Take 4: Nvidia 680i SLI mobo in the house. First look downunder.

[dinos22]

hello all

exciting times ahead. I've been approached by Nvidia to test their latest hardware. They've sent me their flagship 680i motherboard to play with

i'll do some testing in the next few days so don't let F5 out of your sights hehehehhe

Hardware on the benchtop:

• EVGA 680i SLI Motherboard (big thanks to Nvidia for the board )
• Selection of CPUs: QTY-3 E6600 ES B2; E6600ES B1; E6300ES B1 CPUs
• 256MB generic micron D9GKW ICs RAM (monster overclocker as you'll see soon enough )
• 2GB Kit G.Skill HZ PC6400 Micron D9GMH ICs
• 2x2GB Kits of generic Micron FATBODY RAM i recently got off ebay...waiting for delivery
• Intel Stock Cooler >> need to get something here of course heh
  >> hmm is that my Blackbox phase change sitting next to it all
• 2MB Matrox PCI Video Cards (no SLI tests yet.....need hardware heh)
• ePower 520W EPS SLI PSU
• 60GB IDE Matrox Hard Drive
• Windows XP Pro SP2

i'll primarily concentrate on memory performance and SuperPI performance



Piccies

[dinos22]

windows install went smooth

i love hardware that just work off the bat without the need to fiddle with **** to get it going........especially intel DDR2 stuff in recent times....

also some people at xtreme systems were reporting problems with Step5 B1 CPUs..............i'm glad mine works fine




---------------------------------------------

left most of it on auto and just went for 1600 bus = 400MHz x 7 multi

all looks ok

quick prime shot



looks like there is a bug in CPUz as that is single channel RAM

also the RAM i'm pretty sure i set it as 1:1 in bios will check it out tomorrow and maybe even upgrade from stock bios which is P19 to something better heheh

[dinos22]

FSB TESTING ON EVGA 680i

500MHz FSB with 1M SuperPI

i forgot to take off CPUz validation off the computer.....will do tomorrow



DETAILED BIOS SHOTS

The motherboard has a windows boot FSB WALL at 449MHz FSB so i clockgened past that (i tried everything from the usual suspects when it comes to FSB walls but nothing is triggering it. I'm leaning towards a bios limitation here as all the other hardware is 100% capable of exceeding that FSB and i can also bench a whopping 51MHz FSB higher with clockgen)

This is with P21 bios which i upgraded through windows as i didn't have floppies lying around heheh nor the drive itself

[dinos22]

reserve 3

[dinos22]

reserve 4

[dinos22]

reserve 5

[dinos22]

last one to reserve

[lawrywild]

Enough reserves?

[dinos22]

Enough reserves?

tells you how exciting it all is

[nugzo]

Use a SATA drive so you will have all the same issues that mostly everyone else has. Better yet run RAID. I'll send you 2 new 80GB sata drives if you need em. Then you wont be excited. Sorry i'm a little upset at nvidia right now b/c of all the issues with this exact EVGA board It's a strange thing though that NONE of the reviewers of this exact board ever experience these issues during reviews. I guess if they did, and gave bad review, they wouldn't get anymore free toys to play with.

Presentation looks great so far though. Good Job!!

When my EVGA is actually working, it smokes my Striker. You should have alot of fun with this board if you do not use SATA or RAID. It Overclocks really well.

[dinos22]

Use a SATA drive so you will have all the same issues that mostly everyone else has. Better yet run RAID. I'll send you 2 new 80GB sata drives if you need em. Then you wont be excited. Sorry i'm a little upset at nvidia right now b/c of all the issues with this exact EVGA board It's a strange thing though that NONE of the reviewers of this exact board ever experience these issues during reviews. I guess if they did, and gave bad review, they wouldn't get anymore free toys to play with.

Presentation looks great so far though. Good Job!!

When my EVGA is actually working, it smokes my Striker. You should have alot of fun with this board if you do not use SATA or RAID. It Overclocks really well.

please don't blast my thread. Nvidia is not paying me to be nice to them. I am testing the hardware for bugs as well so i will test sata and raid setups later on (hardware and time permitting). I also enjoy OCing and concentrate on positives. Who likes rocking up to whinning threads and mindless ing..................If the hardware has issues i'll report them and move on ..............i don't want this thread to end up in dinos22 bashing because nvidia sent me a board to test Nvidia explicitly said in my NDA that they do not expect me to advertise their product. They have absolutely no expectation or limitations on me to talk about the hardware getting tested........I am NOT A REVIEWER. I am a tester that's it!!! If i get issues i report them to you guys and nvidia and they hopefully get fixed....No company can buy my opinion. I overclock because i enjoy doing that. I also overclock to share it all and learn from other people's feedbacks. I HATE people that use viral marketing and there was a huge problem in australia last year and a certain company is in my baddest of bad books . The day any company i test hardware for tells me to say something i wouldn't want I WOULD STOP DEALING WITH THEM ON THE SPOT. I run a successful business and need no free handouts. I am happy nvidia sees me as someone that can constructively help them develop their hardware so that we don't have to have issues people are experiencing

talk about bugs i've had a couple last night >>>>

i feel it will take a little while longer to get used to and understand this motherboard to 965 ones i've tried.

i will also be upgrading to the latest possible bios there is next time i work with it so that i can avoid some of the obvious bugs people have experienced

last night after OCing to 400*7 i noticed the mouse kind of go nuts a little and remember someone mentioned something similar

also i clockgened to 440MHz with all the auto settings before it froze

also clockgen still showed my RAM in 2:3 ratio even though i set it to 1:1 and later unlinked below FSB speed so that is definately a bug. I haven't double checked superpi performance to confirm 100% whether this is a bug or not. I will see whether a new bios will iron these out


i've email my contact all the forum thread links so they'll be able to follow the progress as well

AT THE SAME TIME I'M NOT NVIDIA TECH SUPPORT. I will test what i please . If you have lots of problems i suggest you deal with your hardware manufacturer or start a new thread...........you can use info here for fixes if i come up with any LOL heh

[nn_step]

Shake the bugs out

[nugzo]

Bashing Your post wasn't my intention. Sorry if you took it that way. I've enjoyed all of the posts i've read from you. I'm glad you will report what you find.

[dinos22]

Bashing Your post wasn't my intention. Sorry if you took it that way. I've enjoyed all of the posts i've read from you. I'm glad you will report what you find.

no dramas. I've replied to you in general terms. I didn't think you were bashing anything but from previous threads where someone's testing manufacturer's hardware there were instances of people doing that and i just want to be crystal clear where I stand that's all

anyways i'll be playing some more tonight (hopefully)

i really like the idea of unlinked mode so that i can run RAM at max speeds at any CPU speed........that's just amazing . I hear RD600 will have that same feature


if you look through my Opteron 146 thread you will see that in my basement setup i use the same HDD hehe....sentimental value i guess heheh

i've got some sata drives tied up in my main rig........if you're really not in a massive need of your few SATA drives you can send it here hehehehehehehe

[xgman]

What bios version did they give you? Can you get P22 from them?

[dinos22]

What bios version did they give you? Can you get P22 from them?

i think the board has P19 lol

is there a P22 out there?

i'll use whatever the latest release they have out there so that everyone can compare results

[Ic3man]

P21 is the latest official afaik.

[nugzo]

I'll give you 2 new WD SATA 80GB 7200rpm drives if you need them. You pay shipping. PM me if you would like to discuss more.

[nugzo]

P21 is the latest official afaik.

I spoke with EVGA today concerning RMA. I asked CS if there had been any progress on SATA issue. He said he wasnt sure, but that he was sure there was a bios coming real soon. Didn't know what the fixes were b/c bios comes from nvidia.

[dinos22]

b/c bios comes from nvidia.

yeap that's true

i will reorganise my drives as freight there and back would cost as much as me just going out and buying them here lol heheh

thanks for the offer anyways

[frankR]

Looking good. I have my eye on the 680i for my future E6600 rig, I'll be eagerly waiting to hear your experiences.

[dinos22]

hey nugzo

i friend over at OCAU has tested two different 680i boards without any issues at all in Raid with SATA drives

Nice review man keep up the good work.

@ nugzo, I tested 680i BFG using 2x36g Raptor in raid, Oc'd the Mobo with all the voltages almost at max, even the sata controller voltage as well and i dont see any issue

Using P5N32-E SLI atm for bench, yet im using the same HDD 2x36g raptor in raid and i dont have any issue xD 680i Has heaps of OC features and more stable IMO compare with Intel chipset. since Dino and eva also know my problem with 965 and some 975. ya know restarting problem and etc.

[Revv23]

cool keep it coming dinos.

i feel that this board is lacking an in detail report from a guy like ytou.

[Lestat]

no need to be gentle with this baord Dino just crank the FSB to what you want. my board stop at 17XX and will not go any higher no matter what i, not on a 6x multi not on a 9x multi. which pisses me off to no end as my DS3 was bootable at 485x8 and it would post at 500x7 but the ram would puke out since it is D9 ram and the DS3 dont like D9.
i hear the 6400 and 6300's do not have that problem so i hope your able to hit 500mhz fSB otherwise the baord is no better than any other board. aside from its adjustable ram speeds.
the downside to that handy new tool is the fact that ram speeds dont play a huge factor with conroes. yoru not going to see night and day differences from 1200mhz to 800mhz sure faster but not like "omg!!!"

iv ebeen thru two of the 680i's already and they both got returned and i refuse to buy another until all issues including piss ppor FSB clocking on 6600 or higher is fixed.


sata issues arent so bad unless you run raid so be sure to test that. but test it with 2 drives in raid and 1 non raid see what happens when you try to access the nonraid drive. but its not always like that it does show itself to others for just normal sata setups.

but glad to see you got a nice board Dino.

just start cranking!

one minor note. it is taking more vcore on this board than it did on my DS3 which i think is just retarded, but i also have not seen anyone post the voltage check points either. so i cant say for sure since the bios reports the voltages wrong, atleast for the cpu it does.

it does let me do 1150mhz 5-4-4-15 @ 2.25v with my gskill 6400 HZ's. which i like. higher voltages dont make much difference. and 4-4-4 is impossible it jsut fails memtest everytime, even at 2.4v

[fhpchris]

Use a SATA drive so you will have all the same issues that mostly everyone else has. Better yet run RAID. I'll send you 2 new 80GB sata drives if you need em. Then you wont be excited. Sorry i'm a little upset at nvidia right now b/c of all the issues with this exact EVGA board It's a strange thing though that NONE of the reviewers of this exact board ever experience these issues during reviews. I guess if they did, and gave bad review, they wouldn't get anymore free toys to play with.

Presentation looks great so far though. Good Job!!

When my EVGA is actually working, it smokes my Striker. You should have alot of fun with this board if you do not use SATA or RAID. It Overclocks really well.

I plan on running Raid on this board, I will let you know how the stuff goes tomorrow It just posted tonight (WTF is up with my Xeon 3060 posting @ 343*7?)