Installation
A basic, no frills-approach characterizes the XFX 680i LT, right from the moment you open the box.  Although the packaging includes the typical XFX panache – attractive green-and-black-themed multi-level box, drivers CD, manual and quick-start guide in a separate folio – most of what you’ll find inside is consistent with the expected, standard designs that NVIDIA puts together.  With the exception of the IDE cables – which feature a glorious wrapped middle section that quite frankly eliminates almost everything I hate about IDE cables – there’s nothing packaged with the board or in the board’s design itself that will make the XFX 680i LT stand out in a shopping cart.  This isn’t a criticism, per se; the tried and true options save you a bit of money on the front end and hold with the marketing philosophy behind the 680i LT chipset.

Installation proceeded smoothly and I had everything plugged in and hooked up without any real issues.  Space is less of a concern on this board than it was on the 590 board from ASUS I reviewed a few months ago – conflicts between a second video card and front panel connections wouldn’t be a problem, for example – but part of the extra space comes from removing board headers present on earlier designs, as I found when I tried to plug in the included FireWire and USB daughterboards and my case’s front panel USB/FireWire connectors and found there were simply not enough plugs available.

Stress Testing and Overclocking
After I brought the installation phase to a successful conclusion, I fired up the new board, started Windows XP and took the included CD for a spin.  XFX doesn’t include much beyond the basics: drivers, a PDF copy of the installation manual, etc.  It’s a little disappointing, because sometimes an included utility or two can make the difference when you’re trying to pick among the many manufacturers available, but XFX is fairly new to the motherboard game, so I’m willing to forgive them for now.

Next up, testing time: does the XFX 680i LT stand up to the punishments you’re bound to put it through?  To find out, I ran a few tests on my setup, which has the following specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core2 Duo e6400 Processor
• Memory: 2 GB of Crucial DDR2 PC2-8500 Ballistix Tracer Dual Channel RAM
• Video Card: Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS Factory Overclocked Video Card
• Hard Drive: IBM Deskstar 60 GXP 40 GB
• Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 1010W Power Supply
• OS: Windows XP SP2
• Testing Software:
• NVIDIA nTune
• System Stability Test
• Tune System