Essential reading for those considering an nVidia 680 motherboard

Orison

Orison

Orison

Associate
Joined
13 Dec 2006
Posts
142
Those of us considering a motherboard based on the nVidia 680 chipset for their next system build or upgrade should read this before they come to a decision. There are several glowing reviews of these boards now coming through, praising their overclockability and reach features. However reports are also coming through about serious stability problems that may or may not be linked to the hardware architecture itself. I draw your attention to this thread on the EVGA forums, detailing the problems end-users are having with the SATA controllers. It's currently over 600 posts long.

I'm not saying this to try and discourage people from buying these boards. There are equally many good reports as bad out there, and many people are delighted with their purchase. The 680 chipset certainly seems to be an excellent Core 2 platform for those that find it works. However, as with many newly-launched motherboards, there do appear to be certain hardware issues that have yet to be resolved. Caveat emptor, as they say.
 
I have had Zero issues with mine. Rock solid and never missed a beat. Obviously there is some issue somewhere. Must have been lucky

EVGA 680i
Running 2x WD 500GB RE2
6600 @ 3.6 400x9
2GB G Skill HZ
Audigy 2 ZS soon to be replaced with a Xfi
8800 GTX
 
Thanks for the feedback guys, it's good to know you're all getting good results. I think the best conclusion is to go ahead without hesitation if you've had your eye on a 680 board, but just to keep this issue in the back of your mind so that in the unlikely event your new rig doesn't POST, you know to blame the mobo!

I've been seriously considering one of these for my new build myself. I'm torn between this and a P5B Deluxe. It's all down to guesswork, and whether I think SLI is going to be the future of mainstream pc gaming. If so, then I get the EVGA. If not, I'll go with the P5b and save myself a few pennies towards a Wii :)
 
here's a taster for you

my L627B & ECS 680i

1.36v bios, actual is 1.3 under load with droop
2.05v vdimm
1.4v fsb, the rest on auto

3580 never missed a beat same settings 5hrs orthos, pushed it up a little for this run.

all air.

 
Last edited:
Out of interest, are any forum members with stable setups able to recreate this members experience?

Welshmuncher said:
Well sorry to LANGUAGE! on your chips, but I would be adding to the high praise here for this board, in fact I was running me 6300 at 7 x 485 at 4 4 4 12 2T for two weeks, apparently no issues, no SATA erros in the log etc etc, read all the same stuff as you and thought oh well mines ok, whingeing gits.
So I tried to see if I could get the same problems, guess what, I can and I can get them every single time, just do a transcode of a DIVX to a hard drive folder using NERO Vision, two cores utilised and heavy IO traffic, any ram settings above 799 and a good old solid hard lock, every time. SO there is an issue, its just that it takes real stress to find it. I can run Orthos all day and prime, Super Pi etc etc . I actually emailed EVGA and they have confirmed they can also recreate it and are working with Nvidia to find a solution, it is not a myth it is a real problem. Just thought you should know..
Click to expand...

Linkage
 
Last edited:
Jay_t said:
Out of interest, are any forum members with stable setups able to recreate this members experience?



Linkage
Click to expand...

I think you will find the same sort of thing is true of pretty much any bit of tech hardware. Have you seen the Errata sheet for the Core 2 CPU?
 
Very true, although 67 errata with all those transistors is still pretty good. That's a 99.99995% errata free piece of silicon. :p
 
Couldnt be more happy with my 680i,cracking motherboard and ive had no issue`s with it at all.
 
can some one tell me if aney one who got this MB are haveing problams at all with this bord as it seems that its onley ppl from the us are haveing thes falts? :confused:
 
huh said:
Can someone tell me if anyone who has this MB are having problems at all with this board as it seems that its only people from the US that are having these faults? :confused:
Click to expand...

I got an EVGA board this week. I think it is fair to say that the boards were released too early. The first people who had them reported a multitude of issues almost all of which are now fixed in BIOS updates.

There is supposedly a SATA RAID issue with a proportion of the boards. This is a reported fault. NVidia have not confirmed this. My own experience is that if you use the drivers off the website it doesn't work. Using the drivers off the CD then it works fine. If you then upgrade to the website drivers there is still no problem. My Windows XP Pro Service Pack 1 CD startup does not like the new drivers. If other users are also using XP Pro SP1 discs then they could be the ones reporting the problem and the people with XP Pro SP2 disks might never see an issue. If your board won't mount a SATA RAID array then try using the original drivers or take it back to the place you bought it and get another one until it does mount a RAID array for you.

The 3DMark 06 issue is fixed - the problem was within Futuremark's coding, not NVidia's.

There is an issue with running the RAM at certain ratio's to the FSB. This is a partly a Core2Duo problem though. You could also argue that NVidia shot themselves in the foot by offering true asynchronous RAM and CPU speed settings. Most other Core2Duo board manufacturers have a multitude of workarounds - They all fix the dividers that can be used and even then they usually won't let you go below 1:1 for a divider.

The other known issue;

Welshmuncher said:
just do a transcode of a DIVX to a hard drive folder using NERO Vision, two cores utilised and heavy IO traffic, any ram settings above 799 and a good old solid hard lock, every time. SO there is an issue, its just that it takes real stress to find it.
Click to expand...

So, the take home message is: if you are doing a transcode of a DIVX to a hard drive folder using NERO Vision with two or more cores utilised and heavy IO traffic with ram settings above 799MHz then you can expect a crash.

If you regularly do the DIVX transcoding described above then don't buy the board until NVidia have fixed the issue in the drivers or the BIOS. If you just want to play games really, really fast, then I can only recommend getting your cash out at OcUK. Today.
 
my ECS board is probably the most stable and easily overclockable board i've EVER used.

i've been through some hardware in my time.

YMMV :)
 
marscay said:
my ECS board is probably the most stable and easily overclockable board i've EVER used.

i've been through some hardware in my time.

YMMV :)
Click to expand...

Likewise - my new EVGA has only one issue as far as I can see - I have to be a bit picky about the way the divider changes or it doesn't reboot. Now I've figured out only to reboot on round numbers I'm hitting 3.6GHz no problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom