The 780a chipset from nVIDIA has been a long time coming, but finally we are seeing some up for review.  The name implies that it is simply a re-do of the 780i chipset for AMD, but Hardware Secrets has found that a lot of work went into the chipset to make it more than that.  The ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe board looks physically similar to the 780i boards, with additional cooling around the memory and HybridSLI.  The features you would expect are there as well, PCI Express 2.0, solid state capacitors and Express Gate, letting you instantly boot to a LINUX shell integrated on the motherboard that will let you surf the web and a few other tasks.  If you are looking to build an AM3 system in the near future, you may want to skip this board, otherwise it is a phenomenal board for AM2+ CPUs.

“ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe will be one of the first motherboards to be launched on the market based on the forthcoming nForce 780a chipset – which, by the way, is delaying a lot to be released. But don’t think that nForce 780a is simple the AMD version of the nForce 780i – it isn’t. One of the main differences between the two is the support for HybridSLI, which features HybridPower, a feature that disables the video cards installed in the system when you are not playing games and generates 2D images – i.e. when you are using Windows, a word processor or a spreadsheet – thru the chipset to save a lot of power, and GeForce Boost, which uses the on-board video to increase 3D performance. The problem is that both features require compatible video cards and so far only two video cards support each feature. Other features from this motherboard include three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots supporting 3-way SLI and Quad SLI, a passive cooling solution for the memories, an eSATA port, coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs and more.”

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