BIOS options galore
Nvidia has long done a good job of providing plenty of tweaking and overclocking options in its reference BIOSes, and the one that comes with the 780i SLI is no exception.

There's a little something for everyone, including incredibly fine-grained control over the system's front-side and memory bus clocks. The 780i SLI may not officially support processors built to run on a 1600MHz front-side bus, but the BIOS will let you overclock the board to that speed and beyond. Memory bus speed options go all the way up to 1400MHz, as well, although Nvidia only guarantees up to 1200MHz. Slackers.

If you're going to dabble in extreme overclocking, you'll be pleased to note that the BIOS offers CPU multiplier control. A generous array of voltage options is available, as well. CPU voltage options go all the way up to 1.8V, and memory can be cranked up to 2.5V. Combine that with control over front-side bus, interconnect, and chipset voltages, and the 780i should offer overclockers all the flexibility they desire.

As one might expect, the BIOS serves up all the usual memory timing controls, including the ability to manipulate the DRAM command rate. Fan speed control makes an appearance, too, and in style no less. Users can set temperature-based fan speeds for the processor and chassis fan, and manual fan speed control is offered for three additional onboard fan headers.

If you don't feel like poking around in the BIOS, the 780i SLI reference design offers full support for Nvidia's nTune tweaking and system monitoring utility. Nvidia actually has a new, beta version of the app that's ESA-enabled and should be available for download today. Look for a more detailed report on this new utility, and all things ESA, soon.

Specifics on specifications
For those who prefer motherboard specifications distilled into chart form, here's the skinny on the nForce 780i SLI reference motherboard design. Note the lack of auxiliary Serial ATA and Gigabit Ethernet chips; Nvidia likes to handle as much as possible within the chipset, so it doesn't need to outsource much functionality to third-party silicon.