XFX nForce 680i Review

Testing:

I am going to be putting the XFX nForce 680i SLi motherboard through a series of tests that will push the components to the limit. There are going to be some tests that will push the system components to get a better idea on how they will perform while running everyday tasks and programs like graphic design and more. Then I will be running tests that will see how well it performs during games and gaming benchmarks. This is being done to give you a complete look at what this board has to offer. I am also going to be comparing it to other boards previously reviewed by OverClockersClub.com to compare how they hold up together.

Testing Setup:

• CPU stock: Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo 333x8
• CPU overclocked: Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo 400x8
• Memory: 2 x 1GB ADATA Extreme Edition DDR2-800 @ 800 / 4-4-4-12
• Memory Overclocked: 2 x 1GB ADATA Extreme Edition DDR2-800 @ 1066 / 5-5-5-15
• Video Card(s): Evga 8800 GTS 640MB
• Hard Drive: 1x Western Digital 80GB SATA HDD
• Opticals: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW Drive
• Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 500W PSU
• O/S: Windows XP Professional w/SP2

Comparison Motherboards:

• XFX nFORCE 680i SLi
• DFI Lanparty UT NF680i LT SLI-T2R
• ASUS PK5 Premium

System Tests:

• Apophysis 2.2
• PcMark 05 Professional
• Sisoft Sandra XI
• Sciencemark
• Cinebench 9.5
• HD Tach 3.1
• SpecViewperf 9.0
• WinRAR

Lets get started with Apophysis. This program is used primarily to render and generate fractal flame images. We will run this benchmark with the following settings:

• Resolution: 2750x2048
• Quality: 500
• Limit Memory use: 512MB

The score is based on the minutes it takes to render the image complete. Lower is better.

Winrar is a tool that allows you to compress and archive files so that they are easily managed. I am going to measure the time it takes, in seconds, to compress the files from start to finish. Lower is better.