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Saturday November 21, 2009 2:11 PM AEST
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eVGA 790i Ultra
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eVGA 790i Ultra
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Tags:
eVGA
|
790i
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Ultra
An imposing black mobo, teasing you with sweet promises of SLI...
As the slightly odd first part of this page (up there) might have given away, this is indeed an SLI-ready board. Plugged into this board is the NVIDIA 790i chipset, enabling the use of multiple NVIDIA cards at once, as well as supporting DDR3-2000, though only in two slots at a time.
Speaking of slots, these are positioned just far enough away from the CPU socket that you can install large coolers, and high enough that you can install and remove the modules without moving the graphics card first. The actual CPU socket is unfortunately quite cramped, and our TRUE could only be installed with the fan pointing towards what would be the top of the case, as well as being a tight squeeze to install. Luckily the 24 and 8-pin power connectors are placed in easy-to-reach locations, and remain out of the way of airflow.
Sliding down the right hand side of the mobo brings us to an IDE header, and a right-angled FDD header – this would have made much more sense if they were swapped around, as FDDs are few and far between. Four SATA ports are adjacent to the RAM slots, and a further two are right-angled just below the IDE – all are accessible when long graphics cards are installed. A small LED post screen is nestled in the bottom corner of the board as well, and allows you to troubleshoot booting problems, though doesn’t display anything interesting under normal use. Unless you find a glowing “FF” message entertaining that is!
The front panel headers are in the very bottom right corner, as well as a serial port header (please, let this interface die already!), two USB headers and a Firewire header. Power and Reset buttons are also present, as well as a mobo-mounted speaker which is invaluable for cases that don’t include them – or even when you’re benching without a case. The audio header is in a good spot down the bottom left corner of the board.
Moving upwards from here to the expansion slots, there are plenty of options. Possibly the most exciting one of these is the ability to run three dual-slot graphics cards in Triple SLI, as well as another card such as a TV tuner or hardware RAID card in the top 1x slot. Of course, we’d be tempted to call that overkill, but then again you wouldn’t be reading this if you were into ‘just enough’.
Overclocking of this board was pretty damn solid, with performance increasing more or less linearly, hitting a max FSB of 466, giving us an effective 4.2GHz on our test rig. The BIOS is slightly convoluted when it comes to getting into the overclocking settings, but once there it is easy to use and quite comprehensive.
The only down side to this board (apart from the lack of solid capacitors across it) is the price, though for the money you’ll be buying a solid DDR3-based board that can handle SLI – what more could you want?
Product Info
Specs:
Socket LGA775; NVIDIA 790i chipset; ATX form factor; 3x PCIe x16; 2x PCI; 2x PCIe x1; 1x EIDE; 6x SATA; 1600MHz FSB; DDR3-2000
Supplier:
Altech
Price when reviewed:
AUD$425
price check*
$426.01
EX DEMO eVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 M/Board - nForce 790i Ultra SLI, 1600(O.C.)MHz ...
Digitan Technology
(NSW)
$470.00
eVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 M/Board - nForce 790i Ultra SLI, 1600(O.C.)MHz FSB, DDR...
Penta Computers
(NSW)
$480.00
eVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI
Fluidtek
(NSW)
$573.00
eVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1 nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard 132-CK-NF79-A1: nForce ...
Digital Star
(NSW)
See more results for
eVGA 790i Ultra
on staticice.com.au
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC
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November, 2008
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5 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
nesquick
Nov 14, 2008 12:13 PM
I would never even consider recommending one of these boards after all the trouble marx had with his.
SceptreCore
Nov 14, 2008 2:43 PM
Same here nessy.
And I mean come on, when you pay that much for a board, you should expect it to come with Solid State Caps. It's become a standard now, almost all Mobo manu's are/have switched over to them.
nesquick
Nov 14, 2008 9:49 PM
agreed, my backup gigabyte g31 s2L has solid caps and only cost $60
Devilsmurf
Nov 14, 2008 9:55 PM
I just don't understand reviewers wanting manufacturers to take out legacy systems. I understand criticising the placement of said systems, but some people still use serial interfaces. And no, usb adapters do not count, they aren't 100% compatible.
If a legacy port or interface does not interfere with the introduction or support of current technologies, then I say leave it in.
James928
Nov 18, 2008 9:45 PM
I have always had Asus/Gigabyte boards. I bought this board on the advice of a good customer of mine. I have to say I have nothing but good things to say about it. It does everything I asked of it. Having said that I also bought an Asus P5Q at the same time from Gamedude. This is a great board for the money. If I had the choice again I would buy the P5Q and spend the extra on more shiny bit. As for R232 I use this every day in my job. You try getting a laptop with "real" native support R232 port fitted.... So I have to use a desktop now for some work, a real pain. So I say keep them and give use the chance to have them fitted to laptops if we so wish. My2c
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