EVGA 132-YW-E178-A1 User's Guide Page 1

User Guide EVGA force 780i SLI FTW Motherboard

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 p

EVGA 2  Onboard LAN  Dual LAN interface built-in onboard  Supports 10/100/1000 Mbit/sec Ethernet  Onboard 1394  Supports hot plug 

EVGA 3 Unpacking and Parts Descriptions Unpacking The EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW motherboard comes with all the necessary cables for adding a mothe

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 addit

EVGA 5 Figure 1. EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW Motherboard Layout 1. CPU Socket – For use with Intel LGA 775 CPUs 11. USB headers – for additional

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

EVGA 7 Hardware Installation This section will guide you through the installation of the motherboard. The topics covered in this section are: 

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.

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,

EVGA ii

EVGA 10 Installing the Motherboard The sequence of installing the motherboard into the chassis depends on the chassis you are using and if you ar

EVGA 11 Connecting Cables and Setting Switches This section takes you through all the connections and switch settings necessary on the mother

EVGA 12 Power Connections To support 3-way SLI, this motherboard has the following specific minimum power supply requirements:  A Power Supply

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

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

EVGA 15 Connecting Serial ATA Cables The Serial ATA II connector is used to connect the Serial ATA II device to the motherboard. These connec

EVGA 16 Connecting Internal Headers Front Panel Header The front panel header on this motherboard is one connector used to connect the following

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

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 als

EVGA 19 Audio The audio connector supports HD audio standard and provides two kinds of audio output choices: Front Audio and Rear Audio. The

EVGA iii Table of Contents Before You Begin… ...

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 secti

EVGA 21 There are four more optional fan connectors on the motherboard that can be used for adding more system fans. COM1 The motherboard

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). Exp

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,

EVGA 24 Clear CMOS Function The motherboard contains a button to clear BIOS configurations back to default settings. Please see Figure 1 on page

EVGA 25 Configuring the BIOS This section discusses how to change the system settings through the BIOS Setup menus. Detailed descriptions of

EVGA 26 Enter BIOS Setup The BIOS is the communication bridge between hardware and software. Correctly setting the BIOS parameters is critical wh

EVGA 27 Figure 5. BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Main Menu  Standard CMOS Features Use this menu to set up the basic system configuration.  A

EVGA 28 The following items on the CMOS Setup Utility main menu are commands rather than submenus:  Load Fail Safe Defaults Load default syste

EVGA 29 The information shown in Item Help corresponds to the option highlighted. Figure 6. Standard CMOS Features Menu Note that all dat

EVGA iv Audio ...

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

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

EVGA 32 Halt On All Errors ... [ ] No Errors ... [ ] All , But Keyboard ... [ ] All , But Diskette ... [ ] All , But Disk/Key ...

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

EVGA 34 Removable Device Priority Use this option to select the priority for removable device startup. Press Enter to see the list of removable d

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 P

EVGA 36 MPS Version Control For OS Use this function to select the Multi-Processor Specification (MPS) version that BIOS passes to the operating

EVGA 37 Advanced Chipset Features Select Advanced Chipset Features from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the functions

EVGA 38 Integrated Peripherals Menu Select Integrated Peripherals from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the Integrated Peri

EVGA 39 OnChip IDE Channel0 [Disabled] x Primary Master PIO Auto x Primary Slave PIO Auto x Primary Master UDMA Auto x Primary

EVGA v System BIOS Cacheable ... 37

EVGA 40 RAID Enable [Disabled] x SATA 0 Primary RAID Disabled x SATA 0 Secondary RAID Disabled x SATA 1 Primary RAID Dis

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

EVGA 42 Power Management Setup Menu Select Power Management Setup from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the Power Managemen

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

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

EVGA 45 PnP/PCI Configuration Menu Select PnP/PCI Configuration from the CMOS Setup Utility menu and press Enter to display the PnP/PCI Confi

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 O

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 th

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 th

EVGA vi PC Health Status ...

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

EVGA 50 System Clocks Select System Clocks from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the System Clocks menu. From this m

EVGA 51 Frequency Settings  CPU Freq, MHz This value is set by the CPU Multiplier (value cannot be changed by the user).  FSB Reference C

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. Opt

EVGA 53 FSB & Memory Config Select FSB & Memory Config from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the FSB &am

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

EVGA 55  Memory Timing Setting Press Enter to display the Memory Timing Setting menu. Use this menu to set optimal timings or to manually e

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

EVGA 57 CPU Feature Select CPU Feature from the Frequency/Voltage control menu and press Enter to display the CPU Feature menu. Figure 1

EVGA 58  CPU Thermal Control Use this function to enable or disable TM1 and TM2 support. Options are:  Disable Disable support for TM1 and TM

EVGA vii System Voltage ...

EVGA 59 System Voltages Select System Voltages from the Advanced Chipset Features menu and press Enter to display the System Voltages menu.

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

EVGA 61 Load Timing/Voltage Set This function loads the system voltages and timing settings that were defined in the System Voltages menu. Y

EVGA 62

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

EVGA 64

EVGA 65 EVGA Glossary of Terms: ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface AFR – Alternate Frame Rendering APIC - Advanced Programmable In

EVGA 66 LCD - Liquid Crystal Display LGA – Land Grid Array LN2 – Liquid Nitrogen Cooling MAC - Media Access Control MCP - Media and Communic

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 NVM

EVGA 68 Award POST Codes Code Name Description 0E CheckSum Check Check the integrity of the ROM,BIOS and message 0F Reserved 10 Autodetect EEPRO

EVGA viii List of Figures Figure 1. EVGA nForce 780i SLI FTW Motherboard Layout ... 5 Figur

EVGA 69 Award POST Codes Code Name Description 2E Reserved 2F Reserved 30 Reserved 31 Reserved 32 Reserved 33 Early keyboard reset Early Key

EVGA 70 Award POST Codes Code Name Description memory above 1MB. 4A Reserved 4B Reserved 4C Reserved 4D Reserved 4E Init APIC Initialize APIC

EVGA 71 Award POST Codes Code Name Description 69 Init Cache Initialize cache controller 6A Reserved 6B Setup Enter setup check and auto configu

EVGA 72 Award POST Codes Code Name Description 8A Reserved 8B Option ROM Detect Scan for Option ROMs 8C Reserved 8D Enable Parity Check Enable

EVGA 73 Table 7. NVMM POST Codes NVMM POST Codes Code Name Description 0F0h Identify HW in the system 0F1h Register the slam tables 0F2h Earl

EVGA 74 NVMM POST Codes Code Name Description 0FEh ERROR handler 0FFh End of Table 0FFh Invalid APIC ID 0FEh CPU Identify/Init failed 0FDh N

EVGA ix Before You Begin… Parts NOT in the Kit This kit contains all the hardware necessary to install and connect your new EVGA force®