EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: -

Cons: -

Overall Review: I just wanted to let everyone know that the A1 is EVGA's update to their 680i motherboard. AR was the previous version. This update supposedly allows better Quad-Core overclocking. You can read more about it on the EVGA message boards. Also, if you have an AR, you can swap it for the A1.

Pros: This M-Board has all the Bells and Whistles you'd really ever need. It's cheaper than the Asus and has some features I like better than Asus. EVGA did a very good job in placing the heat Pipe as well as the heat Sinks. It allows enough space for just about any coling system you chose. The position of the RAM Sockets is great as well. It allows for Sticks with big heat spreaders and cooling Fan placement when using large video Cards like the GeForce 8 series. EVGA as well as nVidia put allot of thought into the design of this Board and it shows.

Cons: EVGA could have been a little less vauge in their Manual. They really need to give more info on SLI and how it works because not everyone is a certified Tech...

Overall Review: I noticed allot of People complaining about installing Vista X64, it's not the Board, it's Microsoft. I had the same problem when I tried to install Vista X64 O/S. If you are planning on puting more than 3 GIG of RAM on this Board with Vista X64 you MUST install it with 3 or less GIG. Once installed you need to go here: www.support.microsoft.com/kb/929777/en-us. Once there, download the Ram drivers and install them. Reboot and let Vista load. Turn off the system and install the extra RAM then boot again. Vista X64 will now recognize the larger RAM (up to 8 GIG). After setting Timming and Volatge, all will be well. If you don't install these drivers Vista will continue to give the Blue Screen untill you remove the extra RAM and install the drivers.

Pros: Performs good. Excellent overclocking ability. Good spacing of components allows for a good third party heat sink.

Cons: Expensive. Chipset heat sinks are not copper.

Overall Review: For Vista 64 users with over 2 gigs of ram: I had a small nightmare with Vista 64 Ultimate. I could not install Vista with 4 gigs of ram . Blue screens everytime. To avoid this nightmare follow these steps: 1.) UPDATE BIOS (Cd image on EVGA's website.) 2.) Put no more than 2 gigs of ram in for install of Vista. 3.)Do all vista updates and update all your drivers to the newest versions. 4.) After all updates, go to microsoft site and download hotfix(KB929777) (seems like an unrelated fix, but it is critical!) 5. Restart Completely. 6. After your system has finished restarting, you can shut it down, put in the rest of your ram and it should boot properly.

Pros: My build went cleanly. Everything worked first time around. And, it is fast. The system scored 11,600 on 3DMark06 without any overclocking. At startup, the FSB ran at 1066MHz, and the Memory 800Mhz. My Intel 6600 is also at the factor 2.4 GHz. This score is #4 when ranked against similar systems. The best thing about this board is supposed to be the overclocking capacity, so I look forward to seeing how far I can safely push things. I imagine I have a shot at having the #1 ranking among similar systems. I'm not going to go to extremes to cool the system, so maybe not.

Cons: This was my first system to build, and so I read the documentation thoroughly and found a number of errors. The order of the SATA drive connectors are mislabeled. There are 6 SATA connectors. Their order is actually the reverse of what's shown in the manual. I don't think this matters unless you're putting together a RAID system. On p. 19 under the section explaining Auxilliary Power for graphics, the pin voltages are mislabeled. The page shows +1.2V and +5V, when in actuality they are +5V and +12V. The labels made me thing I didn't have a proper connector from my power supply. This caused me some delay. EVGA tech support resolved my questions here. The connector auxiliary power for graphics is just the standard 4-pin connector that all power supplies have. It would be nice if EVGA would post an errata sheet for their manual. It would help many people out and probably reduce their support volume a bit.

Overall Review: mobo|EVGA NForce 680i A1, cpu|Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHz, memory|Corsair Dominator 8500 4x1GB SLI, graphics|2 EVGA NVidia 8800GTX SLI, sound|Bluegears b-Enspirer, hdd|Western Digital Raptor (150GB, 10K) and Caviar (250GB, 7K), dvd|Sony DVD-ROM + Samsung DVD-W with lightscribe, case|Cooler Master 832, power|PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1 KW.

Pros: Excellent overclocking options and capabilities. Excellent packaging, cabling, accessories. Running stable at 375fsb, 3.375GHz with 2.4GHz E6600.

Cons: SATA ports are numbered wrong in manual and not in order on board. Since SATA ports are grouped in twos by controller chips, color coding in pairs would help a lot.

Pros: The problem with this boards failing are as follows: 1) User doesn't use a decent power supply (and I don't mean 700 Watt Powtek PSU by decent), I mean something like 620 Watt Corsair 620HX, or Silverstone Zeus or Thermaltake Toughpower 750W. Don't buy a Maxdaspeed 6 if you can't afford the premium gas. 2) Cooling: Use a case with good airflow. Because this board uses cheap electrolytic caps instead of Solid Aluminum Caps it is more likely to fail under hear. I have one of this running for months in a Antec 900, with a 750W TT Toughpower. It has excelent airflow. NForce chipsets get hotter than Intel chipsets (allot hotter) and they need better cooling. That is why other users have same kind of problems with other brands (like ASUS Striker users have same kind of trouble, P5N32-E SLI & SLI Plus have same kind of trouble, and so on). 3) Don't overclock your board into Oblivion, you will distroy it. Bottom line is good PSU and good Cooling is necessary if you want to keep this board.

Cons: Wish it had all aluminum caps. Common NVidia & EVGA, it's $7 more per board (according to Gugabytes costs) to use solid aluminum caps. We are more than willing to pay extra to get a better board.

Overall Review: It's an excelent overclocker, not as good as some P965 boards, but really good. But it makes up for that with the ability to run most types of RAM, plenty of TWeaking options and performance second to no other Intel board at this time. It also supports Quad Core chips, but you won't get past a 360 FSB with this board. Then again the Gigabyte DQ6 has the same issue, but that one costs two times and a half as much as this.

Pros: This is one of THE mobos to own.

Cons: Just confirmed with EVGA and Newegg support that you can only ever get one rebate from EVGA. So if you wanted to buy this mobo and, say, two EVGA SLI cards you'd get one rebate out of three. Or if you ever bought a rebated product from EVGA before, you'd get zero rebates. Only workaround would be to have friends buy the 2nd and 3rd components for you.

Overall Review: EVGA knows this is a serious disincentive but I guess they'd rather make extra $$ disillusioning working stiffs. Asked Newegg to highlight EVGA's thumbs-down policy on their product blurbs and Newegg agreed it might be a good idea. Only other way to get the info is to read the fine print on rebate forms before buying and who the h--- is going to do that? Other than me. ;)

Pros: EVGA's top 680i motherboard with 2 full x16 PCIE slots (third slot available). HD audio is noticeably better than typical onboard solutions. Easy to set-up bios with an extensive manual.

Cons: PCIE slots are not 2.0 compliant. The caps should all be solid state but instead are a mix. 2 lonely caps up on the top corner of the MB (close to the 24 pin power) make routing cables tricky.

Overall Review: Great board considering the price of the new 780i chipset and DDR3 RAM. The RAM and Chipset run hot so a cool case is a must. Built this one up with no issues. E6750 CPU, 2GB OCZ PC8500, EVGA 8800GT 512MB - smokin fast.