EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 nForce 780i SLI 3xPCI-Express x16 PCI-Express 2.0 Socket 775 A1 Version Motherboard | 
| Brand: EVGA
List Price: $249.99
Buy New: $193.97
You Save: $56.02 (22%)
New (37) Used (3) from $189.99
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 6127
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Processors: 0
System Bus Speed: 1333
System Memory: 0
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 7
Dimensions (in): 14.8 x 13.8 x 3.8
nv:Form Factor: ATX
Processor Interface: Socket 775
Processors Supported: Intel Pentium 4 LGA775
Processors Supported: Intel Pentium 4 EE
Processors Supported: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processors Supported: Intel Core 2 Extreme
Processors Supported: Intel Core 2 Quad
Front Side Bus: 533MHz
Front Side Bus: 800MHz
Front Side Bus: 1066MHz
Front Side Bus: 1333MHz
Northbridge: NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI
Number of Slots: 4
Number of Pins: 240-Pin
Maximum Memory Supported: 8GB - 64bit
Memory Supported: 533MHz DDR2
MPN: 132-CK-NF78-A1
Model: 132-CK-NF78-A1
UPC: 843368002930
EAN: 0843368002930
ASIN: B00118FM58
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | SLI-ready motherboard with fast Gigabit Ethernet performance | | • | Supports Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium EE, and Pentium processors | | • | 3 16x PCI express slots; ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture) certified | | • | NVIDIA RAID technology with standard RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 techniques | | • | NVIDIA's patent-pending isochronous StreamThru Data Transport System for uninterrupted data streaming |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The EVGA 780i SLI; features three 16x PCI express slots, PCI express 2.0, and full support for Intel 45nm Core 2 CPU's. The three 16x PCI express slots provide the best platform for NVIDIA 3-way SLI; the latest in SLI technology. The EVGA 780i is ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture) certified which provides the best monitoring and fine tuning of your PC.
Amazon.com Product Description
The eVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 nForce 780i SLI 775 ATX Motherboard, A1 Version is based on theNVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Chipset chipset. It supports Intel Core 2 Extreme, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Duo, Pentium EE, and Pentium processors. The card's NVIDIA SLI technology dramatically scales performance by allowing two graphics cards to be run in parallel, and its featured NVIDIA Native Gigabit Ethernet offers the fastest Gigabit Ethernet performance you'll find anywhere, eliminating network bottlenecks and improving overall system efficiency and performance. The eVGA 780i SLI features three 16x PCI express slots, PCI express 2.0, and full support for Intel 45nm Core 2 CPUs. The three 16x PCI express slots provide the best platform for NVIDIA 3-way SLI, the latest in SLI technology. The EVGA 780i is ESA (Enthusiast System Architecture) certified, which provides the best monitoring and fine tuning of your PC. A third PCI-Express expansion slot provides future support for three GPU applications, and NVIDIA RAID technology implements standard RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 techniques to maximize storage assets. NVIDIA RAID technology also introduces many innovations that simplify and optimize the management of RAID features and disk resources. NVIDIA's patent-pending isochronous StreamThru Data Transport System provides uninterrupted data streaming for superior networking and broadband communications. StreamThru assists in making streaming video and audio smoother and jitter-free. Unified Driver Architecture guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers and simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software. And NVIDIA's nTune Performance Application enables the easiest, safest, and highest performing overclocking available for NVIDIA nForce-based PCs. What's in the Box
nForce 780i SLI motherboard, I/O shield, floppy cable, three 2-port SATA power cable, 1394 cable, 4-port USB cable, six SATA signal cables, comm2 bracket cable, IDE-ATA133 HDD cable, fan, 3-way SLI and SLI bridge, and floppy drive diskette.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
Should have been called 690i March 28, 2008
B. J. Snook
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
nVidia in their current marketing scheme can't name anything correctly, but that's another story. Their really is alot of good with this board, more than bad. NOTE: This is a Foxconn board. It is made for XFX/Evga, and Foxconn is a middle to cheap mobo manufacturer. Not exactly ASUS here, but a good board and not as bad as some other Mfg's or even other Foxconn products.
If you are new to overclocking or never had the proper tools to do so, this board is for you. Simply put, it is the most user friendly board I have seen in awhile. Very easy to assemble, good manual. The front case header wires are in the middle of the board (?) as opposed to bottom right as is custumary. Everything you need is in the BIOS. Simply press the "Delete" or "Del" key on powerup to go into the BIOS and explore. Yes you can get into some trouble, but usually the settings are green colored meaning "safe" or red colored when you exceed them. I owned the 680i too, and this is similiar with less bugs in it.
They added a chip for the PCI-E 2.0, and 3 Way SLI. Only the 1rst and 3rd slots are PCI-E 2.0, the middle is x16. But really the bandwidth of 2.0 is barely touched even with the newer 2.0 video cards. Only GTX and Ultra cards can run 3 Way SLI too. The 9800GTX was just released, you can use these too.
The memory standard is DDR2-1200. I will caution everyone going out and getting memory beyond 800 that the BIOS defaults to 800 for ALL MEMORY. You need to change that in the BIOS. Its fairly simple to change the timings and voltage, and as usual, follow the specs of your memory. There is some confusion about what qualifies as SLI memory. Anything that says SLI or EPP (Extended Performance Profile) qualifies. I am currently using Transcend DDR2-1200, you can get on the Egg when in stock. It's cheap, has huge heatsinks, is rated as 1200 MHz with 5-5-5-15 2T timing @2.2Volts. Think 2 gigs is like $100. It's not even rated as SLI Memory but BIOS sees it as such with 2 sticks. For some reason with 4 sticks the "SLI enabled" memory option in the BIOS disappears . Nice micron chips to boot! But this is just my opinion, use your own discretion. Running 4 banks of memory will also slow you down some too, if OC'ing is your main goal. My suggestion if you want to play with your memory, download Memtest 86 to a floppy and boot to that and see if your settings are stable. The test will take about 45 min to run full 9 cycles. I was able to get stable 1330 MHz on a relaxed 6-7-7-20 @2.30 Volts. Some people have screenshots of 1400 MHz too! So overall DDR3 has little to offer especially at some of the timings it has. Plus you save some money, although the cost of DDR3 keeps coming down every day, still doesn't justify the current pricing.
CPU support for 45nm chips is nice when they materialize. The voltage increments in the BIOS allow for very fine adjustments. Think it's 0.005 Volts. I bought a factory sealed Q6700 on E-auction for $300 around Christmas and got it to 3.8 GHz on this board, not much higher for reasons I will state later. In the BIOS you have the option of "Linked" CPU to memory or "Unlinked" to set your own CPU FSB to memory MHz. I don't recommend going over 1.5:1 CPU FSB:Memory. But that depends on the chip you are using. I know the Q6600 can OC to 4.0GHz with a 9x multiplies and pushing the bus up alot.
The problem with OC'ing this board, simply put, is overheating. This is something nVidia has been doing awhile, and is a trend they must stop. There are other boards that will OC better, just not with nVidia chipsets. nVidia make chips using older dies instead of newer shrinks to save money. The Northbridge or "SPP" has this huge razor sharp finned heatsink with a cheap little clip on fan that blows hot air onto your video card. You can adjust the Fan speed in the BIOS, I run at 100% but it is very noisy. Then again, I don't really care about the noise so much. The smaller Southbridge or "MCP" gets way too hot. I can't get stable 4 GHz OC because the BIOS temps on this thing get close to 80 C and shuts down. The chip will reside underneath you video card if you are using long cards (8800GT, GTS, GTX, etc) For these reasons, if you want maximum OCability, don't buy this board without liquid cooling. I'm using a Koolance Exos 2 system for the CPU and GPU. I don't want to buy the water blocks for the chipsets because I am upgrading to the 790i. Thanks eVGA ;). The 90 day step up works for this board, and if you purchase from Amazon, it is on the eVGA list of recommended e-tailers.
I haven't tried 3 Way yet, can't afford 3. But I have a 9800GX2 coming. The scaling improvement of 3 cards over 2 is less than going 2 from 1. Although some of the benchmarks have some good scaling performance. So if you demand the best Video with mediocre OCing, this board is for you.
One last thing about Amazon customer service. I read that rant that guy went on, and was not my experience at all. The price is cheaper than the Egg or alot of other places. Free shipping, no tax. Love it. I actually have 2 boards. This first was reported by UPS as damaged in transit. Called amazon (you really need to dig the help section for the phone call back option) and next day they sent me another. The other I threw in the garbage ;. The phone reps are foreigners contracted out, but are very knowlegeable and have been empowered to do more that alot of other companies would have. For these reasons, I really will check Amazon first when looking for my next and future builds. And like I said, eVGA will allow you to step up to new board like the 790i simply pay the price diffrence from what you paid for this ($239) minus the cost of the new part ($329) = $80. Great Mfg, great retailer.
You might want to wait.... January 29, 2008
T. Chang
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
If you wonder what the difference between 680i and 780i is, the answer is they are identical except nVidia added two more upgrades....
1. nForce 200 chip and
2. of course, 3-way SLI
The nForce 200 chip is essentially an additional chip to handle PCI Express 2.0. It doesn't really help the 3-way SLI function but does boost performance in SLI configuration.
In terms of 3-way SLI, to be honest, you really don't need three graphic cards. An OC 8800GTS 520mb can easily bring you over 10k 3DMark. And guess what? Even the record breaking group did not use 3-way SLI to pass 30k. Point is, don't get attempted to buy this card because of this feature. (P.S. They do use 780i as their MB.)
One last thing, 790i may realize in February. It is worth to wait the new technology instead of paying over $250 for minor refresh.
 More than just a Chipset update March 5, 2008
~Matt (Philadelphia, PA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
The 780i has updated support for higher clocked RAM. The 680i supports 800MHz ram but has minimal compatibility with RAM that has a base speed above that. It does not support the newer PC9200 (1150MHz) RAM like the 780i. Although the PCIex 2.0 and the nForce 200 upgrades may seem minimal, the added support of higher speed RAM can be the factor that would sway someone to purchase a 780i as opposed to the 680i. I have included a list of known supported memory for this board below (exluding memory below 667MHz):
-----SLI READY MEMORY-----
*Above 1066 MHz(Above PC2 8500)*
Corsair TWIN2X2048-10000C5DF
Corsair TWIN2X2048-9136C5DF
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF
*1066 MHz(PC2 8500)*
OCZ OCZ2N10662GK
OCZ OCZ2N10661G
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5
Kingston KHX8500D2K2/1G
OCZ OCZ2N1066SR2GK
OCZ OCZ2N1066SR1G
PNY D22GX85GMR
*900 MHz(PC2 7200)*
OCZ OCZ2N900SR2GK
OCZ OCZ2N900SR1G
OCZ OCZ2N9002GK
OCZ OCZ2N9001G
*800 MHz(PC2 6400)*
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C3DF
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4D
Crucial BL2KIT12864AL804
Crucial BL12864AL804
Crucial BL2KIT12864AA804
Crucial BL2KIT6464AA804
Crucial BL12864AA804
Crucial BL6464AA804
Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/2GN
Kingston KHX6400D2LLK2/1GN
Patriot PDC22G6400LLK
PNY D22GX64GMR-4
-----STANDARD MEMORY-----
*Above 800 MHz(Above PC2 6400)*
Kingston KHX9600D2D/2G
Kingston KHX9200D2/512
Kingston KHX8000D2K/2G
Kingston KHX7200D2K2/2G
Patriot PDC21G8000+XBLK
Patriot PDC21G8500 ELK
Crucial BL2KIT12864AL1005
G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ
Mushkin XP2-1066
*800 MHz(PC2 6400)*
Mushkin XP-6400
Mushkin XP2-6400
OCZ OCZ2G8002GK
OCZ OCZ2P800R21G
OCZ OCZ2T8002GK
Corsair XMS6405v4.1
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400
G.Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ
G.Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR
G.SKILL F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
Team Xtreem PC2-6400 800MHz 3-3-3-8
Team Xtreem PC2-6400 800MHz 4-4-4-10
Patriot PDC22G6400ELK
Geil Ultra GX22GB6400UDC
Super Talent T800UX2GC4
*667 MHz(PC2 5400)*
Corsair VS512MB667D2
Buffalo D2V667C-1G/BJ
Patriot PDC21G5300LLK
PQI 5400 Turbo
Kingston KHZ5400D2K2/1G
Geil GX21GB5300SX
Muskin xp2 5300 2x1gb
Mushkin HP2-5300
Good, but could be better. May 15, 2008
A brazilian guy (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This review will be divided in three parts dealing with the chipset choice, the 780 itself and specifically with the EVGA mobo.
When choosing a chipset for your new mobo, you are confronted with basically two choices: Intel and nVidia.
Intel chipsets are very stable and highly overclockable. If you buy an Intel mobo, you will be pleased to find out that on top of their stability they have no chipset fans, what contributes to the overall low level of noise of your system.
The downside of the choice is that they do not support SLI, but Cross Fire instead. If you are a gamer, this is an issue because nVidia video cards are far ahead ATI's in terms of performance and power consumption.
nVidia mobos obviously support SLI, but have a serious thermal issue. Their chipsets get extremely hot and, perhaps because of that, are generally more limited when it comes to overclocking. My own personal claim about it: nVidia, PLEASE, INVEST IN NEWER DIES TO SOLVE IT!
This thermal issue, in turn, contributes to overall noise level, for you are forced to place a 60mm fan over your chipset. Summing up: if you run CPU intensive applications, like simulations, go for an Intel chipset/mobo. If you are a gamer, you probably have to choose NVIDIA.
Of course, all this discussion assumes you have chosen an Intel processor.
If you have chosen an nVidia chipset, the choices today are 780 and 790. Ruling out the 790 for its price and DDR3 issues, you're locked with 780.
As you probably read elsewhere, the 780 is just a 680 with 3 PCIE slots (2 of them are 2.0), ESA support and, most important of all, support to new 45nm Intel processors. Nothing else changed dramatically.
Sometimes, 1333Mhz FSB support is advertised as something new, but it's not. Remember that xx50 processors were already supported by 680 mobos. The real issue is the 45nm Penryn technology.
nVidia could release 680 mobos with Penryn support if minor fixes were made. Quite understandably, however, they have opted to fix it and add some gimmicks to throw in a new product and basket the marketing gains.
So far, then, two conclusions: the first one is that 680 mobos no longer make sense. The second is that you should buy a 780 mobo if, and only if, you are buying a new system today. If you are satisfied with your non-Penryn system, just up grading your mobo makes no sense.
But suppose you're buying a new rig today and decided for the 780. What are the choices?
As most people know, nVidia authorized partners do not produce their mobos. Instead, nVidia centralizes the process and allows them just to print their names (EVGA, XFX etc.) on the board. Therefore, the choice between these manufacturers is very subjective and done by details like warranty, RMA policies etc. Because my previous experience with EVGA was very good in terms of bios up-dates, I stick to them.
What most people don't know, however, is that nVidia itself does not produce mobos as well. They buy them from Foxconn, medium-medium quality producer from Taiwan.
In other words, be advised that you are not buying an nVidia/EVGA/BFG/XFX mobo; you're buying a Foxconn mobo.
That said, what follows applies almost 100% to all these other manufacturers.
It's a great product with two serious issues.
The first one is its original incompatibility with SATA optical drives. The problem was fixed via bios update and there is a chance that if you buy a brand new mobo today you won't experience it. I had to go through it and it was a hard time: blue screen when trying to install anything, than finding an old IDE optical drive, updates...
The second one is the position of the chipset fan (remember what I said before about heating?). The way it's placed, it blows hot air directly on your video card. Not the smartest thing to do considering that my 8800 Ultra already runs at 72C.
Some have fixed it using a regular 60mm fan placed over the chipset radiator and inverting the airflow.
I find this solution cumbersome for you won't be able to use the fittings to securely place the fan on the mobo.
My suggestion is to cut the red and black wires of the fan about half their length and invert them, connecting the first half of the black wire to the second half of the red wire and vice-versa. You get the inverted airflow in a more elegant way.
Others complain about minor issues such as non-solid capacitors outside the voltage regulation circuit, could-be-better codec etc, but these are minor.
Over all, a good product.
 Buy from Someone Besides Amazon March 22, 2008
J. W. Shortridge (Southeast US Agent of Truth)
2 out of 14 found this review helpful
BUY THIS BOARD DIRECTLY FROM AN EVGA VENDOR or DIRECT FROM TIGERDIRECT. DONOT BUY FROM AMAZON UNLESS YOU WANT HEADACHES and DELAYS. Let their be no doubt, this is an excellant board with superb features. You are set to grow with this board, but with the 680i you are limited right from the start (although the 680i is a great board from those with limited funds). Additionally, I agree completely with the reviewer who states EVGA customer service is the best!!! It truly is. Conversely, Amazon and their customer service has a lot to learn about living up to their assurances and not allowing their customer service reps to blatantly lie to their customers. Bottom line, if they tell you something, you'd better get a name and check it out as I can assure you their word and image mean nothing to them. Additionally, if you need something in a hurry, you'd better go someplace else as Amazon has completely lost control of its shipping system and has no way, zero, of telling you if something has shipped or not. Don't believe the statements they make. i.e. "if you buy this today, you can have it delievered tomorrow". If you happen to get it, it's a complete fluke and they can't explain to you how it did, or didn't happened. Trying to communcate to someone in a position of responsibility is even more difficult to accomplish, if not impossible. Customer Service will not allow you to respond to their messages and the management team hides behind their chairs and refuses to talk to anyone, except maybe to instruct the Customer Service Reps to lie to the customers. BOTTOMLINE, their are many reputable places to purchase this board, Amazon is just not one of them. The customer service staff is a disgrace and the management (if they even exist) is even worse.
BUY THE BOARD, its 6 STARS, but buy it direct from TIGER,EVGA, or a vendor who values their customer. Amazon is not one of them. If you'd like more details on this issue and the overall customer service problems at Amazon, stay tuned to your favorite pc magazine and the top blogs. It will be highlighted in the upcoming takes.
Good Luck, and Best Wishes in your pursuit of "Blazin'Speed"
JohnBoy
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