680i SLI is too expensive? Asus as the solution : P5N32-E SLI PLUS

[H0RM0NE]

For better or for worse...I ordered this board from eWiz last night.

After reading/researching the threads on the Evga, Striker, IN9, the P5N-E(non32) 650i, I decided this hybrid setup might just be the way to go for my sig rig. I hope to receive it by Friday to setup and test this weekend.

Thanks to all those who have much more knowledge and experience with the various boards than I and are willing to share the good with the bad.

[NiCKE^]

They told my dealer that it was the replacement so I can't say anything else.
Did you get 3DMark06 license with Plus and Non-Plus?

[Fikkie]

nobody got the bloody 3dmark06, both plus and non-plus version. And don't mail asus, because they say it's the dealers fault.. instead of saying that it's asus fault that the plus just doesn't has the 3dmark

[mit78]

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/6327/20062uw6.jpg
2006 with plus

[G.Foyle]

I got no 3Dmark with nonplus version. Was it on separate CD or on ASUS support CD?

[Naughtyboy]

Guys....about the chipset thingy. I could be wrong here (and I know there are others with same opinoin)...but the more I read about it, and the different "versions" of nvidias latest chipset, the more I´m sure about it. To me it seemse like there isn´t such thing as 680/650 chipset....to me it looks more like it´s 680i PLATFORM or 650i PLATFORM....and why do I think so??

Well...for starters we have sen the C55 chip been used on both 680i and 650i boards...we can even see the C55 chip on eva200s striker board...whilst most other striker board has C55XE.
No if we look further on the "naming/text" printed on the C55 chip...the chip on "most" 680i boards has C55-SLIX16N-A2 printed...whilst the P5N32-E SLI Plus has C55-SLIX8N-A2 printed...to me this looks like a newer version or "680 Lite" if you want. This could be confirmed by ElixXx in an earlier post in this thread where he post pictures of the NB on his P5N-E SLI wich has C55-SLIX8N-A2 printed, this board is supposed to be 650i.,,wheras "most" other 650i boards have C51(this also according to nvidia techinfo).
Now if we move further on to the SB used on nvidia-intel boards....by looking around on pictures from user post...the 680i boards seeme to have 590SLI chip on the SB and 650i seeme to have 570 chip of some kind.
So with this and other info in mind I draw the following "general" conclusion:

C55/C55XE NB with 590SLI SB...equals 680i platform

crippeld C55/C51 NB with 570 SB...equals 650i platform

There are alot more info out there leading me to think this is the right way of "classify" the nvidia boards and the chips used on them.

Now this is just my thoughts and ideas...I´m not the right one to say whats right or wrong...but we all have our god given right of an opinion...and this is simply just mine.

[G.Foyle]

There may be soething to it...
But versions of the same motherboard taht have different NB would also differ by revision number; no manufacturer would make such a mess in naming.

[robprime]

The NewEgg site is listing it as 680i.

And the Asus site shows C55

I hope it's better built than the other 680 boards I looked at. Cause I'm about to buy one.

E6600
P5N32-E Plus
Zalman CNPS9500 AT
2x 1gig G.Skill F26400CL5D-2GBNQ
Antec TruePower Triple Rail 650watt
2x XFX 7900GS @600/1600

[Thomas Olivaux]

nVidia told me that there were a small difference between C55XE and C55 (both 680i NB) and that there were no MCP55XE, only the MCP55.

C55XE = 16 + 8 PCI-E lanes
C55 = 16 lanes "only"

The 8 more lanes on the C55XE are for a third PEG port witch will be used by a futur nVidia solutions for particles (imagine a SLI 2x 16X + a third graphic car dedicated to particles on the 8X port).

++

Tom

[xgman]

Do any of these get past the 680i sata issues that plagued the first 680i chipset release which as far as I am concerned was never fixed or even could be fixed through bios updates?

[Naughtyboy]

Do any of these get past the 680i sata issues that plagued the first 680i chipset release which as far as I am concerned was never fixed or even could be fixed through bios updates?

Have had mine up to 520mhz FSB without any SATA corruption what so ever.

Cpu-Z Validation

[robprime]

I hope those were just raid issues, cause I can live without raid. I guess I'll be finding out in a couple days.

[G.Foyle]

SATA issues were present only on nVidia reference boards (eVGA, BFG, Biostar)

[Caliber]

Cant wait to get this board myself, after finally deciding amongst the jungle of chipsets and mb-models out there... Could anyone confirm or deny that the scythe ninja+ will fit on this baby?

[Pyr0]

so which one's better plus or non-plus?
haven't seen much in the way of support from asus in the form of bios updates

do either boards have two full x16 pci-e slots and a x8 as mentioned on the asus site?
how's the memory overclocking on these boards?
and has anybody personally tested the overvolting of the 8800 cards?

[spookz]

Cant wait to get this board myself, after finally deciding amongst the jungle of chipsets and mb-models out there... Could anyone confirm or deny that the scythe ninja+ will fit on this baby?

Yes the Scythe Ninja Plus will fit on the P5N32-E SLI.. i for one have this setup myself =)

[Counter CS]

I found some usefull info about this Mobo.

http://hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?id=6420&cid=4

[Caliber]

Any one that can truly convince me tht this board is a keeper? I want it, but i just cant make up my mind...

[Cranox]

I just bought one , hopefully it was a good choice.

[renethx]

So summarizing Tom's information from NVIDIA and Naughtyboy's thought,

SPP (System Platform Processor, Northbridge)

Apparently there are four kinds of C55:

• C55 for 650i Ultra
  
  • FSB 1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-800/667/533, up to 32GB
  • 18 PCI Express lanes with links 16,1,1
• C55 for 650i SLI (printed "NF650I-SLI-N-xx" or "C55-SLIX8N-xx" on the chipset surface)
  
  • FSB 1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-800/667/533, up to 32GB
  • 18 PCI Express lanes with links 16,1,1 or 8,8,1,1
• C55 for 680i SLI "Lite" (printed "C55-SLIX8N-xx" on the chipset surface)
  
  • FSB 1333/1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-1200*/800/667/533 (* for SLI-ready memory with EPP), ECC or Non-ECC, up to 32GB
  • 18 PCI Express lanes with links 16,1,1
• C55 for 680i SLI (printed "NF680I-SLI-N-xx" or "C55-SLIX16N-xx" on the chipset surface)
  
  • FSB 1333/1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-1200*/800/667/533 (* for SLI-ready memory with EPP), ECC or Non-ECC, up to 32GB
  • 26 PCI Express lanes with links 16,8,1,1

Actually there are only two kinds of C55, however:

• C55
  
  • FSB 1333/1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-1200*/800/667/533 (* for SLI-ready memory with EPP), ECC or Non-ECC, up to 32GB
  • 18 PCI Express lanes with links 16,1,1 or 8,8,1,1
• C55XE
  
  • FSB 1333/1066/800MTps
  • DDR2-1200*/800/667/533 (* for SLI-ready memory with EPP), ECC or Non-ECC, up to 32GB
  • 26 PCI Express lanes with links 16,8,1,1

The only difference between C55 and C55XE is that C55XE has an extra x8 PCIe link (for a third PEG port which will be used by a future nVIDIA solutions for particle). C55 for 650i Ultra/650i SLI/680i SLI "Lite" are all the same as the C55 vanilla (identified as 650i SLI SPP by CPU-Z) with some functions disabled at the motherboard/BIOS level. C55 for 680i is the C55XE (identified as 680i SLI SPP or erroneously C60 by CPU-Z; C60 is the canceled IGP solution for Intel, cf. the INQUIRER).

MCP (Media and Communications Processor, Southbridge)

There are two MCPs for nForce 600i Series:

• MCP51 (a.k.a. nForce 430, printed "MCP51-xx" or "NF-430-N-xx" on the chipset surface)
  
  • No PCI Express lane
  • 2 x PATA, 4 x SATA at 3.0Gbps, RAID 0/1/01/5/JBOD, NCQ, Hot-Plug, Native Gigabit LAN, 8 x USB2.0, HD Audio
• MCP55 (a.k.a. nForce 590 SLI MCP, printed "NF590-SLI-N-xx" on the chipset surface)
  
  • 28 PCI Express lanes with links 16,8,1,1,1,1
  • 1 x PATA, 6 x SATA at 3.0Gbps, RAID 0/1/01/5/JBOD, NCQ, Hot-Plug, Dual Native Gb LAN, 10 x USB2.0, HD Audio
  • DualNet, Teaming, TCP/IP Acceleration

MCP55 is exactly nForce 570 SLI for AMD (single chip), so it is identified with "nForce 570 SLI" by CPU-Z.

Chipsets

• nForce 650i Ultra = C55 + MCP51; PEG x16 only
• nForce 650i SLI = C55 + MCP51; PEG x16 or (x8, x8)
• nForce 680i SLI "Lite" (or Dual x16 SLI or Dual PCI-E x16 in the ASUS term) = C55 + MCP55; PEG (x16, x16, x8)
• nForce 680i SLI = C55XE + MCP55; PEG (x16, x16, x8) (and the hidden x8)

Again the only difference between 680i SLI "Lite" and 680i SLI is that 680i SLI has an extra (hidden) x8 link in its SPP. FYI

nForce 500 Series for Intel

• nForce 570 SLI = C19 + MCP51; PEG x16 or (x8, x8)
• nForce 590 SLI = C19 + MCP55; PEG (x16, x16, x8)

nForce4 for Intel

• nForce4 SLI = C19 + MCP-04; PEG x16 or (x8, x8) (The lanes in MCP are disabled!)
• nForce4 SLI X16 = C19 + MCP-04; PEG (x16, x16)
• nForce4 Ultra = C19 + MCP51; PEG x16
• nForce4 SLI XE = C19 + MCP51; PEG x16 or (x8, x8)

nForce 500 Series for AMD

• nForce 550 = MCP55; PEG x16
• nForce 570 Ultra = MCP55; PEG x16
• nForce 570 SLI = MCP55; PEG (x16, x8) or (x8, x8)
• nForce 590 SLI = C51XE + MCP55; PEG (x16, x16)

nForce4 for AMD

• nForce4 = MCP-04; PEG x16
• nForce4 Ultra = MCP-04; PEG x16
• nForce4 SLI = MCP-04; PEG x16 or (x8, x8)
• nForce4 SLI X16 = C51D + MCP-04; PEG (x16, x16)

More in the sticky thread Core 2 & AM2 Motherboards in AnandTech Forums, Part II, Section 9, 10, 11.

Drivers

There is no driver for SPP. In other words,

• "nForce 650i SLI/650i Ultra Drivers" = "nForce 430/410 Drivers" = MCP51 drivers
• "nForce 680i SLI Drivers" = MCP55 drivers

Even if 680i SLI "Lite" uses the 650i SPP, its drivers is still "nForce 680i SLI Drivers" = MCP55 drivers.

About C51 (or Crush 51)

C51 is the codename of the GeForce 6100 family chipsets for the AMD platform. Actually the project includes three chipsets:

• C51G & C51PV
  
  • SPP with integrated graphics for the AMD platform
  • 18 PCI Express lanes (16 for external graphics)
• C51D & C51XE
  
  • SPP with discrete graphics for the AMD platform
  • 18 PCI Express lanes (16 for external graphics)
• MCP51
  
  • MCP (for both AMD and Intel)
  • No PCI Express lane, 2 x PATA, 4 x SATA at 3.0Gbps, RAID 0/1/01/5/JBOD, NCQ, Hot-Plug, Native Gigabit LAN, 8 x USB2.0, HD Audio

C51G/PV + MCP51 is just the GeForce 6100/nForce 400 chipset family (PV = PureVideo = GeForce 6150). C51D/XE is used in nForce4 SLI X16/nForce 590 SLI for AMD. MCP51 is also used as the MCP of nForc4 Ultra/nForce 4 SLI XE/nForce 570 SLI/nForce 650i Ultra/nForce 650i SLI for Intel.

The above speculations are almost reasonable, except one point: no review site has ever mentioned the hidden extra x8 PCIe link in the 680i SLI SPP. But without this assumption (or at least some kind of hidden features that cost extra $50), the distinction between C55 and C55XE would be meaningless.

[zert]

renethx I think ur spot on mate

[Naughtyboy]

Yeah..renethx...I think that conclusion/summary is just about right.

Well done :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[cyberspyder]

So would this be a better buy than the P5B-Deluxe or the Commando GT? I want max-OCs. BTW, newegg lists it as a 650i.

Brendan

[The Mutt]

Anybody else tried SLI? Well I have and my results seem to show that it it severely bandwith restricting, it seems that in 3Dmark01 I get 12k less points than with my old P5W DH with hacked drivers. All the scores are much lower execpt Nature thats higher! And thats allmost exactly the same as the P5W DH without the SLI bridge. Without SLI bridge I got 53k with bridge 66k with bridge and the P5N32-E sli Plus I get 54k! Maybe its not a real 2x 16x pci-e board?!

[Sem]

i really want this board but im concerned about something

my E6600 needs 1.47vcore (actual) to run prime stable at 3.6Ghz

with the current bios will i be able to get 1.47vcore

if not i guess i will have to pass or wait for an bios update