XFX 650i ULTRA

INTRODUCTION

What comes to mind when you think of the word 'value'? Do images of cheap construction or poor build quality come to mind? In recent years the word value has come to be a polite way to describe a product that is cut down and offers little in the way of features for a low cost. Certainly a misnomer given the little value these items offered. Now, what if I told you that the word value was about to take on a whole new meaning? That a company well known for world class video cards is going to offer a motherboard packed with features at a price many of us can afford? Have I piqued your interest yet? Good, let's begin.

XFX 650i Ultra

XFX

XFX®, is a company that is well known to the gaming community as they produce some of the most extreme graphic products around. As a company they operate on the following corporate philosophy:

"XFX® dares to go where the competition would like to, but can't. That's because, at XFX®, we don't just create great digital video components--we build all-out, mind-blowing, performance crushing, competition-obliterating video cards and motherboards." "Oh, and not only are they amazing, you don't have to live on dry noodles and peanut butter to afford them."

ACKAGING

I have to say when I received this unit in the mail I was a little struck by the size of the box. It is quite a bit larger than the boxes my Asus motherboards of yore have come in. This turns out to be a good thing as they are double boxed for added safety. Not only do the boxes serve to protect but they also serve to inform. Flipping the box over we see a breakdown of what the board contains as well as some curious information regarding overclocking. I say curious because while many manufacturers are aware of the popularity of overclocking few have gone so far as to say it right on their packaging that this unit can handle some overclocking goodness. Thumbs up XFX.

XFX Box Front & Rear
(Click to enlarge)

XFX's reminder

CONTENTS

Opening up the box reveals the standard inclusion. Since this board is targeted at the mainstream user this suits me just fine as I like to keep costs down.

Cables & Accessories

Package Contents

• 1 - Quick install manual
• 1 - Driver cd
  
• 1 - Rear I/O plate
• 1 - Molex to SATA adapter
• 1 - Floppy drive cable
• 1 - IDE cable
• 2 - SATA cable

LAYOUT

Looking at the layout of this board we see XFX adhering to the reference design right down to the last transistor. This is a good thing in my opinion as everything is well spaced out. There are all solid capacitors around the CPU area allowing for plenty of clearance. The 24-pin plug is easy to get to and the 4-pin CPU plug is only tricky when using a very large heatsink like the Big Typhoon. The only minor annoyance is the location of the USB headers on the board as you will see in the next page. The floppy drive port, while it is on the very bottom of the board, is acceptable as I don't recall the last time I had to use a floppy drive. (Edit: Updating your bios from XFX will require you to have a floppy drive as the utility they provide is only extractable to a floppy disk. We hope XFX changes this in future versions.)

XFX 650i Ultra Layout

1. LGA 775 Socket - Lan Grid Array sockets places the signal pins inside the socket rather than the CPU.
2. 650i Ultra SPP - AKA the Northbridge, it controls the memory and PCIe interface.
3. 240-pin DIMM Socket - Allows for use of DDR2 memory in dual channel mode by utilizing the same color socket for each stick of RAM.
4. 24-pin ATX Plug - Allows the use of an ATX power supply to power the motherboard.
5. PCIe 1x Slots - Two slots used for expansion cards, it operates at speeds up to 250MB/s in each direction.
6. PCIe 16x Slot - One slot used for video cards, it operates at speeds up to 4000MB/s in each direction.
7. 650i Ultra MCP - AKA the Southbridge, it controls the hard drives (IDE & SATA), USB ports, PCI slots, audio output and network connection.
8. SATA Ports - Four ports for connecting Serial-ATA hard drives or optical drives.
9. PATA Port - One port for connecting two IDE hard drives or optical drives.
10. PCI Slots - Three 32-bit PCI slots for connecting expansion cards.
11. Front Panel Audio - Connects to the audio ports of most cases. Used for plugging in microphones and headphones.
12. Serial Connector - Used for connecting a serial port into an available expansion slot.
13. USB Headers - Two internal headers allowing up to four additional USB ports to be connected.
14. CMOS Battery - Provides power to the CMOS for storing the system time and system settings for your computer.
15. FDD Port - One port allowing one floppy drive to be connected.
16. Pin Out - Connects to the case switches (Power LED, HDD LED, Reset and Power)

REAR I/O

The rear I/O section of the board looks barren in comparison to some boards out there. But let's not forget that those boards cost quite a bit more money and honestly speaking, I never used a parallel or serial port. I was pleased to see the inclusion of PS/2 ports on this board since plugging in a USB mouse and keyboard lowers the throughput of other devices attached through the shared connection.

Rear I/O

1. PS/2 Ports - Connections for keyboard (purple) and mouse (green)
2. USB 2.0 Ports - Four Universal Serial Bus connections. Used to connect newer mice and keyboards as well as other devices such as digital cameras, printers and external drives.
3. Ethernet Port - Plug a RJ-45 cable into this port for broadband access to the internet or to setup a home network. Supports speeds up to 1Gbit (1 Gbit = 1000 Mbit)
4. 8-Channel Audio - Plug up to seven speakers and a sub-woofer thanks to the Azalia High Definition Audio chip. Also a microphone and an audio input port.

CONCLUSION

This board has a lot going for it and during my testing the board remained rock solid and offered such a great level of performance I would almost feel guilty for paying such a small price for such a great product. The board does have a couple of issues though none of them were deal breakers for me. As long as you take your time and plan ahead while assembling your rig you should have no problems with this motherboard. Overclocking was stellar, the board remained stable and gaming at 3.5 GHz was a real pleasure. This is a great board offered at a great price. Value has a new meaning.

FINAL WORDS

When the 6-series boards hit the scene they were plagued with problems left and right. It seemed as though the chipset would never reach its true potential. I am excited to say that during my time with the 650i Ultra from XFX I never encountered any problems that existed in the other versions. Additionally many people have stated that the best chipset for an Intel processor is an Intel chipset. This may have been true as recently as a year ago with the only competition coming in the form of the 5-series from Nvidia but times are changing. The 6-series brings with it rock solid performance, superior overclocking options and a multitude of configurations. This trifecta is a force to be reckoned with and during my time with this motherboard I would happily suggest this board to anyone looking for a solid foundation. XFX has a winner on their hands here and with the price this board is selling for you won't find a better value out there.

Pros:

+ Highly overclockable
+ Supports a wide range of Intel CPU's
+ Supports new 1333 MHz FSB
+ Supports large CPU heatsinks
+ Very stable
+ Excellent value

Cons:

- Internal USB headers too close to bottom PCI slot
- Naming of DIMM slots might confuse some
- No cooling on southbridge

Final score: 9 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Golden Bear Award.