EVGA 780i upgrade promotion?

[Viper GTS]

Looks like all the bitching about 680i & Penryn paid off, I just got this e-mail:

EVGA is proud to announce the 680i Motherboard Upgrade Promotion.
EVGA is offering a special (1) one time upgrade promotional program
to all of its
(122-CK-NF68-XX)* registered customers. This program is for a limited
time and will run for 60 days. (122-CK-NF68-XX)* customers will be
able to upgrade to the 780i
(132-CK-NF78-XX) motherboard for a one time fee of $89.99 USD or ?79.
99.

What do you get for the $89.99 (?79.99)?
? New EVGA 780i Motherboard (132-CK-NF78-XX)
? 3 Way SLI Bridge ($20 USD ?14 Value)
? Free Ground Shipping** ($10 USD ?7 Value)
? PCI-E 2.0 Slots
? 3 x16 PCI-E Slots
? ESA Certified Platform
? New Upgrade Warranty (?A1 Limited Lifetime / -T1 2 Year Limited
Warranty)

All products must be registered (http://www.evga.com/myEVGA/)
You will need to send in your EVGA 680i Motherboard once you have
been approved for this promotion.

Please visit our website at: http://www.evga.com/680iupgrade/ and
then log in to see this upgrade offer.

Thank you,
EVGA Marketing

I'm not a fan of throwing good money after bad but I have to say I am tempted.

Viper GTS

 

[imported_callo]

Just in time, I was about to bought all 680i waterblocks, Im also thinking about.

 

[lupi]

Ditto, also hoping for cross shipment allowed.

 

[Viper GTS]

Thankfully I have an x38 system I can use if I do this, but cross-shipping would be much nicer.

I think for most people this will end up being a $104.99 upgrade. I know it's not worth $15 to me to try to track down all the accessories the board came with. Assuming the 2-way SLI bridge is considered an accessory the $15 is even more reasonable, since for the immediate future I need one of the x16 slots for a RAID controller. The 3-way, while nice for the future, will be a PITA if you want SLI with only two cards.

[EDIT]Looks like they may be including both 2-way and 3-way bridges so it's a non issue...[/EDIT]

Viper GTS

 

[lupi]

Burp post.

 

[aka1nas]

Sweet, I just put my upgrade in.

 

[Narse]

Just put my upgrade in. Now just waiting on the e-mail back from evga saying they are ready to recive my motherboard.

 

[manimal]

I am on the fence on whether or not to upgrade mine, I have 50 evga bucks to burn so the upgrade wont be that big of strain on the pocketbook. What sort of irks me is they did minimal fixes to the layout, Why they didnt improve the power on these things to a more robust digital pwm or at least a redesign. The different cooling on the NB and SB look decent but if it sounds like a hairdryer I will not be happy. They had a while to fix some of the glaring issues of the 680i had and all they do is slap on some extra lanes and shiny new plastic graphics......



M

edit: im tired after working for 13 hours, do these use ddr2 or ddr3?

 

[aka1nas]

780i is DDR2: It's the same NB as the 680i with a new PCI-E 2.0 capable SB.

790i will be out in Q1 and will be the DDR3 chipset.

 

[aigomorla]

great find. I found this out on xs systems. Glad someone here posted it.

I ended up stepping up. I have a 680i thats sitting in a box collecting dust. Anyhow the total came out to 100 dollars with tax and 2nd day air ups shipping, LA,CA USA resident. :\

 

[manimal]

I decided to bite on this because I just ordered a second 8800gts 512 for SLI, I hope that the addition of GRTLFF makes OCing quads a little easier and lower the voltage needed. I am using a 70 dollar IP-35E I got on clearance from frys and It was soo easy to OC its not even funny. Uses a ton less volts above 3GHZ on the quad too. I am gonna give evga another shot and hope this things does better than the 3 that crapped out on me in the last month.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
780i is DDR2: It's the same NB as the 680i with a new PCI-E 2.0 capable SB.

790i will be out in Q1 and will be the DDR3 chipset.

Actually, no. The chipset (NB/SB) are the same, it just adds the nvidia 200 bridge chip that allows more lanes of PCIe 2.0.

And.... there is no cross-shipment.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: aka1nas
780i is DDR2: It's the same NB as the 680i with a new PCI-E 2.0 capable SB.

790i will be out in Q1 and will be the DDR3 chipset.

Actually, no. The chipset (NB/SB) are the same, it just adds the nvidia 200 bridge chip that allows more lanes of PCIe 2.0.

And.... there is no cross-shipment.

Sorry, didn't realize it was a three-chip solution until I saw the reviews after I posted.

 

[djnsmith7]

I've been an ASUS & ASUS only fan for a long time now because I've had such great luck with their boards...However, I'm tempted to try out this new EVGA 780i board...

I'm very curious to know what the general level of satisfaction has been with EVGA boards...From what I've read on AT, they seem to hold up pretty well, but are people as happy with them as I've been with ASUS boards?

Update: Well, I just read more reports / reviews on the EVGA 680i & preliminary 780i boards & so far, there's a lot of bad news & a lot of very unhappy customers...Maybe I'll stick to my tried & true trustworthy ASUS boards...