Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6

"We think the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 has a bright future in the enthusiast performance market based upon solid performance, an incredible amount of features, and more importantly the support we expect Gigabyte to provide to the owners of this board. It might not ever be the best performing 680i board but no one can question it beats all other boards when it comes time to roll out the bling-bling."

"Gigabyte has another great enthusiast-class motherboard in the N680SLI-DQ6. It should easily satisfy most all overclockers looking to get more out of their systems. Had we seen it attain some higher overclocks on the super-high-end, it would have quickly sported a [H] Gold Editor's Award. That might only be a BIOS revision away. Now for the shocker. The N680SLI-DQ6 is selling in e-tail for $350 and over. It is a hard price to justify given the bevy of great motherboards in the market that come with a comparable feature set and better overclocking ability. It's a great motherboard, but not a bargain."

"The Gigabyte GA- N680SLI-DQ6 is no doubt a very strong contender for the top enthusiast Core 2 Duo motherboard you can get today. It has multiple improvements over its Intel P965 cousin, the GA-965P-DQ6, but the nForce 680i SLI chipset isn't exactly cheap to implement. With all the added features, an educated guess would probably put the board in the range of US$280 to US$300. This is still very much cheaper than the ASUS Striker Extreme though, so if you are looking at an all-encompassing motherboard to build your ultimate rig, the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 may be it, but it may not be the best overclocker out there."

"It is possible that a future BIOS revision may be able to improve the latency issues, however if you don't need SLI support, you would be better off with a 975X based Asus P5W DH Delinux, or a good P965 based board such as the Asus P5B-E Deluxe or Gigabyte GA965P-DS3."

"At the end of the day, high-end boards aren't going to offer the same value proposition as mid-range products. But even with a price tag that stretches north of $300, the N680SLI-DQ6 doesn't feel like a rip-off. Sure it's expensive, and it's not any faster than a decent mid-range board. But if you take into account all the extras, the attention to detail, and the phenomenal overclocking potential, the DQ6 is exactly what a high-end motherboard should be."