EVGA 780i SLI FTW - Manuals

EVGA 1 EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW Motherboard Thank you for buying the EVGA nFore 780i SLI FTW Motherboard: This motherboard offers the tools and performance PC users’ demand. When combined with two or three SLI- Ready NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, you get innovative NVIDIA SLI Technology for enhance...

EVGA 3 Unpacking and Parts Descriptions Unpacking The EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW motherboard comes with all the necessary cables for adding a motherboard to a new chassis. If you are replacing a motherboard, you may not need many of these cables. Be sure to inspect each piece of equipment shipped in t...

EVGA 4 2-Port SATA Power Cable (Qty Three) Allows a Molex power connector to adapt to a SATA power connector 1394 Cable Provides two additional 1394 ports to either the front or back panels of the chassis. USB 2.0 4-Port Cable Provides four additional USB ports to either the front or back panels of ...

EVGA 6 Figure 2. Chassis Back Panel Connectors 1. PS/2 Mouse Port 2. PS/2 Keyboard Port 3. 1394a (Firewire) Port 4. USB 2.0 ports (SIX) 5. SPDIF output 6. Port 2-Channel 4-Channel 6-Channel/8-Channel Blue Line-In Line-In Line-In Green Line-Out Front Speaker Out Front Speaker Out Pink Mic In Mic In M...

EVGA 7 Hardware Installation This section will guide you through the installation of the motherboard. The topics covered in this section are:  Preparing the motherboard  Installing the CPU  Installing the CPU fan  Installing the memory  Installing the motherboard  Connecting cables and setting...

EVGA 8 Preparing the Motherboard Installing the CPU Be very careful when handling the CPU. Make sure not to bend or break any pins on the back. Hold the processor only by the edges and do not touch the bottom of the processor. Use the following procedure to install the CPU onto the motherboard. 1. U...

EVGA 9 Installing System Memory (DIMMs) Your new motherboard has four 1.8V 240-pin slots for DDR2 memory. These slots support 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, and 2 GB DDR2 memory modules. They also support dual channel DDR2 memory technology up to 10.7GB/s. There must be at least one memory bank populated to ...

EVGA 10 Installing the Motherboard The sequence of installing the motherboard into the chassis depends on the chassis you are using and if you are replacing an existing motherboard or working with an empty chassis. It is recommended to secure the motherboard first before making all connections. Use ...

EVGA 11 Connecting Cables and Setting Switches This section takes you through all the connections and switch settings necessary on the motherboard. This will include:  Power Connections  24-pin ATX power ( PWR1 )  8-pin ATX 12V power ( PWR2 )  Internal Headers  Front panel  IEEE 1394a  USB He...

EVGA 12 Power Connections To support 3-way SLI, this motherboard has the following specific minimum power supply requirements:  A Power Supply that features 1000 W peak power  6-pin and/or 8-pin PCI-E power connectors configured in either of the following configurations (see Figure 3):  Four 6-pi...

EVGA 13 24-pin ATX Power (PWR1) PWR1 is the main power supply connector located along the edge of the board next to the DIMM slots. Make sure that the power supply cable and pins are properly aligned with the connector on the motherboard. Firmly plug the power supply cable into the connector and mak...

EVGA 14 8-pin ATX 12V Power ( PWR2 ) PWR2 , the 8-pin ATX 12V power connection, is used to provide power to the CPU. Align the pins to the connector and press firmly until seated. This connector is notched, do not force in. Connecting IDE Hard Disk Drives The IDE connector supports Ultra ATA 133/100...

EVGA 15 Connecting Serial ATA Cables The Serial ATA II connector is used to connect the Serial ATA II device to the motherboard. These connectors support the thin Serial ATA II cables for primary storage devices. The current Serial ATA II interface allows up to 300MB/s data transfer rate. There are ...

EVGA 16 Connecting Internal Headers Front Panel Header The front panel header on this motherboard is one connector used to connect the following four cables: (see Table 2 for pin definitions)  PWRLED Attach the front panel power LED cable to these two pins of the connector. The Power LED indicates ...

EVGA 17 Table 2. Front Panel Header Pins Pin Signal In/Out Description HD_LED 1 HD_PWR Out Hard disk drive LED pulls up to +5V 3 HDA# Out Hard disk drive active LED PWRLED 2 HDR_BLNK_GRN Out Front panel green light 4 HDR_BLNK_YEL Out Front panel yellow light RESET 5 GND Ground 7 FP_RESET# In Reset s...

EVGA 18 USB Headers This motherboard contains six (6) USB 2.0 ports that are exposed on the rear panel of the chassis (Figure 2). The motherboard also contains two 10-pin internal header connectors onboard that can be used to connect an optional external bracket containing four (4) more USB 2.0 port...

EVGA 19 Audio The audio connector supports HD audio standard and provides two kinds of audio output choices: Front Audio and Rear Audio. The front Audio supports re-tasking function. Table 5. Front Audio Connector Connector Pin Signal Front Audio Connector 1 PORT1_L 2 AUD_GND 3 PORT1_R 4 PRECENCE_J ...

EVGA 20 Fan Connections There are five fan connections on the motherboard. The fan speed can be detected and viewed in the PC Health Status section of the CMOS Setup. The fans are automatically turned off after the system enters S3, S4 and S5 mode. Note that the CPU fan cable can be either a 3-pin o...

EVGA 22 Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) Connector The motherboard supports a standard 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44m, and a 2.88M floppy disk drive (FDD). Expansion Slots The EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW motherboard contains six expansion slots, four PCI Express slots and two PCI slots. PCI Slots The two PCI slots sup...

EVGA 23 PCI Express x1 Slot There is one PCI Express x1 slot that is designed to accommodate less bandwidth-intensive cards, such as a modem, LAN card, or soundcard card. The x1 slot provides up to 250 MB/sec bandwidth. PCI Express x16 Slots These three PCI Express x16 slots are reserved for graphic...

EVGA 24 Clear CMOS Function The motherboard contains a button to clear BIOS configurations back to default settings. Please see Figure 1 on page 6 for location. Clear CMOS Button The motherboard uses the CMOS to store all the set parameters. The CMOS can be cleared by pressing the Clear CMOS button ...

EVGA 25 Configuring the BIOS This section discusses how to change the system settings through the BIOS Setup menus. Detailed descriptions of the BIOS parameters are also provided. This section includes the following information:  Enter BIOS Setup  Main Menu  Standard CMOS Features  Advanced BIOS...

EVGA 26 Enter BIOS Setup The BIOS is the communication bridge between hardware and software. Correctly setting the BIOS parameters is critical when maintaining optimal system performance. Use the following procedure to verify/change BIOS settings. 1. Power on the computer. 2. Press the Del key when ...

EVGA 27 Figure 5. BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Main Menu  Standard CMOS Features Use this menu to set up the basic system configuration.  Advanced BIOS Features Use this menu to set up the advanced system features and boot sequence.  Advanced Chipset Features Use this menu to adjust system bios cachea...

EVGA 28 The following items on the CMOS Setup Utility main menu are commands rather than submenus:  Load Fail Safe Defaults Load default system settings.  Load Optimized Defaults Loads optimized system settings.  Set Supervisor Password Use this command to set, change, and disable the password us...

EVGA 29 The information shown in Item Help corresponds to the option highlighted. Figure 6. Standard CMOS Features Menu Note that all data in white is for information only, data in yellow is changeable, data in blue is non-changeable, and data in a red box is highlighted for selection. Date and Time...

EVGA 30 IDE Channel and SATA Channel Use these functions to detect and configure the individual IDE and SATA channels. Select a channel and press Enter to display the IDE/SATA sub-menu. Press Enter to auto-detect IDE and SATA channels in the system. Once the channel is detected, the values for Capac...

EVGA 31 Drive A None ..... [ ] 360K, 5.25 in. ..... [ ] 1.2M, 5.25 in. ..... [ ] 720K, 3.5 in. ..... [ ] 1.44M, 3.5 in. ..... [ ] 2.88M, 3.5 in. ..... [ ]  :Move ENTER:Accept ESC:Abort The BIOS supports the following HDD Access Modes:  CHS For HDD less than 528 MB.  LBA For HDD greater than 528 ...

EVGA 32 Halt On All Errors ..... [ ] No Errors ..... [ ] All , But Keyboard ..... [ ] All , But Diskette ..... [ ] All , But Disk/Key ..... [ ]  :Move ENTER:Accept ESC:Abort Base Memory 640K Extended Memory 1047552K Total Memory 1048576K Halt On Halt On determines whether or not the computer stops...

EVGA 33 Advanced BIOS Features Access the Advanced BIOS Features menu from the CMOS Utility Setup screen. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the options or press Enter to display the sub-menu. Use the  arrow keys to position the selector in the option you choose. To go back to th...

EVGA 34 Removable Device Priority Use this option to select the priority for removable device startup. Press Enter to see the list of removable devices in your system. Use the  arrow keys to go to the various devices. Then use the + or – keys to move the device priority up or down in the list. To ...

EVGA 35 First/Second/Third Boot Device Use this option to set the priority sequence of the devices booted at power on. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the options or press Enter to display the sub- menu. Use the  arrow keys to position the selector in the option you choose. Bo...

EVGA 36 MPS Version Control For OS Use this function to select the Multi-Processor Specification (MPS) version that BIOS passes to the operating system. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the options. Full Screen LOGO Show This option allows you to enable or disable the display of ...

EVGA 37 Advanced Chipset Features Select Advanced Chipset Features from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the functions of the Advanced Chipset Features menu. Figure 8. Advanced Chipset Features System BIOS Cacheable This function allows you to enable or disable caching the syst...

EVGA 38 Integrated Peripherals Menu Select Integrated Peripherals from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the Integrated Peripherals menu. Figure 9. Integrated Peripherals Menu  :Move Enter:Select +/-/PU/PD:Value F10:Save ESC:Exit F1:General Help F5: Previous Values F7:Defaul...

EVGA 39 OnChip IDE Channel0 [Disabled] x Primary Master PIO Auto x Primary Slave PIO Auto x Primary Master UDMA Auto x Primary Slave UDMA Auto IDE DMA transfer access [Enabled] Serial-ATA Controller [All Enabled] IDE Prefetch Mode [Enabled] IDE Function Setup Press Enter to display the IDE Function ...

EVGA 40 RAID Enable [Disabled] x SATA 0 Primary RAID Disabled x SATA 0 Secondary RAID Disabled x SATA 1 Primary RAID Disabled x SATA 1 Secondary RAID Disabled x SATA 2 Primary RAID Disabled x SATA 2 Secondary RAID Disabled OnChip USB [Disabled] x USB Keyboard Support Enabled x USB Mouse Support Enab...

EVGA 41 MAC Config Press Enter to display the MAC Config menu.  MACx LAN Use these functions to set the MAC0 and/or MAC1 LANs to Auto or disable their functions. IEEE1394 controller This function on the Integrated Peripherals menu allows you to enable or disable the IEEE1394 (Firewire) interface. H...

EVGA 42 Power Management Setup Menu Select Power Management Setup from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the Power Management Setup menu. Figure 10. Power Management Setup Menu ACPI Function This function on the Power Management Setup menu allows you to enable or disable the ACP...

EVGA 43 Soft-Off by PBNT This function on the Power Management Setup menu allows you to set Soft-Off by PBNT to [Instant-Off] or [Delay 4 Sec] . WOL(PME#) From Soft-Off This function on the Power Management Setup menu allows you to enable or disable WOL(PMW#) from soft-off. Power On by Alarm This fu...

EVGA 44 POWER ON Function This function on the Power Management Setup menu allows you to define the power-on function. Options for this function are:  BUTTON ONLY  Keyboard 98  Password When [Password] is selected, the KB Power ON Password function is enabled so that you must enter a password.  ...

EVGA 45 PnP/PCI Configuration Menu Select PnP/PCI Configuration from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the PnP/PCI Configuration menu. Figure 11. PnP/PCI Configuration Menu Init Display First This function on the PnP/PCI Configuration menu allows you to define if the initial dis...

EVGA 46 Set this to [Enabled] if you have installed a new add-on and the system reconfiguration has caused a serious conflict that prevents the OS from booting. The default setting is [Disabled] . Resources Controlled By This function on the PnP/PCI Configuration menu allows you to define if the BIO...

EVGA 47 Maximum Payload Size This function on the PnP/PCI Configuration menu allows you to set the maximum TLP payload size (in bytes) for the PCI Express devices. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through sizes or enter the number using the keyboard numbers or use the + and – keys to go ...

EVGA 48 Dynamic Fan Control Press Enter to display the Dynamic Fan Control menu. Use this menu to control the speed of the various fans on the motherboard. Set CPU fan speed, Chassis Fan, and nForce Fan to [SmartFan] when you want the speed of the fans automatically controlled based on temperature. ...

EVGA 49 Frequency/Voltage Control Press Enter to display the sub-menus. Dummy O.C Choose different levels of CPU OC 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% increments. This function will allow to automatically overclock your CPU. The O.C’s stability will rely on the CPU type, good CPU’s heat dissipation, O.C mem...

EVGA 50 System Clocks Select System Clocks from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the System Clocks menu. From this menu, you are able to specify frequency settings, HT multipliers, and Spread Spectrum settings. Note that in Figure 9, all of the options are listed. On the...

EVGA 51 Frequency Settings  CPU Freq, MHz This value is set by the CPU Multiplier (value cannot be changed by the user).  FSB Reference Clock. MHz This value is set by the system (value cannot be changed by the user). To change the SLI- Ready memory, FSB memory, and memory timing, go to the FSB &a...

EVGA 52 Spread Spectrum  CPU Spread Spectrum Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through the Spread Spectrum options for the CPU. Option values are [Disabled] , [UP Spread] , and [Center Spread].  HT Spread Spectrum Disabled  PCIe Spread Spectrum(MCP) Disabled  SATA Spread Spectrum Disa...

EVGA 53 FSB & Memory Config Select FSB & Memory Config from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the FSB & Memory Config menu. This menu provides the means to set SLI-Ready memory, FSB memory, and memory timing. Figure 14. FSB & Memory Config Menu  SLI-Ready...

EVGA 54 When you select one of the CPUOC x% options, the FSB - Memory Clock Mode is set to Unlinked and cannot be changed until SLI-Ready Memory is set to Disable . Please note when enabling SLI – Ready memory, timings and voltages will change automatically based on selection.  FSB and Memory Clock...

EVGA 55  Memory Timing Setting Press Enter to display the Memory Timing Setting menu. Use this menu to set optimal timings or to manually enter timings.  Optimal Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to select Optimal. Optimal prohibits you from manually setting any timing. All timing is set for opti...

EVGA 56 tCL : CAS# latency (options are 1 through 6). tRDC : RAS#-to-CAS# Delay for Read/Write commands to the same bank (options are 1 through 7). tRP : Row Precharge time. This is the Precharge-to-Active or Auto-to-Refresh of the same bank (options are 1 through 7). tRAS : This is the minimum RAS#...

EVGA 57 CPU Feature Select CPU Feature from the Frequency/Voltage control menu and press Enter to display the CPU Feature menu. Figure 15. CPU Configuration Menu  Limit CPUID MaxVal Use this function to enable the set limit of the CPUID MaxVal to 3. Set to Disable for Win XP.  Intel SpeedStep If e...

EVGA 58  CPU Thermal Control Use this function to enable or disable TM1 and TM2 support. Options are:  Disable Disable support for TM1 and TM2.  TM1 Only The CPU is thermally throttled by cutting active processor clock cycles.  TM2 Only Thermal throttling is achieved by reducing the CPU multipli...

EVGA 59 System Voltages Select System Voltages from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the System Voltages menu. Figure 16. System Voltages Menu  EVGA VDroop control This Function offers options of With VDroop or Without VDroop to reduce voltage droop.  CPU Core Use the ...

EVGA 60 Page Up and Page Down keys to select a voltage (1.20V, 1.30V, 1.40V, 1.50V) or select [Auto] to automatically set the voltage.  nForce MCP This function defines the core voltage level for the NVIDIA nForce MCP chip. Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to select a voltage or select [Auto] to ...

EVGA 61 Load Timing/Voltage Set This function loads the system voltages and timing settings that were defined in the System Voltages menu. You can set up to four profile settings using the Save timing/voltage set function. There are four profile options that can be loaded. Press Enter to see the opt...

EVGA 63 Installing Drivers and Software It is important to remember that before installing the driver CD that is shipped in the kit, you need to load your operating system. This motherboard supports both Windows XP 32-bit 64- bit and is Vista-capable with both 32-bit and 64-bit. The kit comes with a...

EVGA 65 EVGA Glossary of Terms: ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface AFR – Alternate Frame Rendering APIC - Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller BIOS - Basic Input Output System CD-ROM - Compact Disc Read-Only Memory CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor CPU – Central Pro...

EVGA 67 Appendix A. POST Codes for the EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW Motherboard This section provides the Award POST Codes (Table 6) and the NVMM POST Codes (Table 7) for EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW Motherboard during system boot up. These POST Codes are displayed on the LED POST Code readout located direc...