better power delivery and a longer life. In relation to this, the DS5 offers a six phase CPU power regulation design just like the XFX board, of which now 5/6th are cooled by a larger heatsink. In addition, in the same way as the XFX, there are only four fan plugs to use as well.