Asus 680i board for sale now P5N32-E SLI

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Mavtech

Platinum Member
Jun 11, 2003
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I had an order in with them for 2 weeks. They kept moving the ETA on me. So, I cancelled and ordered 2 elsewhere. I was going to cancel one but they both shipped at the same time. I couldn't refuse shipment because they left it on my doorstep. So, I figured someone here would want it. Many websites have an ETA of 1/5/07.

Also, I believe it's $9 or so for shipping. So, your total will be about $270 with XPCGear. I can ship it tomorrow afternoon.
 

Mavtech

Platinum Member
Jun 11, 2003
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Oops. My link in my sig was not up to date with the new thread. The mods closed my old one due to age and length. It's fixed.
 

FireChicken

Senior member
Jun 6, 2006
620
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3NF!!!! Thaak you, thank you. Because of your tips I was able to get my system to run at 1T!!! You just made my week. I was just starting to think that this board is no different from my P5B. Memory is running at 910mhz (stock is 900) but at 1T the system should perform well. I have a week 26 E6600 and it is running at 3.1ghz right now, I will be happy if it hits 3.2 but I dont have high hopes.

BTW I bought this board at a local small chain computer store and they are in stock for $279. I buy alot of my stuff there and they seem to be really nice
http://www.centralcomputer.com/
 

TBSN

Senior member
Nov 12, 2006
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Supposedly the 680i chipset is kind of hit or miss, in that you either get a good one or a bad one, with numerous problems. because of that I think I'm going to go for a P965, like the Asus P5B-D. Thanks for the offer though.
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
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I wonder if I bought from that link above if I would receive before christmas?.....hmmmmmm
 

Mavtech

Platinum Member
Jun 11, 2003
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Originally posted by: TBSN
Supposedly the 680i chipset is kind of hit or miss, in that you either get a good one or a bad one, with numerous problems. because of that I think I'm going to go for a P965, like the Asus P5B-D. Thanks for the offer though.

I've never heard that before. That was the case with the 590 if anything. Every review of the 680i is a stellar review. It's overclocking great for me.

The only problems I have heard of were with the EVGA.....not the Asus board. I haven't found a single issue with the P5N32-E.
 

3NF

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2005
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Originally posted by: Mavtech
Originally posted by: TBSN
Supposedly the 680i chipset is kind of hit or miss, in that you either get a good one or a bad one, with numerous problems. because of that I think I'm going to go for a P965, like the Asus P5B-D. Thanks for the offer though.

I've never heard that before. That was the case with the 590 if anything. Every review of the 680i is a stellar review. It's overclocking great for me.

The only problems I have heard of were with the EVGA.....not the Asus board. I haven't found a single issue with the P5N32-E.

Some people are reporting issues with the ASUS board - but my P5N32-E seems fine :)

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1975227&enterthread=y

 

imported_RedStar

Senior member
Mar 6, 2005
526
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"Some people are reporting issues with the ASUS board - but my P5N32-E seems fine "

it's still early days yet. But i sure hope your assessment stands up to the test of time.

I want a motherboard soon darn it :)
 

Mavtech

Platinum Member
Jun 11, 2003
2,197
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Mine seems to be fine as well. No instabilities with a 600 MHZ overclock (more to come). I've run every torture test there is. I also have my 667 MHZ Ram OCed to 800 MHZ.
 

3NF

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2005
1,345
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Originally posted by: RedStar
"Some people are reporting issues with the ASUS board - but my P5N32-E seems fine "

it's still early days yet. But i sure hope your assessment stands up to the test of time.

I want a motherboard soon darn it :)

If there was a problem with my board, I think I would have come across it by now :) I'm very happy with it. A 1GHZ overclock is more than adequate :D
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
OK....These are back in stock at newegg and I just ordered mine...I hope I did the right thing...lol.

Can anybody give me any heads up or tips when installing this and getting it going?

I won't be oc right away....I just want to get it up and running and be stable for now.

Any help will be appreciated, thanks guys.
 

3NF

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2005
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I don't think you'll have any problems :) It seems that a lot of the folks that were having problems were using some sort of RAID setup. I don't use RAID.

Is that Corsair RAM the EPP kind? If you want to take advantage of that, then you'll need to set that up in the BIOS. Other than that, you shouldn't have much else to do but put it together and hope it boots :)

The SATA drive - make sure the little jumper is removed, if you haven't already :)
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
Thanks 3NF

I will remove the jumper on my Hard Drive....also what setting is that for the ram..is it enable sli, or EPP or what?....Thanks again.

I can't wait to get it :)
 

3NF

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2005
1,345
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It's called SLI ready memory in the bios. As for the jumper on the drive, remove that if you want to make use of SATA 3.0.

Enjoy :)
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
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My mobo arrived today. I won't have time to put pc together until the weekend.

I will be reading the manual at work though :)

On the box of this motherboard is a sticker that says "due to NVIDIA nForce680i SLI chipset, Asus only guarentees Dimms on memory QVL {qualified vendors list}

Other Dimms may cause instability.

My question is this, I have already bought this memory- XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4
It is 2GB XMS2 6400C4 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 SLI READY

When I go to the Asus website, i dont see this on the QVL list. Should I just sell this and get some from the QVL or should I just try it.

This will only be my 2nd build and I guess I'm just alittle leary.

Thanks for any help.
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
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Asus is terrible about updating their QVL for memory, I have used many Asus boards and I don't think I have ever used memory thats on the QVL and have never had a problem. It should be fine, I would certainly try it before getting rid of it
 

msgclb

Junior Member
Nov 19, 2006
23
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Originally posted by: whirlwind
My mobo arrived today. ...

I have already bought this memory- XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4
It is 2GB XMS2 6400C4 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 SLI READY

When I go to the Asus website, i dont see this on the QVL list. Should I just sell this and get some from the QVL or should I just try it. ...
My P5N32-E SLI is also awaiting the weekend to be put together. The memory QVL is pretty skimpy. I think that the memory manufacture's configurator is a better way to choose your memory. Here's the Corsair configurator search engine:

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/configurator_search_results.html

I hope I don't have any problems with my Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864AA1005 DDR2 1000 PC2-8000 that's also listed as compatible on their site.
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
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OK....my bad....I went back to the Asus site and my memory is listed as compatable.

I feel better.....thanks alot guys.

I can't wait to get this build going :)
 

3NF

Golden Member
Feb 5, 2005
1,345
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Originally posted by: whirlwind

My question is this, I have already bought this memory- XMS2 CM2X1024-6400C4
It is 2GB XMS2 6400C4 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 SLI READY

I'm using the same memory - you have nothing to worry about, unless you put it in backwards :)

 

StrangerThanFiction

Junior Member
Oct 4, 2005
18
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0
There seem to have been several main issues with 680i boards in general:
  1. Sound crackle when using SLI
  2. Data corruption on SATA drives
  3. Failure to work at all
  4. Widely varying overclock potential

The first two problems seem to have mainly been mentioned in connection with EVGA boards as well as possibly reference-design boards from other vendors. Both problems appear to have been soved with BIOS updates, although the data corruption update fix is still considered a beta, so we may not be out of the woods yet.

My understanding is that neither ASUS board showed either problem, however I have not been able to find much info on either of them. HardOCP reported that their Striker overclocked unimpressively , but otherwise worked well: first article, followup article

They asserted that some 680i boards just seem to work better than others, perhaps there is some manufacturing issue at play? Differences in ---electrical characteristics--- resulting from the manufacturing process seem to have played a part in this, which is Nvidia's explanation for why some boads had data corruption and other did not. So far most people reporting the impact of the new BIOS that had data corruption seem to have found the update helpful. Problems Article, Solutions article

I have not heard many complaints about the P5N32-E, except for confused people that bought it by mistake, thinking it was the Striker. I am thinking about getting the P5N32-E.

[edit]fixed bad link(thanks larsencasper![/edit]
 

imported_larsencasper

Junior Member
Dec 12, 2006
5
0
0
Originally posted by: StrangerThanFiction
There seem to have been several main issues with 680i boards in general:
  1. Sound crackle when using SLI
  2. Data corruption on SATA drives
  3. Failure to work at all
  4. Widely varying overclock potential

The first two problems seem to have mainly been mentioned in connection with EVGA boards as well as possibly reference-design boards from other vendors. Both problems appear to have been soved with BIOS updates, although the data corruption update fix is still considered a beta, so we may not be out of the woods yet.

My understanding is that neither ASUS board showed either problem, however I have not been able to find much info on either of them. HardOCP reported that their Striker overclcked unimpressively , but otherwise worked well: <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbar...art=MTIzNCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==--</a>"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbar...l?art=MTIzNCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==</a></a>
>First article</a>, Followup Article
They asserted that some 680i boards just seem to work better than others, perhaps there is some manufacturing issue at play? Differences in "electrical characteristics" resulting from the manufacturing process seem to have played a part in this, which is Nvidia's explanation for why some boads had data corruption and other did not. So far most people reporting the impact of the new BIOS that had data corruption seem to have found the update helpful. Problems Article, Solutions article

I have not heard many complaints about the P5N32-E, except for confused people that bought it by mistake, thinking it was the Striker. I am thinking about getting the P5N32-E


Great writeup StrangerThanFiction! I have come to much the same conclusions, read the same documents (btw, tjeck your link for 'First article') and am puzzeled with the lack of reviews.
At the XtremeForums there is a great user review, very thorough. Se also this thread.

A personal opinion from that forum states:

"the board definatly does have a steep learning curve, but from my experience, its real little things holding the board back.

the crazy heat of the NB makes it become unstable real fast if you dont care about your cooling for the chipset...

use your CPU HTT voltages, and NB Voltage.

I honestly would say, these boards arent good for the casual overclocker.
this isnt a board, you can just set your ram speed, then your CPU speed, and cas, then go...
its gonna take some finesse finding the sweet spots for this board and your hardware, and its gonna take some well placed fans to keep it stable too.

these boards do get ridiculously hot."

Keep posting info as you come by it. I am also thinking about getting the P5N32-E.

Cheers
Casper
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
I have 2 sata hard drives I am going to install on this board. Should I just install the one that i am going to load windows on 1st, or can I install both of these at the same time.

If I only install the sata hard drive for windows first, will I be able to partion my 2nd hard drive thru windows, or will I need some kind of software to do that.