SLI M'boards - 650i or 680i

[towser]

Hi guys,

New to the forums, so Hi!

Have a quick question. I am speccing out a new PC and am unsure as to whether to go for a 650i or 680i based m'board.

I would not class myself as a hardcore user so I'm thinking I mght not really notice any of the minor increases that the 680 might have over the 650.

The PC will mainly be used for games

Basic specs are:

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6700 Quad Core Processor(2.66GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition
Digital / Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 1000W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i or 680i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX
4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory ( 4 x 1GB Samsung)
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM
768MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out
24" LCD Widescreen TFT Monitor + built in speakers Iiyama B2403WS
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card (oem)


Any help/advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Towser

 

[silversurfer]

I think your hardcore or that spec is anyway.

650i is ok but it is 8x sli which might effect gtx sli performance very slightly

Main problem would be the quad core, another board might be better suited. Im not sure if the 680i is better but probably something else alltogether would be best for quad.

Both will run it at stock but they wont do oc as well as others afaik

 

[The Running Man]

both good boards, however if you plan to OC then it is going to be more difficult on a 650/680i board with Quadcore.

if it were me, id save the £200 on the CPU and get a Q6600 and just overclock it. the price delta between the Q6600 and Q6700 is massive, the extra 260mhz is NOT worth £180!!!!

 

[gurusan]

Are you sure you need SLI?

Anyway the 8x pci-express slots don't have much of an impact on real world performance
I'd choose the 650i. Personally, I think the 680i is one of the worst bang for buck motherboards you can buy...and it's known to be a bad quad clocker (not sure the 650i is much better for quads though tbh)