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Articles: Editorial

CeBIT 2007 Coverage: Part X (page 2)

Category: Editorial

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/26/2007 | 09:56 PM ]

No Limits in Mind: XFX Displays Nvidia nForce 680i LT SLI

Rushed to the market in November, 2006, the Nvidia nForce 680i SLI became the world’s most expensive desktop chipset ever supporting a plethora of features desired by computer enthusiasts. Questionable stability (which eventually lead Nvidia to disable its LinkBoost technology) and not-so-extreme overclocking potential have reduced the demand towards products based on the core-logic, which made Nvidia to quietly introduce a cut-down version of the chipset that will be sold at discounted price, but will lack certain features.

At the show in Hannover , XFX, a leading supplier of graphics cards and gear for gamers, showcased its mainboard which will retail for something like $199 based on Nvidia nForce 680i LT SLI chipset.

The nForce 680i LT SLI core-logic uses similar components as its more advanced brother: a combination of C55XE and MCP55XE chips, but does not feature third PCI Express x16 slot, 1200MHz memory support and some advanced overclocking capabilities that are not really in demand even by performance enthusiasts.

The feature-set of the Nvidia nForce 680i LT SLI still seems to be fine for a computer enthusiast:

1333MHz processor system bus with overclocking capabilities;
Dual-channel PC2-6400 (800MHz) memory;
Two PCI Express x16 slots with SLI support;
Gigabit Ethernet network controller;
Serial ATA-300 with RAID capabilities.

It remains to be seen whether the nForce 680i LT SLI will become popular at $199 price-point, as Nvidia also ships nForce 650i SLI at $130 - $150 and performance between the two should not be significantly different.