Best OC SLI board? (NOT Striker Extreme!)

GmanUK

GmanUK

GmanUK

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Joined
4 Oct 2007
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106
Location
Isle of Wight
Hi all

OK so this guy has had enough of the Striker Extreme...it whinges more than ANY board I have ever used. It seems that there are 2 revisions of the Extreme, but both using # 1.00G...however the first batch were manufactured in Taiwan and the later ones in China...I have the Taiwanese revision and its nothing but a headache! I have given it a lot of thought and I am not going to RMA it, I will sell it on and go for another SLI board....that brings me to my question:

Can anybody recommend a good overclocking SLI mobo to replace this SE? Don't mind about cost, as long as it is not a whinger!! Will be running Q6600.

I have, so far in mind these two:

Abit IN9 32X-MAX
EVGA nForce 680i (Rev A1)

Both are 680i...not sure if that's the best way to go. Would it be a better option to wait for a new board soon to be out?
Any help would be great :D
 
Hi, Im currently in almost the same situation as you!
I bought an EVGA 680i back in June - it was RMA'd 4 times (they even made me send my ram/cpu so they could test it, they didnt believe me!)
Finally they sent a *tested* system and it was great!

Last week I decided to buy another EVGA 680i to create another system.
It arrived and it wouldnt POST! Memory errors (C1 and 1D on a couple of the DIMM slots)
Im currently in the process of sending the mobo back.

Dunno - is SLI really worth it? Im tempted to switch over to an Intel board, but i'll need to do more research..
 
The Abit is a dreadful motherboard, worse than the Striker in my opinion. If I were you, I would definitely RMA the Striker as your plan of selling it on just sounds like a bad idea to me. Whoever you sell it to is unlikely to be happy with it either and they'll probably pester you/give you bad feedback etc. etc. So why not put the onus back on ASUS and get them to sort it out for you?

One thing I do know is that the Corsair XMS2 RAM isn't that great with the NForce 680i memory controller, especially 4 sticks of it. And these days, you can almost certainly sell the two GTS and buy a second-hand GTX with the proceeds, so I think I would also recommend bodyswerving another 680i board and getting a P35 or X38.
 
Agreed, the NForce 680i memory controller is *dire*
As soon as you use up all 4 dimm slots, the speed needs to be dropped from 1066mhz+ to 800mhz.

WJA96, which p35/x38 mobo would you recommend?
First I need to get a working 680i so I can recover my RAID0 drives' documents/work/etc - then Im thinking about getting a different mobo (i'll turn the 680i into a backup/spare system).
 
Thanks for the replies so far...

With regards to the 4 RAM modules issue, I did have major problems when I was working with 4 x 1GB Dominators...but swapped out for 2 x 2GB sticks and it made it a little easier! But thats my issue with this board, due to it being picky about everything it does not seem to be worth my time!

I think I might take the advice and RMA it, but just so I can sell the replacement! I will also start to look into the non-SLI route but honestly I would like to stay with SLI :D But if it comes down to it I will jump!

Any specific boards anyone can recommend? (SLI pref)
 
Ive had 4GB in 2x2GB form and 4x1GB form upto 950mhz with a 1900FSB with timings of 4:4:4:12 @2.1v and even tighter on that Muskin ££££ 4GB kit (but it was deff faulty as new esp as speaders were loose).

So you dont need run 800mhz with 4x1GB sticks and they are Corsair as sig.
 
trev said:
WJA96, which p35/x38 mobo would you recommend?
Click to expand...

Abit IP35-Pro or Gigabyte P35-DS4 Rev 1.0

trev said:
First I need to get a working 680i so I can recover my RAID0 drives' documents/work/etc - then Im thinking about getting a different mobo (i'll turn the 680i into a backup/spare system).
Click to expand...

No backup? Not a lot of sympathy tbh. Buy a Dell and a NAS drive as punishment.
 
heh nooo - we've got the work/os' backed up on servers, but there's a few days of emails/configs i'd like to keep.
Dell was almost an option.. :S
I've ordered a Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6, should arrive today, so we'll see how that goes.
I mean, if the evga posts and runs smoothly, I'd like to continue using it.
 
I have an XFX 680i LT. No problems so far but have not pushed it as far as others (all 4 DIMM slots etc etc). SLI support is there, and it has been a beaut so far. Are you absolutely sure you want SLI though? I am still considering that it is a very inefficient investment price-performance wise. I would go for an X38 or X48 if I absolutely had to at the moment.
 
helmutcheese said:
Ive had 4GB in 2x2GB form and 4x1GB form upto 950mhz with a 1900FSB with timings of 4:4:4:12 @2.1v and even tighter on that Muskin ££££ 4GB kit (but it was deff faulty as new esp as speaders were loose).

So you dont need run 800mhz with 4x1GB sticks and they are Corsair as sig.
Click to expand...

Interesting. It seems you were one of the lucky ones who got the good board!! It seems to be pot luck which one you receive nowadays, sadly for that kind of cash I expect better! :mad:

I am not starting to think that single GFX card is the way to go for me...I think I might start looking at non-SLI boards, sell my 2 GTS cards and get something more meaty....
 
i bought an IN9 32X-Max Wifi the other day

is a rock solid board, using it with a 2180 at the moment @ 3.33GHz, i actually prefer it over the asus maximus i got. looks good and is full of gadgets, and the Wifi kit is actually pretty decent.

will give it bashing later on though, this 2180 M0 is good for 4GHz ;)
 
It's always hit and miss with the nVidia based boards from what I've seen. This is probably the main reason I will never go dual GPU because you're then monopolised into buying a board which to be frank, is inferior to Intel's chipsets in terms of performance in every aspect.
 
Well i gues your someone that wants to overclock everything to the max even though in games you wont notice any difference from 3.3ghz to 4ghz on a quad really.

But for me i onyl really want around 3.4ghz, ill push it more if i awnt to but i know its not nessasary and therefore am not really bothered about the serposid inferior nvida chip not being able to overclock as well as a intel one.

I know taht raid is a problem on them but i dont intend on doing that either,. if i did it would be raid 5 and with a card probably anyway.

Not sure if there is any other real commen problems apart from them?
 
As I said other day, times change as it used to be Intel Chipsets that sucked and Nvidia were the king, back with Nf2 till recently.

They need stop this fight with intel and share Tech (wont give Intel SLI and Intel wont help them with info to get new CPU's supported) and get sorted out or loose out as real soon.
 
As dave said, 3.4 to 4gig...it makes zero difference in gaming yet can cost an awful lot (and skill) to get there whereas getting SLI although costing a lot does makes a huge difference. I'd personally take the inferior chipset with SLI capabilites.
 
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