[First Look] DFI 680i LT NF-680i LT SLI (56K Warning~~~)

[BAR*B*Q]

really excited for your results man.

[EYEBORG]

posted by Jobeo

why did you edit your post from last night regarding lapping the NB heatsink... i appreciated ya saying it cause i had never heard of lapping before.

Posted by virtualrain next post

You are far more likely to F it up doing any kind of lapping to that.

Posted by Flytek two posts down

it has become clear by now that a mirror finish is not what is the most important to heatsinks...what is important is the flatness....

nuf said. TY both

[virtualrain]

A bit of TIM will solve that alot easier than lapping. That's what TIM is for! You are far more likely to F it up doing any kind of lapping to that.

[s e t h]

yes that pic is of my sample boards heatsink....i think it has become clear by now that a mirror finish is not what is the most important to heatsinks...what is important is the flatness....even without a fan it is clear this heatsink does a good job...certainly far better than any other stock motherboard solution EVER...

[MikeMK]

Whoa, didn't make the connection on the RAM! I thought it was their older PC2-6400 kit, that kit is awesome Virtualrain! 4GB of PC2-8500 at 5-4-4-12, that is just sick! Sorry to get sidetracked guys but I just had to say something, lol! I hope your able to put together a little review on that kit Virtualrain, any chance of that happening in the near future?

I just thought the exact same thing... looks like some decent 2x2gb sets are finally on their way... just what i have been waiting for!

Well, it is the power supply. It works 100% on any other board i've tried, just not this DFI 680i. It's running right now with my EVGA. I picked up an HEC 650w and the DFI Posts no problem. Switcned power supplies back and forth many times and always same outcome. No post with enermax, Post with HEC. I dont understand why it doesn't work, i just know it doesn't.

That is NOT good news! bah... i was really looking forward to getting this board.

@ Eyeborg - thanks for looking into this with Oskar... I hope its easily fixable

[EYEBORG]

posted by Jobeo

why did you edit your post from last night regarding lapping the NB heatsink... i appreciated ya saying it cause i had never heard of lapping before.

look back four posts

[Pete@X]

Sometimes it´s good to approach a new Board the following way (like I did yesterday ):

1. Stop testing
2. Clear Cmos (on Board and Brain)
3. Go for a long walk and relax
4. When back - start again slowly and do a lot of notes
5. Guess what - it works better now (the board )

Still not 100% sure why the OCZ850PSU has such a low 5V Line ... but that would be worked out later

Some impressions of the setup:

[MikeMK]

Nice setup! Thats some sweet lapping your your HSF there m8.... i could do my hair in that CPU LOL!

[Delly]

when it will go out a new bios for quad ???

[GAR]

are we still waiting for this board to hit retail? dang it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nugzo]

are we still waiting for this board to hit retail? dang it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think motherboardpro has em. Or has them dropped shipped from DFI.

[Jobeo]

Or has them dropped shipped from DFI.

ya its strange and had me thinking today. doesn't it seem abnormal that Tony spoke with DFI and they said a hold was being place on all boards going out, yet mbpro is getting them shipped from the california warehouse.

seems like the left and right hands disagree on whether or not to ship the board. with the people in california saying "no, this has been delayed long enough we are putting it out".

newegg still doesn't have them listed and they were supposed to be receiving the initial batch of 45........ . .. . . . the initial batch which seems to be leaking out of San Leandro...

[Raja@ASUS]

ya its strange and had me thinking today. doesn't it seem abnormal that Tony spoke with DFI and they said a hold was being place on all boards going out, yet mbpro is getting them shipped from the california warehouse.

seems like the left and right hands disagree on whether or not to ship the board. with the people in california saying "no, this has been delayed long enough we are putting it out".

newegg still doesn't have them listed and they were supposed to be receiving the initial batch of 45........ . .. . . . the initial batch which seems to be leaking out of San Leandro...

The delay was okayed to be lifted 2 days ago, so the boards are free to ship. There is no left hand - right hand situation..

[virtualrain]

I have a couple of issues... not sure if these are just me or widespread:

1) (Minor) nTune can't see a lot of the voltages, bus values, etc. for this board.

2) (Minor) Speedfan sees the +3.3V value as 1.22V

3) (Major!) I can't install Vista x64 on this board without BSOD. I tried 3 times. Same result. It may be the crappy MX 4000 video card I'm using for bench testing but the driver is there in Vista x86 so I'd be surprised if it wasn't included in x64. Otherwise, I'm doing a bare-bones install.

Can anyone else see if they can install Vista x64 on this board?

BTW, it's prime stable overnight on stock settings (on Vista x86). Ready to go to the next step!

[nugzo]

I have a couple of issues... not sure if these are just me or widespread:

1) (Minor) nTune can't see a lot of the voltages, bus values, etc. for this board.

2) (Minor) Speedfan sees the +3.3V value as 1.22V

3) (Major!) I can't install Vista x64 on this board without BSOD. I tried 3 times. Same result. It may be the crappy MX 4000 video card I'm using for bench testing but the driver is there in Vista x86 so I'd be surprised if it wasn't included in x64. Otherwise, I'm doing a bare-bones install.

Can anyone else see if they can install Vista x64 on this board?

BTW, it's prime stable overnight on stock settings (on Vista x86). Ready to go to the next step!

Remove one of your 2 gig sticks. It should install with ok with 2gb. Do all windows updates then put memory back in. For me with the EVGA i would still sometimes get the BSOD on boot, i would let it bluescreen and loop and it would eventualy make it to desktop. Then i would run windows update again with the 4gigs in and i would get a single update concerning X64 hardware compatibility. i would never get this update with only 2gb installed. after i installed that update i was good to go. would run fine from then on out. Again this was with EVGA 680i. This was the only way i could get it to install and run with more than 2gigs of ram.

edit: also i had problems installin x64 while overclocked.

[virtualrain]

Interesting... Thanks... I'll try that. Maybe I can find the fix and slipstream it into the install as well to save future grief.

EDIT: Fix is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

[nugzo]

Interesting... Thanks... I'll try that. Maybe I can find the fix and slipstream it into the install as well to save future grief.

let me try too boot into vista, maybe i can get the update number.

[nugzo]

let me try too boot into vista, maybe i can get the update number.

Pretty sure this is it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777
SYMPTOMS
When you try to install Windows Vista, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:
STOP 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:
• The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.
• The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver.
• The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access (DMA).

[virtualrain]

Yeah, I found it as well by searching the MS KB... Thanks nugzo!

Fix is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

I'm off to reinstall Vista x64... "I'll be back!"

[nugzo]

Interesting... Thanks... I'll try that. Maybe I can find the fix and slipstream it into the install as well to save future grief.

EDIT: Fix is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

Let me know how the slipstream works out please.

[Lood007]

My board ships out on monday!
Will have results shortly afterwards... Now... what to do with this Striker...

[MikeMK]

My board ships out on monday!
Will have results shortly afterwards... Now... what to do with this Striker...

Nice... i really hope these hit Europe (well the UK at least for me!) soon. No where even has them listed yet!

[Jobeo]

No where even has them listed yet!

don't fret. they're kinda hard to get over here in the U.S. atm too. thankfully mine is on-truck i'm praying for a monday delivery.

if the new bios gets released maybe it'll give me a reason to pull this baby off the shelf =)

[virtualrain]

Let me know how the slipstream works out please.

Got Vista x64 to boot, but used your technique of taking out one stick of RAM and then applying the patch after install. I'll try the slipstream method in the future.

Anyway, all appears good in x64 now.

A couple of other things (perhaps unrelated to this board and more particular to Vista)...

1) During Vista install, it seemed to hang at "Completed Installation..." (I left it for an hour with no change). I googled this and found there were tons of people having this issue. At least in my case, it was a simple matter of removing my USB flash drive from one of the USB ports. I had left it there from eariler... I guess it caused the Vista install some grief. Anyway, I should have followed my own advice which is to remove any and all storage devices from the system (except your main boot disk) before installing Vista.

2) Even with C1E disabled in BIOS, Vista wants to use speed step to lower the clock on the CPU. All CPU settings in Genie are on factory defaults. Either there is another BIOS setting I'm missing or Vista doesn't care and want's to throttle CPU speed anyway. The work around I'm currently using is to simply set the power profile in Control Panel > Power Options to "High Performance". That seemed to stop the speed step nonsense.

3) This may be common knowledge around here but if you are using the lastest version of Speedfan, you need to adjust the offset on the core temperature readings by 15-deg C for them to match CoreTemp.

Again, these may have nothing to do with this board, but may be helpful never-the-less.

[virtualrain]

I've started compiling a list of Tips, Tricks, Issues, and Helpful Links on my Blog and I'll post it in the Intel Support Forum as well.

Check them out and let me know if I've missed anything current. I'll do my best to keep it up to date based on what is posted on XS and DFI Club, etc.