EVGA nForce 680i LT SLI

Overclocking

In general, we had an experience not unexpected of the chipset: it overclocked to the levels of the nForce 680i SLI and the nForce 650i SLI. Whilst we could have used nTune to overclock, we're old school at heart so preferentially overclock via the BIOS.

Out of curiosity, we tested nTune's fine overclocking and found it was far from ideal. It appears its overclocking algorithms are graphics performance weighted, so it overclocks the PCI-Express bus before the Front Side Bus. This means it could achieve a 60% overclock on the PCI-Express bus before attempting to overclock the FSB. When it actually pushed the FSB, it crashed the system at a pathetic 298MHz.

The moral of the story, as ever, is to do it yourself. Not only is it a learning experience, gaining familiarity with the BIOS and how the motherboard works, you can also definitely get more out of it too.

We managed an outright 474MHz FSB in Windows and a still awesome 464MHz FSB fully prime stable. At this speed we were using our Core 2 Extreme X6800 with a 6x multiplier, 1.4V FSB, 1.45V CPU, 2.3V Memory, and 1.3V SPP. The memory ratio was set at 1:1 sync to maximise the overclocking potential.


Overall this is a very good result, but to reiterate - this reference BIOS is still based around a known motherboard design and an existing architecture. We have seen the nForce 650i SLI (northbridge) based P5N32-E SLI Plus overclock slightly better, but that board is weighted differently from standard nForce 650i SLI boards, even though the price should match that of future nForce 680i LT SLI motherboards. We've yet to overclock a true nForce 650i SLI motherboard for comparison, but that will come soon!

The Intel P965 based motherboards will also overclock to these levels, and the models more liberally decked out are selling for about the MSRP of the nForce 680i LT SLI motherboards. If you don't need the features but want to save some money and still get the MHz, then mid range P965 boards are probably right up your street. However, going down this route means you are missing out on more memory bus-to-FSB options and, more importantly, SLI support from the nForce 680i LT SLI.

Stability

Unfortunately, the reference board we have isn't overly stable in extended multitasking situations. Whilst our stability test is certainly a hardcore benchmark, we expected a little more than 4hr 47mins and 4hr 33mins respectively before both Prime 95's terminated, and 10hrs 54mins before FarCry locked up.

Trying it again with just one of the two Prime95 instances running, FarCry and IOMeter were still running 24 hours later, but the single Prime95 instance had crashed after just 12 minutes. This is a very similar result to the Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus when we tested it with its early BIOS. While this is not a bad result, we can only hope that future BIOS revisions fix the board’s stability under extensive multitasking, but early adopters will probably not be disappointed as it's still stable after long gaming sessions.

Warranty

The EVGA nForce 680i LT SLI comes with the usual 10 year EVGA warranty, and in comparison, Asus (P5N32-E SLI Plus) offers a three year warranty across its product portfolio. If you were to RMA either board, they both are sent back to a UK address and have appreciably comparable turn around times.

The question is, do you need a 10 year warranty? Considering technological depreciation and the fact that a motherboard contains so many technologies that are subject to change like memory, CPU socket, PCI / PCI-Express sockets, after just three or four years your board is worth all of £15-25. We are inclined to suggest that after this time the RMA rate drops off considerably as most people will probably just go out and buy a new board. With this in mind, does a 10 year warranty add value for most of people? Sure, there will be some who think it's a fantastic idea and kudos to EVGA for stepping out and going the extra mile. However, if you RMA a motherboard in eight years time will you get the same one back again to use with the hardware you were originally using?

Final Thoughts: Nvidia nForce 680i LT SLI

I certainly can't deny that this looks like it has the makings of a killer chipset, with a price and performance point to suit those who are looking at Intel P965 boards but are longing for proper SLI support. The nForce 680i LT SLI chipset might still be more expensive though, seeing as the average price of P965 motherboards is less than the MSRP of the nForce 680i LT SLI.

With that said, it'll be interesting to see what comes out in the next few months from the other motherboard manufacturers. In addition, we're also interested in whether this introduction will push prices of nForce 650i SLI motherboards down further, or if there will be bargain nForce 680i LT SLI boards marching into Intel P965 territory.

Final Thoughts: EVGA nForce 680i LT SLI

While the EVGA 680i LT SLI doesn't win any awards, that's not to say it isn't a good motherboard. The reference design is still reasonably well laid out, performs decently and overclocks very well indeed. It's certainly less noisy than the standard nForce 680i reference design, despite having two chipset fans. Overall, it's essentially an average runner.

The stability of the current BIOS does let the board down at the moment, but it still managed to go through our entire test suite at 3-3-3-9-1T without any issues. When we tried forcing an 18T tRC it just didn't like it, but that's certainly not a huge deal. We can but hope that future retail editions of the BIOS improve things.

However, a three year warranty is entirely sufficient for the vast majority of people, and the Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus offers more of the features you get with the full fat nForce 680i SLI MCP for the same MSRP, even if you don't use them. In addition, even though the EVGA is far from noisy, the Asus is entirely silent as it uses heatpipes.

It would be wise to wait and see what else hits the market, considering the price, performance and features of other products before you jump on a new chipset. No doubt we'll hear more in the next few weeks in terms of new 680i LT announcements. If you insist on being an early adopter though, you shouldn't be disappointed with the EVGA's nForce 680i LT SLI board, providing you have faith in the BIOS engineers.

Overall the nForce 680i LT SLI is a winner, but the EVGA reference design is certainly a wait and see for the time being.