To go 680i board or not...

Magic Man

Magic Man

Magic Man

Associate
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
571
Had a 680i board at the top of my next build list but have been reading more and more about issues with them 'killing' memory and data corruption on SATA drives etc.

I'd be looking at a 8800GTX for a triple head setup but was hoping to have the option of a second for SLI if needed in the future - hence the 680i choice.

Any opinions on this? I.e. is a 680i a bad choice at the moment?
 
Magic Man said:
Had a 680i board at the top of my next build list but have been reading more and more about issues with them 'killing' memory and data corruption on SATA drives etc.

I'd be looking at a 8800GTX for a triple head setup but was hoping to have the option of a second for SLI if needed in the future - hence the 680i choice.

Any opinions on this? I.e. is a 680i a bad choice at the moment?
Click to expand...
Hi there if you read this thread it might help you decide ,i think its really your own choice at the end of the day .. ;)
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17688937
 
It's true that some people have experienced teething problems with these boards.

Some boards need a BIOS update, you have to be careful which memory you put in, etc. etc.

I've just got one, and had no problems with it bar a hang one time during boot at the DMI stage (right before going into XP). It's fairly stable and overclocks like a beast, just on air.

There are practical considerations however - all the sockets etc for IDE and power are up in the top right hand corner, so if, like me, you have a case where the PSU is at the bottom, you'll find it a tight, tight squeeze if the cable is only just long enough!
 
I would personally go for the 650i instead unless it's lacking some features you need, had a horrible experience with 680i and will never spend that much money on a motherboard that's just come out ever again.
 
I have been hearing/reading that the 680i is an immature chipset with a lot of problems currently. This may change 6 months down the road with firmware updates.

I've got a build coming up too but so far most of the advice I've been seeing has been to avoid the 680i for the time being. The 650i seems to be the better choice (eg. Asus P5N-E SLI) or the more mature Intel 975 & 965 chipsets.

Of course someone will probably have no problems with the 680i at all ;)
 
Weazle said:
Of course someone will probably have no problems with the 680i at all ;)
Click to expand...
Lots of people are running them with no problems, but I would still be careful.

Even some happy 680i owners openly admit that the chipset is still basically "in beta."

I had an absolutely horrid experience with my BFG 680i and ended up sending it back, and while it was very likely a "one-off faulty board," I probably won't spend more than £120 on a motherboard ever again.

I downgraded back to an "old tech" Asus P5B Deluxe and haven't had a single problem since, which taught me a lesson about sticking with tried and tested chipsets. :)
 
Last edited:
Trouble is, I'm looking at putting an 8800GTX in there and running it at 3840x1024 (triple head) so would probably need the x16 slots of the 680i...

Are all the 680i reference boards suffering the same? what about the non reference boards, Abit?
 
Last edited:
There maybe more differences, but in my opinion not enough to make paying upto 3 times the cost for a 680i board.
Magic Man said:
What is cut down from the 680i to get to a 650i...?
And which 650i board would be recommended, one of the Asus boards?
Click to expand...
The 680i: runs full pciex16x2 sli. The 650i only runs 8x8.
No dedicated 8x lane for a PHYSx card on the 650i.
680i = 6 Sata ports. 650i = 5 Sata ports.
680i = 2x Gigabit Ethernet Ports, 650i = 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port.

Magic Man said:
which 650i board would be recommended, one of the Asus boards?
Click to expand...
Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650
 
Magic Man said:
Trouble is, I'm looking at putting an 8800GTX in there and running it at 3840x1024 (triple head) so would probably need the x16 slots of the 680i...
Click to expand...
x16? x8 in Sli, I doubt it makes a hugh amount of difference to be honest but someone else will have to confirm that, I cant be bothered to double check at 1am in the monring .:)

Magic Man said:
Are all the 680i reference boards suffering the same? what about the non reference boards, Abit?
Click to expand...
I'm somewhat of an "Abit" fan & my advice is - Do not buy the Abit board! For £234.99 it is very bad value, the bios releases inc beta are veru buggy, it wont overclock as good as the 650i boards either at this moment in time, I'm sure Abit will fix these problems in due course, but no way was I keeping a board for that price that didnt work virtually perfect out the box.
 
Magic Man said:
Trouble is, I'm looking at putting an 8800GTX in there and running it at 3840x1024 (triple head) so would probably need the x16 slots of the 680i...
Click to expand...
if you're just running a single card then 650i does that at x16

Magic Man said:
which 650i board would be recommended, one of the Asus boards?
Click to expand...
there only is 1 available at the moment the Asus P5N-E SLI.
edit: I'm wrong found an MSI P6N SLI-FI in stock in the UK

abit just launched theirs today & it looks to have a few useful improvements over the Asus but eta isn't until ~ end of February.
 
Last edited:
Nelly said:
There maybe more differences, but in my opinion not enough to make paying upto 3 times the cost for a 680i board.
The 680i: runs full pciex16x2 sli. The 650i only runs 8x8.
No dedicated 8x lane for a PHYSx card on the 650i.
680i = 6 Sata ports. 650i = 5 Sata ports.
680i = 2x Gigabit Ethernet Ports, 650i = 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port.

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650
Click to expand...


Which 650 board you looking at?

Try this one...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-222-AS
 
BUFF said:
actually that's not a 680i - it's a 650i & 570SLI cobbled together on a Striker PCB
Click to expand...
*sticks hand up* Oh yeah! I was looking at the wrong board lol:-

Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus Features
Support for all Intel LGA775 processors, including Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme;

Northbridge: NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI (C55-SLIX8N-A2);

Southbridge: NVIDIA MCP55P NF(590-SLI-N-A2);

Support for up to 8GB of DDR2-533, DDR2-667 or DDR2-800MHz memory, with additional support for NVIDIA SLI-Ready Memory up to 1200MHz;

Two PCI-Express x16 slots for SLI (blue, running at x16) and one PCI-Express x16 slot (white, running at x8), one PCI-Express x1 slot and two PCI slots;

Asus SupremeFX Audio Card with 7.1 channel support via ADI1988B HD Audio codec, complete with jack sensing, multi-streaming, jack-retasking and noise filter, along with co-axial and optical S/PDIF out ports;

Dual Gigabit Ethernet PHY via a pair of PCI-Express based Marvell 88E1116-NNC1 network controllers;

Six native SATA 3Gbps ports supporting RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD;

Support for ten USB 2.0 ports (four on rear I/O panel, six via on-board pins/expansion brackets);

Two IEEE1394a Firewire ports (one on rear I/O panel, one via on-board pins/expansion brackets);

One ATA133 connector and one floppy connector.
Click to expand...
 
It also offers the twin x16 lines and third x8 lane.

A mix of the previous 590 chipset and the new 650 chipset...

What's the difference between the plus version and non plus version?

Any good?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom