A few 680i questions for those who have one.

[veedubfreak]

Ok so it looks like with the gt im going to have to drop back from p35 to a 680i board and im not liking the reviews im finding on newegg. Anyone that has a 680i would you mind posting up what board it is and how stable it has been. So far my ds3r has been rock solid so i want to make sure i pick up an SLI board that is going to give me the same performace.

TIA

 

[lancec2c30]

I do recall.. mgcook has a 680i board. Try shooting him a pm.

 

[mgcook]

mine gives me no problems.

most people just dont know how to use the correct NB,SB,HT,CPU,FSB voltages.

i've gotten mine stable at 3.6Ghz on air so far.

 

[Sora]

Ok so it looks like with the gt im going to have to drop back from p35 to a 680i board and im not liking the reviews im finding on newegg. Anyone that has a 680i would you mind posting up what board it is and how stable it has been. So far my ds3r has been rock solid so i want to make sure i pick up an SLI board that is going to give me the same performace.

TIA

Wait until the X38 chipset honestly if you want my opinion. The BIOS of the 680i have been revised so they aren't a joke like they used to be but if you have your DS3R just go with one 8800GT which is plenty fast to hold off until then and buy a good X38 SLI board and a second 8800GT. You will be happy you did. Or just keep your 8800GTS for now and chill out until the X38 and do it all at once...the 8800GTS may have been shown up but they certainly are not slow cards.

 

[mgcook]

since when is the X38 going to support SLI?

the only new SLI board i knew of coming out is the 780i. and its just a 680i with DDR3 and PCI-E 2.0 support.

 

[veedubfreak]

Yes, my understanding was that x38 was not going to support SLI and when 780i comes out it will be an overpriced nightmare just like the 680i was i would guess. mgcook, what brand/model board do you have. I just ordered 2 of these from frys with 2 days shipping (was 3 bucks more than ground).
FRYS.com | EVGA

 

[Sora]

Oh whoops got them confused. I knew they were coming out with a new SLI board. We will see what kind of new BIOS lie in them.

For a budget SLI board the 650i still is an awesome board for around 95 bucks since it performs the same in SLI if not better. The 680i can be had for around 155 bucks now but thats still a good bit more.

 

[veedubfreak]

Ah i was thinking the 680 was the better board over the 650. I guess i'll check those out tommorow.

 

[mgcook]

i use this one:
Newegg.com - EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

its honestly not a bad board. next to the striker extreme its the best SLI board on the market right now.

 

[Sora]

Ah i was thinking the 680 was the better board over the 650. I guess i'll check those out tommorow.

I'm not saying it isn't a better board becuase it does have better overclocking features as well as just a few more general features. However the standard user, even myself could take a cheap 650i board such as the P6N and make it work pretty **** good in SLI. Considering that there is no bottleneck having one x8 lane in SLI...simply becuase cards have not needed that much bandwidth yet. This is why PCI-E 2.0 is stupid.


If you were to compare the P6N 650i to the board Mgcook has you would pay double for:

An extra PCI-E lane which is not needed
Slightly better cooling of the Nb/SB which is not really needed anyway
A slightly better onboard sound chip( I doubt you could tell them apart too much)
Dual Gigabyte Lan ports (not really needed usually)
Better overall overclocking board

Now as you see the board is better but the only thing that if I were buying that board would care to have would be the better overclocking options, which the 650i overclocks well for it's money. I'm not saying never buy the 680i but if anyone is on a budget do not think that the 650i are outdated becuase like **** they are.