EVGA 680i SLI Setup

     Every year motherboards become easier and easier to setup. With technology like EPP memory and of course plug & play, it seems like installing and configuring a motherboard today just couldn't get any easier. However, installing a motherboard still takes skill and experience. Because of this, I don't recommend that just anyone attempt to install a motherboard on their own without help from a professional. There are just too many things that can go wrong and inexperience or lack of knowledge is the #1 cause of the majority of RMAs.

     When it comes to setting up the bios, EVGA makes it easy but you still need some experience because the settings and options can be overwhelming if you've never done it before. I could write about bios settings for hours on end but it would be nothing more then techno-babble so I'll save you the pain. Just stick to the user's manual and have someone with some experience help you out.

     The one bios screen I do want to show you is the FSB & Memory Config screen. In a nutshell, EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) helps the user get the most out of their high performance memory and it works extremely well on the EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. Enabling the SLI-Ready Memory setting will allow the motherboard to detect the proper bus speed for the memory whether it be PC2-6400 or PC2-8500 and so on. At the same time you can choose to overclock the CPU by 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, or Max. The user may choose to disable this setting and input the clock speed themselves as shown below.

     The ability to choose memory and CPU bus speeds independently is what sets this motherboard apart from all the others. Most motherboards have their bus speeds between the CPU and memory linked to where if you overclock one, you overclock the other. The good overclocking boards have a ratio setting which really helps, but they are not nearly as overclocker friendly as this. With the 680i, we can overclock just the memory, just the CPU or both. Anyone who knows overclocking will tell you this setting right here is what makes this board a great overclocking board.

About EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles)
     NVIDIA - Developed as an extension to the traditional Serial Presence Detect (SPD) found on today's high-performance DIMMS, Enhanced Performance Profiles allow memory manufacturers to integrate additional module performance data in the unused portion of the JEDEC standard SPD, allowing compatible motherboards to read and take advantage of added performance capabilities. Enhanced Performance Profiles were developed as an open standard, and immediate adoption is expected NVIDIA motherboard partners and PC memory suppliers.

     While memory modules with Enhanced Performance Profiles will work on any motherboard, only motherboards equipped with properly-designed BIOSes will detect the presence of these new capabilities and prompt the user to set PC boot parameters for guaranteed optimized settings. End users will be able to measure the impact on benchmark performance and verify detailed parametric settings using common system utilities such as Lavalys EVEREST or Microsoft® Windows®-based performance tools such as NVIDIA nTune™.

Test System

     For the test system I tried to use hardware that is not quite the best and the fastest, but something more along the lines of something the average person would put together for a nice gaming system for a reasonable amount of money.

Memory Tests

     Memory tests will be done using SiSoft Sandra Pro Business version 2007.1.11.17. ClubOC has been using SiSoft Sandra for many years now and it's pretty much the only benchmarking program we trust for testing memory and processors. We'll be using 2 types of memory, Patriot Memory PC2-6400 SLI-Ready at 800MHz and OCZ PC2-8500 SLI-Ready at 1066MHz.

Patriot Memory PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Memory Testing

Sandra Memory Bandwidth results shown above in red: 7647/7642

OCZ PC2-8500 SLI-Ready Memory Tests

Sandra Memory Bandwidth results shown above in red: 7747/7756

     The Patriot Memory running at 800MHz and with timings of 4-4-4-12 is very fast, but it's no match for the OCZ PC-8500 running at 1066MHz. Regardless of what memory, bus speed and timings, this is the fastest Sandra benchmarks we have ever seen on a Socket 775 motherboard here at the Club!

Memory Overclocking

     Now we move on to manual memory overclocking. The EVGA's 680i motherboard has one of the sweetest overclocking features of any motherboard out there, the ability to change the CPU and memory bus speeds independently. We already know OCZ's memory will run at 1066MHz at 5-5-5-15 with some incredible memory benchmark scores, but can we squeeze out a little more performance? Let's try upping the memory bus speed to see what happens.

Sandra Memory Bandwidth results shown above in red: 7825/7826

     Overclocking the memory beyond its rated speed of 1066MHz is a piece of cake with the 680i, especially when you're not battling an overclocked CPU at the same time. The EVGA 680i SLI is one sweet motherboard.