Looking for honest opinions on a SLI Mobo.

[darkside72]

First off i would like to say hello to all reading this, being a "first time poster" and all.
I would also like to say thank you to all who post here, i've learned a lot about the "subtle nuances" of computers in many areas.
Honest reviews, great ideas, information and opinions about parts and software, etc...
It has saved me money and given me piece of mind when buying items, knowing they've been tested and scrutinized to an honest conclusion.

Before finding this forum i purchased parts to build a machine for gaming.
After a couple days reading and doing research on some of the parts i've bought, i find some of my choices may have been bad ones.
But hay, you live and you learn, right?
Well after my research i did replace some items. (mostly water cooling, case selection for water, big thanks goes to the water cooling section)
Other parts were pricy to replace so i took a leap of faith on some of them and i think that leap was one jump too many.
When i powered up it all lit up but the Mobo didn't post all the way, it stopped at AO and the monitor didn't come on either.
Now i've troubleshot most of the items with known working parts from my other computer to find out if it all works, and my conclusion is the mobo is bad.

Ok, on to my question.
I'm looking to buy an SLI Mobo.
Now i've read high and low about how the 680i chipset is a pain in the ass, with not being stable, FSB holes, bad OC for Quads, etc...
I'm not looking to push all my gear to it's edge with OCing, but the option should be there.
I just want a Mobo that will WORK GOOD.
Now should i wait for 780i (knowing that it's 680i in a new wrapper), or is there an option with the Mobos out now?
I see a lot of Asus Striker Extreme, Evga A1 680i, Etc.... what's the best option for me having all the parts except a Mobo?
Also if you know other parts i have will cause problems, please let me know.
I'm sorry for the long list, i just paste and copied from another site.:up:

Here's a list of what i bought for the build:

QX6700 Extreme quad core
Abit IN9-32X MAX 680I mobo (My problem)
OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 Flex XLC 2gb
2X Evga 8800 GTXs
Auzen Prelude X-Fi 7.1
BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850watts. (thanks to Virtual Hideout)
2X 150G Raptor X Raid 0
2X 74G Raptor Raid 0
2X Asus SATA Burners, 1 dvd DRW-2014L1T, 1 Blu-ray BC-1205PT
MM UFO Horizon/Duality Custom
Dell 3007WFP-HC 30"
2X Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus
Logitech Z-5500 5.1
Logitech G9 Mouse
Ideazon ZXP-2000 Merc Stealth Board

Water Cooling:

D-Tek Fuzion (Bowed, Nozzled)
2X EK-FC8800 GTX Nickel Plated (Acetal Tops)
2X EK NB/SB (all Acetal tops) after new MOBO.
2X Thermochill Rad PA 120.3
2X Laing DDC-3.2 (with Petra's Top)
2x Swiftech MCRES-MICRO (may go to EK-DDC X-RES 100, need to know how good they are first.)
I may get Aqua Computer Aquaero VFD soon too.

[Nate P.]

780i is already released and avaliable for retail, and it supports Yorkfield, and for SLI is pretty much your only choice.

[Aivas47a]

For quad core overclocking the evga a1 board seems to be definitely the best of the 680 models. 780 might be better, I saw one early report here of somebody hitting 500 fsb on a quad. Hang on a few days and follow the XS review threads -- that's your best source of info. :up:

Note, you're pretty sure to get even better overclocking results on a P35 or X38 (especially with a quad), but if you've got to have SLI then nvidia chipset is the only game.

[doompc]

You've got a pretty monster rig there, hu?
Unlike almost everyone I do like the 680i. Specially the Unlinked mode and the real 1T Command Rate option.

If you already have the Abit IN9 32x (one of my personal favorites) I don't see the need to get another board unless you are going to a 45nm Quad Core. In that case just get a 780i board and enjoy you SLI system. ;)

[easyrider]

780i is the only route to take right now for SLI.
sadly these mobo's cannot compete with the superior X38 chipsets for stabilty and clocking.

[Andrew LB]

780i is the way to go. I've been talking to a friend at one of the major brands and the boards KICK ASS.

[Andrew LB]

780i is the only route to take right now for SLI.
sadly these mobo's cannot compete with the superior X38 chipsets for stabilty and clocking.

.... and why is that? The 780i supports the .45nm quad core processors as well as DDR2-1200 and super high FSB's.

I've been talking to a guy at EVGA and a friend who i wont mention his business and the chipset actually seems more promising than the X38. And FAR more promising if you want more than one video card.

[zanzabar]

if u want sli u will need to wait for the 790i when they remove the unlicked memory controller but implement a larger range of multies and it will be on 65nm and not have an external controller chip, but it will be ddr3 only


as for the 1200mhz memory good luck finding some with the micron shortage since they moved the d9 production to asia they are getting no chips out hence the lack of good memory on the market from every1 but crucial and it would need ungodly volts and not usable for 24/7 with any longevity

[Aivas47a]

As for 780i's cranking high (475+ fsb) on quad cores, that would be cool -- but I'll believe it when I see it.:cool:

I had the Asus P5N32-E SLI and would not take a kentsfield over 350. Many others had a similar experience.

[J-Bo]

I've had real good luck with my eVGA 680i SLi T1 (non retail A1) and thus will recommend the 780i boards. :)

[darkside72]

Thank you everyone for the honest replys.
It feels like the way to go is 780i/790i has promise, but wait and see first.
The Asus vs. Evga battle is alive and well i see, with Abit bringing up the rear.:up:
I'm sure we will have a winner on the fourms soon enough.

[brad1102]

If its totally a gaming system then the 680i/780i is a very good choice (ONLY if you need SLI support).

I personally moved from a P5K(P35 chipset) to a 680i and was horribly dissapointed in terms of bandwidth. The 680i natively supports up to DDR800 with can be a real hinderance when you start overclocking your memory. My DDR-8500 memory topped out at its spec frequency which pissed me off enough to return the board. In moving from a P5K with a quad running at 3.6 1:1 with my memory at 4-4-4-8 it was a massive step down for bandwidth benchmarking.

Another thing about the 680i that I didn't like was the lack of user support. The knowledge base of the 680i is a fraction of any Asus board so finding another user with your exact hardware configuration may prove difficult, leaving you on your own for problem solving/configuring/overclocking.

[J-Bo]

Well my 800 MHz RAM hit 934 MHz at 5-5-5-12-2T without issue.:D

[brad1102]

Well my 800 MHz RAM hit 934 MHz at 5-5-5-12-2T without issue.:D


Compared to 1200+ on the P35 chipset with PC2-8500? :rolleyes:

[J-Bo]

That's DDR2 1066MHz which at 1200MHz is 134MHz over stock clock. My DDR2 800MHz is running 934MHz which is 134MHz over stock clock. Now I am sure my 680i wouldn't do as well with the DDR2 1066MHz but my point is you can still get a decent memory clock out of the old 680i.

[darkside72]

Well i'm going to try the new 780i.
I'm sick of looking at my machine just sitting there not working, knowing all that stands in it's way to glory is a mobo.
So we shall see.:up:
Thanks again all for the info.

[froste]

Well i'm going to try the new 780i.
I'm sick of looking at my machine just sitting there not working, knowing all that stands in it's way to glory is a mobo.
So we shall see.:up:
Thanks again all for the info.

Check out some of my preliminary results with the EVGA 780i and a ES Yorkfield Q9550: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=170292

[GFDuke]

Darkside... I see you're running RAID0. Did you have any problems getting your RAID setup? I read in some other forums that people were having problems with it. I curious cause i'm getting my 780 this week and i want to run my drives in RAID0 also.

[darkside72]

Darkside... I see you're running RAID0. Did you have any problems getting your RAID setup? I read in some other forums that people were having problems with it. I curious cause i'm getting my 780 this week and i want to run my drives in RAID0 also.


I'm sorry GFDuke for not getting back to you with a response.
The truth is i kinda lost track of this thread after i bought the board.
As for the board (as you may know by now, having the board also), it kicks much ass with my setup.
The raid0 works fine (knowing to install the raid drivers during setup with Vista).
I went through my own personal "mine field" with the first time setup, but after a few fixes here and there all's well.

My old Mobo for this build wasn't the only victim to upgrade.
I also had to return some of the other gear to newegg through RMA.
First my OCZ ram was bad, i did some troubleshooting with the sims through other builds of mine and the sticks didn't work for any of the boot ups.
And the ram from the other computers booted this unit up fine, first shot... well second shot.;)
So i went with Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB PC2-9200, and it's all good.:up:

Then i had REAL bad luck with the raptor hard drives i bought, get this ALL FOUR WD RAPTORS 2X 74G AND 2X 150G X'S WERE BAD!!:shocked::shakes:
I bought them all brand new on the same day through newegg, all bad.:down:
They wouldn't even show in bios, when i used another hard drive with windows on it to boot the system all the other drives made these loud crunching, poping, and sickly clicking sounds.:eek::confused::shrug:
I've loaded, formated enough drives to know that is BAD.
I knew raptors have a little more noise to them, but damn.
I thought what the hell, i mean how could all the drives be bad?
Well after FOUR spanking new Raptor drives arrived, the world was right again.
And with all that behind me, to make an already epic story kinda not as long..... my black and red aluminum cube of evil..... my sinister experiment/labor of love..... it breathes watery life, and i'm loving it.:yepp::up:

P.S. I was going to post a worklog before but with all the MM case builds i see now, it seems too trendy so i won't push it.
I'm also thinking about a new CPU, i see all these nice new 45nm quads and i need to get some too!!