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XFX N780-ISH9 (NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI)Author:Date: 08/04/2008
We have already tested a couple of motherboards based on NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI, but frankly they have not produced a distinct and certain impression. There are no issues with the main features: at the expansion options, the boards match the previous products based on the nForce 680i SLI chipset, and in terms of support for SLI they surpass them. In particular, all the boards based on nForce 780i SLI support the 3-way SLI, i.e. allow installing three NVIDIA video cards into the system and integrate their computing resources. Only with the overclocking the situation is uncertain. For instance, the Gigabyte board easily ran at frequencies over 500 MHz, and the ASUS board hardly overcame the FSB = 400 MHz. What is wrong? To some extent, the answer could be produced through the test of a motherboard of NVIDIA's reference design, i.e. motherboard based on the nForce 780i SLI chipset developed by engineers at NVIDIA in which all the capabilities of this chipset are revealed. Such motherboards are shipped ready-made to a great number of manufacturers (thus saving their engineering and financial resources) who have only got to draw a box, put cables inside, write a user's manual, and invent the price. One of such motherboards is XFX N780-ISH9 which we are reviewing today. In fact, we shouldn't think that the reference design is a synonym of high quality. For instance, reference motherboards built on the nForce 680i SLI chipset do not operate with Intel's latest generation CPUs. XFX N780-ISH9 Specifications
PackageAll is packaged in a rather impressive box of stylish design: 
Inside, the user can find two more boxes - one with the package bundle and one with the motherboard: 
Package bundle
We are interested in the board's package bundle most of all because that is the only thing that XFX put its hand on. And we must admit we found not a single issue about the box contents. Let's start with the cables. Apart from the mandatory PATA and FDD cables ("rounded"), the board comes bundled with six SerialATA cables. On the other hand, there are six SATA ports onboard. There are three adapters in the box, each having two connectors. In the end, we can plug in six SATA devices without looking at the PSU: whether it offers matching connectors or not. 
The board is bundled with two brackets: one for four USB 2.0 ports, the other one for a Firewire port. Again, we can see that the brackets for additional ports and the number of ports wired right on the board match. 
Besides, the box contains one bridge for SLI, one more bridge for 3-way SLI, and an additional fan. 
All the three components are standard. Even this fan can be found on any other reference board since it is an item of a standard cooling system developed at NVIDIA. 
The user's guide stands out with deep coverage and quality of composition. 
We also found nothing to complain about the brief user's guide and the contents of the CD. The only nonstandard item is the plate which can be hung on the door handle, with a the "do not disturb" label asking you not to trouble the gamer. Summing it up, we can reward the top mark to XFX for the package bundle since inside the box there is absolutely everything needed to install and set up the motherboard. In other words, the buyer will not have to rush to the shop once again to buy a cheap adapter. XFX N780-ISH9 Layout and FeaturesThe first thing what catches the eye is the massive system for cooling the chipset and the power converter. In fact, the board uses a small radiator on the PWM and one huge radiator on the chipset. This radiator is in direct contact with the south bridge, north bridge, and the additional nForce 200 bridge. Both the radiators are interlinked with a heat pipe. 
Clearly, the heat load upon the main radiator is quite high, so the engineers made it tall enough and provided for the option of installing an additional fan (available in the package bundle). We should note that positioning of the main components of the motherboard does not create any issues for the assembly operator. In particular, the main 24-pin power connector is installed on the board's bottom edge, with the additional 8-pin connector (the backward compatibility to the PSU with a 4-pin cable has been preserved) - on the right-hand edge: 
In fact, there can be found something to find fault with the PCB design: after installation of a full-length PCI-Express video card, the DIMM slots are partly blocked. Near these slots there is a 4-pin CPU_FAN connector to plug in the processor cooler. 
Besides it, there are five more 3-pin connectors: one - near the rear panel, and one more - on the board's bottom edge, and three on the right-hand edge. At the same time, N780-ISH9 determines the rotational speed of all the five (of six) fans and controls the rotational speed of four of them. 
Under the north bridge, there are four DIMM slots. The maximum memory capacity makes 8 GB. 
To enable the dual-channel mode, the memory modules should be inserted into the slots of the same color. As regards the expansion options, the board uses three PCI Express x16 slots (all with holders) as well as one PCI Express x1 and two PCI slots. 
It should be noted that to first and third PCI Express õ16 slots there are 16 PCI-E version 2.0 bus lanes allocated, 16 - to the central (second) PCI Express õ16 slot, albeit of version 1.0. Expansion optionsXFX N780-ISH9 supports six SerialATA-II links. The matching connectors are colored black, positioned near the south bridge and are orientated in parallel to the board's plane. 
Then, on the board there are two Gigabit LAN controllers 88E1116 made by Marvell: 
The board supports ten USB 2.0 ports, six of which are positioned on the rear panel, with 4 more plugged in via brackets (the board comes bundled with a bracket for four ports). Besides, the board offers support for the Firewire bus. To this end, there is an additional TSB43AB22A controller on the board. Therefore, the board offers support for two IEEE1394 ports: one on the rear panel, with the other one connected with a plate (available in the package bundle). 
The last thing to dwell on is the integrated High Definition Audio. The ALC888S chip is used as the codec, which supports output to 8 channels. 
The board's rear panel looks like this: 
You can notice see a complete lack of LPT and COM ports. In the end, most part of the rear panel is not used up. We note there is an optical SP-DIF output, a Firewire port. On the board, there is a 7-stage POST indicator (all the codes are described in the user's manual) with which the user can perform the primary diagnostic and localize a problem. 
Besides, there is a couple of buttons to start up and reset the system. 
Now on to the BIOS settings. BIOSThe BIOS of XFX N780-ISH9 is based on the Award BIOS Phoenix version. 
The boards allows adjusting quite a wide range of the memory settings: 
The parameter in charge of selecting the memory operating frequency is in the section dealing with overclocking settings: 
The frequency values are displayed in the quadruple form. By the way, the user does not have to rack brains but simply choose the required memory frequency multiplier: 
Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring. 
The board keeps track of the current temperature of the CPU and the system, as well as the north bridge; keeps track of all the possible voltages of the system, and the rotational speeds of the five fans.
Besides, the board is able dynamically controlling the rotational speeds of the four fans depending on the temperatures. 
It should be noted that the user gets access to all the technologies supported by modern processors: 
In conclusion, we note the technology which allows saving all the BIOS settings (in particular, frequencies and voltages) into memory and loading them on demand. 
We also note the integrated test of the RAM. 
Overclocking and stabilityNow let's look at the power converter. It uses a 6-phase power scheme, in which there are three 1000 mkF, one 470 mkF, and seven 820 mkF capacitors. There are radiator on all the power components. 
All the overclocking tools are gathered in the "Advance Chipset Features" section: 
First, XFX N780-ISH9 allows adjusting the FSB within 100 MHz to 625 MHz. 
We found no features to adjust the multiplier of the HyperTransport bus on the section between the NB and the CPU, but revealed the option to adjust the multiplier on the section between the north and the south bridges (in both ways). 
 If needed, the user can adjust the HT bus speed on this section (within 200 MHz to 500 MHz). 
It is also possible to adjust the PCI Express bus speed within 100 MHz to 200 MHz (in 1 MHz increments), but for some reason - only for the second (central) PCI Express x16 slot. 
 If necessary, the user can change the processor's multiplier (which is locked towards the increase in all Intel processors): 
The next feature allows adjusting the CPU voltage (Vcore) within 0.5V to 1.8V in 0.00625V-0.0125V increments. 
 The next feature raises voltage on the memory modules: 
 The adjustment range for Vmem is rather wide (from within 1.8V to 2.5V in 0.025V increments). There is also a couple of useful features for adjusting voltage on the chipset. The voltage adjustment range on the north bridge is within 1.3V to 1.55V in 0.05V increments: 
The voltage adjustment range on the south bridge is is within 1.5V to 1.75V in 0.025V increments: 
 Then, XFX N780-ISH9 allows adjusting voltage on the HyperTransport bus within 1.2V to 1.55V in 0.05V increments: 
Besides, the user can adjust the CPU VTT voltage within 1.2V to 1.5V in 0.1V increments: 
Finally, there is a feature for adjusting the MCP Aux voltage within 1.5V to 1.7V in 0.1V increments: 
Now on to the practical overclocking. 
Without any issues we attained 530 MHz, whereas 500 MHz was possible to attain through only adjustment of the FSB speed. That became possible due to the fact the at 400 MHz the motherboard itself raises all the required voltages. In other words, even the beginner overclocker will be able to attain stable operation at 500 MHz without much effort. Performance testsInterestingly, XFX N780-ISH9 is quite precise at setting the nominal FSB speed: 
During the performance tests, we compared XFX N780-ISH9 versus ASUS Striker II (NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI) and Gigabyte X48-DQ6 (Intel X48). In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks. 
   Now on to the gaming benchmarks. 
       Tests of application software. 
  Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better.   Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in Kb/sec, i.e. the more, the better.  Final WordsTo start with, the board of NVIDIA's reference design allowed us to make the final conclusions regarding the nForce 780i SLI chipset. From the functional viewpoint, there are no complaints about this chipset: it offers good expansion options, superb support for the SLI and excellent overclocking capability. As regards the way NVIDIA increased the number of PCI Express lanes and implemented support for the v2.0 specification, this is a medal of two sides. The circuit engineer may call installation of an additional nForce 200 bridge non-optimum, inefficient, and expensive a technical solution. The user is neither hot nor cold about it - if the board works fine, let it work on. But frankly, the user may be hot about that: the chipset heats up like an oven and burns the radiator red hot. So we recommend to install the bundled fan right at the installation, even if you don't plan for overclocking. During the overclocking, it is useful to arrange additional cooling.
ConclusionPros:
- Discuss the material in the conference
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