XFX 680i LT SLI

INTRODUCTION

Several months ago the first 680i SLI motherboard first appeared on the US market. On paper this board appeared to be solution that the enthusiast community had been long awaiting to take their Core 2 Duo processors to the next level of performance. After several BIOS revisions and a less than auspicious beginning what was initially seen on paper transcended by most accounts into a fully functional, kick-ass motherboard. The vast majority of these motherboards were manufactured by NVIDIA® following a reference standard design targeting "Hardcore Enthusiasts" and sold by a select group of partners. By now you probably know that in most cases these partners were the same partners that NVIDIA® used to market their graphics solutions. Brilliant marketing strategy if you ask me! There were, however, a few dissenters, namely: ASUS, Abit, and Gigabyte. These companies chose to follow the less traveled path and bring to market their own design using the same 680i SLI chipset.

Okay enough history! Let's fast-forward a couple of months which puts us about two to three weeks ago. NVIDIA® and the same group of partners brought to market the 680i LT SLI motherboard. This product contained much of the heart and all of the soul of its big brother but was aimed more at the "Extreme Gamer" and cost approximately $50 less. We'll expound in detail on the differences other than cost later in this review.

Today it is our extreme pleasure to share with you our findings on a 680i LT SLI motherboard that is being marketed by an NVIDIA® partner that certainly needs no introduction, XFX. From our rather extensive experience reviewing XFX Graphics solutions we've seen their corporate philosophy transcend from merely words into a series of excellent, highly polished digital wonders that go a step beyond in not only performance but quality as well. We highly anticipate that our review sample, the XFX nForce®; 680i LT SLI will continue to follow this same lofty tradition.

XFX: The Company

XFX, a company that is very well know not only to the general computer consumer but to the Computer Enthusiast community as well operates on the following corporate philosophy:  "XFX; dares to go where the competition would like to, but can't. That's because, at XFX®, we don't just create great digital video components--we build all-out, mind-blowing, performance crushing, competition-obliterating video cards and motherboards." "Oh, and not only are they amazing, you don't have to live on dry noodles and peanut butter to afford them."