Gigabyte GA-780SLi-DS5 board pictured - NVIDIA 780i

[Apoptosis]

With the launch of Nvidia’s 780i SLI chipset coming close, some shots of Gigabyte's GA-780SLi-DS5 - which will be among the first of the retail boards to arrive with such a chipset - has appeared online. Alongside support for 45mn processors, the 780i will support 1066MHz and 1333MHz FSB's, and three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots ready for Tri-SLI. Unfortunately, DDR3 or 1600MHz FSB’s won't be supported until the C73 (790i) launches in January. The 780SLi-DS5, which will be a lower-end 780 board, accommodates six SATA ports, two heatpipes, three PCIe slots, and four DDR2-1066 slots. Gigabyte will also have a DQ6 version based on the 780i chipset, but we don't have any information about this board at the moment. Apparently, the 780i chipset is running very hot and it's difficult to design a good cooling solution for it. The N200 PCIe controller, on the other hand, is apparently quite satisfactory.

The cooler on both of the pictures below is said to be changing, so who knows what the final design will look like!

[Zertz]

Southbridge looks huge

Can't wait to see what the chipset can do

[Bio-Hazard]

I've read that the 780istill won't run the new 45nm quads, is there any truth to these rumors............. Or are we still stuck with running only Intel chipsets.

[FZ1]

I'm wondering if the chipsets are going to run as hot as the 680i's like Ken said.

[kenc51]

I'm wondering if the chipsets are going to run as hot as the 680i's like Ken said.

It is a 680i chip, just with another additional chip to support PCIe ver 2.0

[skier]

sweet board that thing has 2 esata and 2 lan ports

[Apoptosis]

I'm wondering if the chipsets are going to run as hot as the 680i's like Ken said.

look at the stock cooler - http://forums.legitreviews.com/post90727.html#p90727

[FZ1]

Great. A little whiney fan like I have on my DFI board.

[FZ1]

I wonder if the back of these boards have the copper behind the cpu like on the GA-X38-DQ6 board making it a PITA for adding an aftermarket cooler?