XFX 680i LT and 650i Ultra Motherboard Reviews
Introduction to XFX
When you hear the name XFX, you immediately think of (at least I do) video cards. They have consistently delivered some of the most exciting and best performing cards on the market. They also offer something that not many others do, that is a double-lifetime warranty, meaning that not only are your protected, but that warranty is transferable to whoever you sell your card to on eBay or the LR forums. So you have piece of mind, and your re-sale value is better with the XFX card because the buyer can have piece of mind too. That makes it even easier to upgrade every six months!
XFX is a division of PINE Technology, which is based in Hong Kong. Founded in 1989, PINE Technology designs, develops, manufactures and distributes high-quality digital audio and video devices as well as computer peripherals. PINE also distributes branded computer and communications products.
XFX has decided to take their desire to push the limits and their customer support in the arena of motherboards. Today we get a chance to look at two of their boards, the 680i LT and the 650i Ultra. Both boards are based on the latest and greatest from Nvidia, and as you see, they are actually reference designs, so there is not going to anything to talk about when it comes to design or the layout of the boards that will be any different than what we have seen in our other 600 series reviews. let’s take a look at the specs of the two boards.
XFX 680i LT XFX 650i Ultra
| Specifications | |||
| Front Side Bus | Support up to 1333Mhz | 1333 MHz with supporting CPU | |
| System Memory | (4) 240-pin DIMM Slots (8 GB Max) | 240-pin DDR2 up to 8GB (4) | |
| LAN | Onboard LAN Supports 10/100/1000 Mb/s | Integrated Gigabit LAN | |
| IEEE 1394 (Firewire) | 2) 1394a @ 400 Mb/s | ||
| USB | (8) 2.0 ports (4 Rear + 2×2 Onboard) | USB 2.0 ports (8) | |
| Audio | 8-Channel High Definition Audio | 8-Channel High Definition Audio | |
| RAID | 0,1,0+1,5 | 0,1,0+1,5 | |
| Supported CPUs | Intel Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core), Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Celeron D, Pentium 4, Pentium 4, Pentium D 9XX, Pentium D 8XX | Core 2 Extreme (dual and quad core), Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Celeron D, Pentium 4, Pentium 4, Pentium D 9XX, Pentium D 8XX | |
| Socket | INTEL SOCKET 775 | Intel Socket 775 | |
| SLI Techonology | 2 x16 | ||
| SLI-Ready Memory with EPP | 800 MHz | ||
| JEDEC DDR2 Memory | 800 MHz | 800 MHz | |
| NVIDIA LinkBoost Technology | |||
| SATA/PATA Drives | 6/2 | 4/4 | |
| SATA Speed | 3.0GB/s | 3.0GB/s | |
| NVIDIA MediaShield Storage Technology | |||
| Native Gigabit Ethernet Connections | 1 | 1 | |
| NVIDIA FirstPacket Technology | |||
| TCP/IP Acceleration | |||
| nTune Utility | |||
| PCI Slot | (2) PCI-E x16, (2) PCI-E x1, (2) PCI | 3 | |
| Chipset | NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI MCP Chipset | NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra MCP | |
| PCI-E | (1) PCI-E x16, (2) PCI-E x1 | ||
| Windows Vista Ready | |||
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| Features | |||
| High Definition Audio (HDA) | Yes | Yes | |
| Windows Vista Capable | Yes | Yes | |
| Designed for NVIDIA SLI technology | Yes | ||
| DualDDR2 Memory Architecture | Yes | Yes | |
| NVIDIA MediaShield Storage | Yes | Yes | |
| PCI Express | Yes | Yes | |
| USB 2.0 | Yes | ||
With that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at our boards.
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