Conclusions

This motherboard is clearly targeted to the high-end gamer that is looking for PCI Express 2.0 slots and thinking about three-way SLI for the ultimate gaming machine.

At first we thought that the new AMD Spider platform with its CrossFireX – which allows not three video cards in parallel, but four – could be a serious competition to nForce 780i, but the problem is that CrossFireX isn’t operational yet, as AMD hasn’t released drivers to allow this configuration yet. The word is that this will happen only in February 2008. So if you want to build the ultimate gaming machine today, nForce 780i and three-way SLI is the way to go.

Keep in mind that three-way SLI only works with three GeForce 8800 GTX’s or three GeForce 8800 Ultras.

The main problem with this motherboard is its low cost/benefit ratio – it is just too expensive, costing USD 290 in the USA. We think that for a high-end motherboard at this outrageous price label this motherboard should use a better audio codec, all capacitors should be solid and not only the ones from the voltage regulator circuit, use ferrite chokes, have on-board coaxial SPDIF connector and have at least one eSATA port. On the other hand this motherboard provides a POST diagnostics display, which is great.

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