The evga 650i Ultra 775 A1 Motherboard Review
Introduction
As you look at the range of motherboard choices out in the market today, it is hard not to notice that Nvidia has a great range of chipsets available on motherboards today. This last generation of chipsets started with their flagship 680i chipset, but since that release, we have seen the 650i, the 680i LT, and now we have the 650i Ultra chipset. They literally have a board at just about every price point you can think of which is great if you are Nvidia. Or is it? For the most part, the enthusiast (and those who need every feature that is available on that board) is going to go all out and purchase the top of the line board in the 680i. They will spend anywhere from $250-$300 on that board, but they will be able to boast that they have the top board available. The more budget minded enthusiast will certainly take a look at the other options like the 680i LT and the 650i. The 680i LT is essentially the same board as the 680i, but has a few features stripped off the board, but it is also a bit cheaper at anywhere from $185-$225 at this time.
We got our hands on an Asus board, the P5N-E SLI, that sports the 650i chipset, and our conclusion of that board ws that it was a 680i killer. Why? Because it performed just as good as the 680i boards AND it comes at a much cheaper price of around $125. Although it has fewer features available, it was a great choice for the bang-for-your-buck enthusiast. It was also a monster overclocker!
Today, we have a look at the latest chipset available from Nvidia in the 650i Ultra. This chipset is once again a stripped down version of its older brother as far as features are concerned, but less features does not necessarily translate into less performance. This board also is slated to be priced at just under $100, which potentially makes it a huge bargain. Will this board continue the trend for Nvidia of being so good it may make its big-brother unecessary for the enthusiast? Well, that is what we intend to find out! Let’s take a look at the specs of the 650i ultra chipset in the form of the eVGA 650i Ultra motherboard.
| NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra Motherboard | |
| Segment | Gamers and Digital Media Enthusiasts |
| Chipset | nForce 650i Ultra MCP |
| MSRP Etail | $100 |
| Socket | Intel Socket 775 |
| CPU | Core 2 Extreme
(dual and quad core) Core 2 Quad Core 2 Duo Celeron D Pentium 4 Pentium D 9XX Pentium D 8XX |
| FSB (MHz) | 1333* MHz |
| FSB Overclocking | Good |
| Graphics | |
| NVIDIA SLI Technology | No |
| Memory | |
| SLI-Ready Memory (MHz) with EPP | No |
| JEDEC DDR2 Memory (MHz) | 800 MHz |
| SATA 3.0GB/s | 4 (eSATA-Ready) |
| PATA | 2 |
| Gigabit Ethernet Ports | 1 |
| Audio | HDA (Azalia) |
| USB (rear/onboard) | 4/4 |
| Slots | |
| PCIe x16 slots | 1 |
| PCIe x1 slots | 2 |
| PCI slots | 3 |
| Storage | |
| RAID | 0,1,0+1,5 |
| NVIDIA MediaShield Storage Technology | Yes |
| Networking | |
| NVIDIA FirstPacket technology | Yes |
| NVIDIA DualNet technology | No |
| Teaming | No |
| TCP/IP Acceleration | No |
| Performance Utility | |
| NVIDIA nTune Utility | Yes |
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