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EVGA eForce 790i Ultra

Posted 06/25/08 at 05:19:07 PM  by Gordon Mah Ung

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We weren’t impressed with Nvidia’s follow up to the popular 680i chipset. The 780i felt like a retread of the original and lacked support for Intel’s top proc: the 1,600MHz FSB Core 2 Extreme QX9770. Plus, PCI Express 2.0 was simply tacked on as an extra chip and DDR3 support was glaringly absent.

Nvidia heard our complaints and created the 790i chipset, represented here by EVGA’s Ultra SLI board. It has native PCI-E 2.0, 1,600MHz FSB support, and DDR3. This board even addresses another shortcoming of the 680i and 780i reference boards: lack of eSATA.

 

EVGA eForce 790i Ultra

 

The board’s physical layout is well thought out, and all the SATA ports are accessible, even with two honking dual-GPU cards installed. We’re not thrilled, however, with one feature of this board (and, by extension, all Nvidia reference-design boards): The massive heatsinks are held in place with screws that protrude too far through the bottom of the board. So, if you put the board down on a table and apply pressure while installing the CPU heatsink, the screws can push forward, unseating the chipset heatsinks. That’s just sloppy design. For our build, we propped the board up on Dixie cups to keep from pushing out the screws.

In performance, the board redeemed itself. It was neck-and-neck with the pricier Asus Striker Extreme II in the majority of our benchmarks, a close second to that board in memory tests, and superior in real-world gaming tests.

Heatsink screws aside, there’s not much to complain about. Sure, there are boards with more luxury items, but if you want solid, bare-knuckle performance—with SLI support to boot—the EVGA 790i Ultra SLI has it.

EVGA eForce 790i Ultra
Force Grip

Fierce performance; eSata; native PCI-E 2.0, DDR3; 1,600MHz FSB.

Force Choke

Heatsink screws protrude too far.

score:9ka
www.evga.com
Complete Motherboard Benchmarks
COMMENTS:
TAGS: evga, motherboards, hardware, ultra, kickass, reviews, build a pc, eForce, 790i
COMMENTS
avatarCPU Cooler

Submitted by Rargo on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 7:23pm

I built my 1st computer with this Motherboard and I used the Thermaltake DuOrb cooler.

It fits perfect and cools my ram also. Looks nice too!

Rargo

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avatarwho was testing this board as kickass for maximum pc?????

Submitted by tongun6 on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 8:18pm

i built a new pc based on this review.  following are my specs:

EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID, eSATA

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Processor BX80580Q9300 - 2.50GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan

 

Ultra X3 ULT40064 1000-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-E Ready, Energy Efficient, Modular

 

Corsair Dual Channel 4096MB PC12800 DDR3 1600MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB)

 

WD VelociRaptor 300GB Hard Drive WD3000HLFS - 10K RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA 300MB/s2  Users Rated

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM40  Users Rated

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM

 

EVGA GeForce GTX 280 Video Card - 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, FREE Special Edition EVGA Precision Overclocking Utility, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Dual VGA Support

 

LG GBW-H20L Super Multi Blue BLU-Ray Disc Rewriter OEM - 6x BD-R, 2X BD-RE, 16X DVD+R, 8X DVD+RW, 16X DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW, 16X DVD-ROM, SATA

 

hermaltake VG4000SWA Xaser VI ATX Full-Tower Case - Clear Side, Aluminum, Silver

so what is the BIG PROBLEM, i can not use 99% of the air cooled cpu coolers that are on the market due to the heat sink around the cpu specifically heat sink around north bridge and the passive heatsink for volatage regulators which happens TO BE locate around the cpu so there is NO ROOOM  FOR any socket 775 air cooled cpu cooler that would remotely fit in that space excepct for the stock intel cpu coooler.  WTF do maximum pc testers actually look at the board before they give a kickass rating???   has anyone else run into this problem??? i have contacted EVGA and their answer IS  they can not recommend any air cpu cooler due to conflict of interst with specific vendors???  their recommendation was to get on the EVGA FORUM and guess what everyone has SAME PROBLEM as ME!!!!  maxiume pc needs get their head out of their ass and really test the product before they put a " KICKASS" rating on a product.  i mean this is supposed be a mobo that i am able to OC but w/o a GOOD cpu cooler i am SOL!!.  EVGA is no help in this matter, think about it  this is the company that used make referernce board not for consumer use.  I can not wait untill my subscription to maximum pc is over waste of my money and time.  can someone suggest a cpu cooler that is not liquid cooled that can be put into this mobo?   thanks for your help  and no thanks to maximum pc or EVGA.  

 

VERY PS CUSTOMER!!! 

1  User Rated

 

 

 

 

 

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avatarI received the EVGA nForce

Submitted by ITOE Mr Smiles on Sat, 02/14/2009 - 10:57am

I received the EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI, as a gift and I'm in the process of getting my parts together to build a new rig.

I would like to find out what cpu cooler I can use with this board besides the stock cooler. 

I plan on purchasing an Intel Quad Q9650 and a Coolermaster HAF case. I also have the  Zalma CNPS9900LED 120mm CPU Cooler on order. After reading the abovecomment I'm now afraid that I might have just wasted my money on the cooler.

Can anyone from Maximum PC help me with my choices?

I Have:

EVGA nForce 790i SLI FTW Motherboard - NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI

On order:

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full
Tower Computer Case - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W
Quad-Core Processor – Retail

ZALMAN CNPS9900LED 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

Thermaltake W0116RU 750W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 &
EPS 12V version SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active
PFC Power Supply - Retail

CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
(PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked
Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video
Card - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB
Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM

LG Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA
Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20L - Retail

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV)
DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache
SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM

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