What's wrong with 700 series SLI motherboard?

Skarjak

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Apr 30, 2009
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Hey. I keep hearing that the 700 series of SLI motherboards is bad. But what exactly is the problem with them?

My new computer will have a E8400 processor and a EVGA GTX 275 graphics card, so it seems the best option for a motherboard would be the EVGA 750i SLI FTW. What I see on the internet about this card is mostly positive.

So what's the deal with these motherboards?
 

g3force

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Feb 2, 2009
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They produce a lot of heat, are not very reliable, and have rather low overclocking potentials. I've owned 3 nvidia based motherboards, an nforce 4, a 680I, and a 750I. Only the nforce 4 has yet to be RMA'ed. A memory controller problem was attributed to both the dead boards.

P.S. The second 680i board I received has been running with no issues for about 8 months now. I sold off the 750i board to a friend, he hasn't had any problems with it so far. I could've been unlucky both times, but those situations have left a sour taste in my mouth. As such, I can't honestly recommend either board.
 
You'll see positive reviews of most Nvidia chipset boards, yes. The problems are more long-term, or heat related, or general but minor instabilities that show up when gaming or working the board hard in other ways.

I don't actually think they are bad by the standards of a few years ago, but these days both AMD and Intel make better chipsets. They are crossfire though of course.

So, we end up with builds like mine (E8400, P5Q-E, 4870). I generally tell folks that want to SLI to use i7 with an X58 chipset.
 

themyrmidon

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Feb 27, 2008
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The nForce4, 680i, 750i (FTW or competitor similar), 780a, and 790i are all very good models. Avoid all others, including the 780i or vanilla 750i. I love my 680i and can't wait for the 980a DDR3 to come out.