January 19th, 2007
Gigabyte motherboard goes quad!
That's quad core, quad SLI, quad gigabit Ethernet and quad eSATA.
Gigabyte have announced a new high-end SLI-ready gaming motherboard that is optimized for quad-core and will make use of the NVIDIA nForce 680i chipset.
The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 features optimized quad-core FSB routing and will support NVIDIA's Quad SLI technology - this means that you can run up to four GeForce 8800 GPUs. The board is aimed at gamers and as such easy overclocking is key to its success.
The GA-N680SLI-DQ6 supports dual-channel DDR2 800 memory and will feature easy one-click access to enhanced settings so that users can further tweak memory performance (up to speeds of 1200 MHz according to Gigabyte).
The board includes two x16 PCI Express slots for graphics cards and one x8 PCI Express so that a separate physics processor can be fitted for additional performance (assuming game support). The GA-N680SLI-DQ6 also supports LinkBoost technology which will boost bandwidth by up to 25% when the system is fitted with certain GeForce graphics cards.
The board features four gigabit Ethernet connectors and four external SATA ports. Also featured on the board is Cool2 and Silent Pipe2 cooling technologies and all the capacitors are the new solid design which should last longer and be more stable that standard electrolytic capacitor.
The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 should be hitting stores around the end of February and is expected to retail for $299.
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
Want to get in touch? Got a tip? Feel free to drop me a note! I ALWAYS respect anonymity. I'm also on Twitter (@the_pc_doc)
Right to Reply: Should any industry representatives wish to comment on any posts on Hardware 2.0, I will be happy to publish their reply verbatim on this blog.
Subscribe to Hardware 2.0 via Email alerts or RSS.
