best 680i?

[tommyshango]

Now that all the 680i's are out... which is the best? I had nothing but bad luck with the evga. I don't care about the price. Or is it all just hit and miss? I've heard as many horror stories about each one as I have heard good things. Now that bios has been updated etc etc. Is there any of them that lead the pack?

[Ace-a-Rue]

you need to wait on the DFI 680i LT before making a decision

[irev210]

you need to wait on the DFI 680i LT before making a decision

i agree

i have a few P5N32-E SLI's (not the plus, the real 680i's) and they work great for what they are. They are also awesome when it comes to ram, 680i clocks ram like none other.


the main thing is expectations. On a quad-core, anything over 350MHz fsb gets pretty tough. On dual core, you top out around 450-500MHz.


Compare that to the 965P boards which are hitting 500-550 with ease, people paint a different picture.

[tommyshango]

My problem was that the boards weren't recognizing 2 gb (2 1gb sticks) of ram. I had the same exact problem with the evga and the striker. I was told it could be a bios update with the striker and have one on the way to me. I could not get it to update the bios on my own and watched.. long story... im getting something else or maybe just a newer version of the striker but I thought I would ask around. I was hoping things had changed. I need sli and I need 6 sata drives so I dont think the LT version would work for me nor will another chipset. I am running 2 gb of ocz 8500 nvidia sli memory.

[ineedaname]

o.O not recognizing 2gb of ram???

I've had problems with the striker on earlier bios but not that problem.

If you ask me the DFI looks most promising.

My striker just doesn't get the 3dmarks that it should. People with lower speeds than me are getting higher marks on ORB.
Its not even a small amount either some guy on XS has 2 marks more than me but is running his cpu like 200mhz less than me...

[irev210]

My problem was that the boards weren't recognizing 2 gb (2 1gb sticks) of ram. I had the same exact problem with the evga and the striker. I was told it could be a bios update with the striker and have one on the way to me. I could not get it to update the bios on my own and watched.. long story... im getting something else or maybe just a newer version of the striker but I thought I would ask around. I was hoping things had changed. I need sli and I need 6 sata drives so I dont think the LT version would work for me nor will another chipset. I am running 2 gb of ocz 8500 nvidia sli memory.

There is no reason why it shouldnt recognize that ram. Did it work in other boards fine?

Did you test other ram in those boards? Did you manually set ram timings/voltage?

[tommyshango]

have the bios updates for the striker been good? I am worried after going through all the evga ones. I have seen that its hit or miss whether your striker is a better overclocker or not. But I guess thats not my main concern. I am more worried about stability issues. I just want something that will boot for sure each time.

[tommyshango]

I had problems getting into the bios. Afer I adjusted the voltage and a few other things I have not gotten it to post since. I have no idea what happened. Now it just says cpu init. Before that it was saying something dram. The initialization of the memory I belive but it was just stuck on that part and wouldnt go past. Now it does nothing. I am just sending it back to newegg. I think it was just too old of a bios the asus people said it might be problematic with an old bios and a x6800 chip. I dont have any luck lol.

[tommyshango]

well newegg has the p5n32 version oem for only 142. Cant beat that. Since I am taking off the copper heatsinks its probably the same board underneath. I checked with asus and as long as it has the product sticker on it then it is covered by warranty. So i am fine that way as well. Give it a whirl I guess.

[GAR]

I have the P5N32-E solid stable board, running exactly like the specs in my SIG, I have had the STRIKER, also a stable solid board, but not worth the extra money over the P5N32-E, eVGA is a really bad board, ive gone through 4 board, all of them had an issue, the abit board i dont know much about, but it isnt as popular as people thought it would be, DFI looks awsome, they sat back and waited for the right time to get into the 680i scene, so i would think about either the ASUS P5N32-E or the DFI 680i LT.

[Solarfall]

I have the P5N32-E solid stable board, running exactly like the specs in my SIG, I have had the STRIKER, also a stable solid board, but not worth the extra money over the P5N32-E, eVGA is a really bad board, ive gone through 4 board, all of them had an issue, the abit board i dont know much about, but it isnt as popular as people thought it would be, DFI looks awsome, they sat back and waited for the right time to get into the 680i scene, so i would think about either the ASUS P5N32-E or the DFI 680i LT.

EVGA bad board LOL look at my sig mate, the new p27 bios is awesome

[kniwor]

I am still confused over these, one question, if I'm not into SLI at all, and OC'ing is important, any reasons why i should consider 680 over 965's?

[tommyshango]

If you dont want or need sli then there are better overclocking boards for sure.

[Solarfall]

I am still confused over these, one question, if I'm not into SLI at all, and OC'ing is important, any reasons why i should consider 680 over 965's?

If you dont want or need sli then there are better overclocking boards for sure.

sadly though if you want the very best board. they usually do have a sli option...

[kniwor]

yeah, but I can rather go for 965(yeah it will be sli), possibly the 608 will gimme better sli performance, but I am not anyhow going to use sli.

[GAR]

I agree P27 bios got me into the 500 fsb range, something i have been able to do with the P5N32-E, evga went throught so many bios's and now a new rev to fix one of many issues the board has had, many issues still remain.....its the luck of the draw, i have never had so many of the same boards been as bad as the evga was, many people can vouche that, also if you have a good board, your lucky, 1 of 10 evga boards are bad, my friend works for PC CLUB, he says all of 1 of 2 evga boards sold are returned and RMA'd.

[Kanten]

If you like stability, or at least for your errors to make sense, stay away from eVGA.

[adamsleath]

well; nb cooling is the most important factor for 680i imo for fsb oc.
if NO SLI, then deifinitely go 965;

i have sound issues with my mboard; it annoys me.

apart from that the asus boards are very good.

my personal opinion is that 680i chipset is inherently flawed.

Perhaps the p5n32-e plus board is the best option...? for sli...even p5n-e for that matter.
many good 965 boards like commando; p5b-d; dfi 965 ...etc, etc.

i'm going to look into the dfi 680/650 boards