XFX 680i LT SLI Motherboard Review :: XFX 680i LT SLI Layout

Manufactured on a 12-layer military green PCB, the board looks more towards the old school than new school colored PCBs we have seen floating around of late. Looks can be deceiving though as after looking at the chipset we know the 680i LT SLI boards are a far cry from old-school in all respects. The motherboard offers very adequate space around the CPU, which is very good for those seeking to use aftermarket or liquid, based cooling systems that require maximum space availability.

Many motherboards have memory slots that really get in the way of larger sized VGA cards, but the 680i LT SLI has slots that are completely out of the way of the VGA cards path. The PCI 16X slots are placed well enough away from each other that using any of the big cards like the 8800GTX will be able to be installed in SLI and still have a bit of room for air flow between the two cards. The SATA connectors are located in a place that I am not all that thrilled about as they are all bunched together with the PATA controller the 12V power alternate and the memory slots. This design will leave two of the ports very hard to access if using memory with a large heatsink and may become a problem for some users in this instance.

The board is clearly silkscreened so that the lettering can be easily distinguished by the human eye and that makes connectivity of all the various cables and wires a breeze. Both the North Bridge and South have active cooling and this will help keep the board running stable, as just a heatpipe alone does not dissipate enough heat away from the combined temperatures of the chipsets to be an effective solution. Overclocking is also more achievable due to the inclusion of these active coolers, and would be almost unattainable without them. The slanted floppy connector is nice as are the secondary SATA ports, but for ergonomics sake why not just make all the SATA and PATA connectors this way? The board has two standard PCI slots, although one of the will also be blocked if using an SLI system as the second card will block the topmost slot. No big deal here though for most users as LAN and sound are both already on-board eliminating the need for more PCI slots.

The back panel does seem a bit on the lean side depending on how one views things as an enthusiast as the single LAN port may not be enough for some. Like I said only some users will feel these are drawbacks, but the majority will be satisfied with the four USB ports, Firewire, and six channel audio support. The sound provided on board comes via the Realtek chipset and uses Intel's Azelia HD Audio functions including auto-jack sequencing and six channel surround sound. The 9-Pin power cable after connected will be out of the way, but the 24-pin connector way to the front of the board and this will involve a bit of cable maneuvering to keep it out of the way completely. The board is generally laid out well enough to keep things not to the un-ergonomic, but not totally ergonomic either due to the few things I have mentioned in this passage. The VGA slots themselves are actually user friendly though as they allow a user to remove the card from the slot without the hassle of trying to pry it from the board when you cannot get your fingers under the VGA card to release to VGA lock. This board offers a single finger release that does make a difference when changing out your video card.

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