NVIDIA nForce 600i series - Tech preview
- nF680i Tech Preview-pg.2
Author: Grga Curkovic
Date: 08 Nov 2006
So far it has been NVIDIA?s custom to offer a reference design graphics card for every new graphics processing unit, and almost all graphics card makers would use that reference design. NVIDIA decided to apply the same practice in the motherboard industry and has offered partners a reference design for nForce 6 motherboards. Time will show how efficient this design is and how well will it be accepted by motherboard makers. We had a look at the reference design motherboard based on 680i SLI chipset, and at first glance it looks great, but the final verdict will be made once we get our hands on it and compare it to the competition.
 
Apart from already mentioned 680i SLI chipset whose aimed audiences are hardcore enthusiasts, NVIDIA also announced 650i SLI whose aimed audience are performance gamers and 650i Ultra whose audience are mainstream gamers. These chipsets support the whole range of Intel processors starting from Pentium 4 up to the recently presented quad core processors. NVIDIA?s chipsets were always know to be good overclockers (jus remember how you could overclock nForce 4 for more than 50%), NVIDIA never officially supported overclocking. From now on, NVIDIA officially supports overclocking through their NVIDIA SLI Certificate program. With NVIDIA SLI Certified memory the chipset will automatically overclock it up to 1200MHz, and with high-end NVIDIA graphics cards PCI-Express clock will rise by 25% (this technology is called LinkBoost). This sounds very interesting since even inexperienced users will be able to push their computers to the limits and getting the maximum out of the components they paid for. Of course, NVIDIA guarantees your system will be stabile even when it overclocks which is a basic assumption for everyday use. The nForce 680i supports FSB up to 1333MHz (though there are no desktop processors that support it today), two 16x PCI-Express slots and an additional 8x slot (overall we?re talking about 46 PCI-Express lanes), LinkBoost technology, it is equipped with two native Gigabit Ethernet controllers, 6 SATA & 2 PATA devices, 10 USB 2.0 ports, 5 PCI slots and a 7.1 High Definition audio. Its weaker borthers, the 650i SLI and 650i Ultra have all the same characteristics apart from smaller number of PCI-Express lanes (18 to be exact), one Gigabit Ethernet controller, support for 4 SATA and 4 PATA devices and 8 USB 2.0 ports. Their overclocking capabilities are reduced so there is now LinkBoost and they only support DDR2-800.
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