new nForce 680i board $110 shipped AR

[Zap]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813130080

MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme HD Audio

$149.99
-$30 MIR (exp. 5/31)
free shipping
-$10 promo code EMCAFCAAE (exp. 5/26)

= $109.99

This board is kind of interesting because it comes with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card as on-board. NOTE: Board does not support quadcore 45nm (Yorkfields). Anyways, seems like a decent board for anyone not going Yorkfield.

 

[cubeless]

i've been eyeing this... seems like a great deal, if it's a good board... the ne reviews are pretty grim, though... they mustn't be getting many people to bite, even with the rebate...

and the 45nm thing sure limits the longevity of the board... i'm looking to sli up some of my old vid cards as i move on to new ones... i would guess that a 3ish ghz q6600 would be ok for a couple years, tho...

i may pull the trigger just for the heck of it...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Can you use drivers from creative labs with that integrated X-Fi or do you have to wait for MSI to update them? Also, what kind of X-Fi is it equivalent to? ExtremeMusic?

 

[kki000]

What is the difference between this and 780i?

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Also, what kind of X-Fi is it equivalent to? ExtremeMusic?

I thought the specs say it's an XtremeAudio, i.e. the stripped down pseudo X-Fi.

 

[cubeless]

about $100...

and the 780 is te newer, bigger, better chipset...

 

[Damainman]

Hmmm,interesting board. Need mb for htpc/part time gaming. Have e8400,8800gt,wd 640, 2x2 ram, this board or GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboards for 89 free shipping at Chief Value. I only have about 100 or so budgeted for a mb.

 

[kki000]

Originally posted by: cubeless
about $100...

and the 780 is te newer, bigger, better chipset...

Thank you, so not helpful.

article

To be blunt, there is almost nothing new about 780i. It now turns out 680i does all the same tricks except supporting three x16 PCIe slots (680i supports x16, x16, x8) with two being PCIe 2.0 compliant. However, you do get assurance with 780i that you are getting a new NVIDIA motherboard certified by Intel to support Penryn (Wolfdale and Yorkfield). You do not get that assurance when you purchase a current 680i chipset motherboard.

Im assuming this runs the new procs ok?

 

[cubeless]

the 680 board seems not to run the new 45nm chips for sure... the 780 is supposed to...

 

[cubeless]

Originally posted by: Damainman
Hmmm,interesting board. Need mb for htpc/part time gaming. Have e8400,8800gt,wd 640, 2x2 ram, this board or GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboards for 89 free shipping at Chief Value. I only have about 100 or so budgeted for a mb.

go for the p35... if u don't need sli then it's a safer choice...

 

[kki000]

Originally posted by: cubeless
the 680 board seems not to run the new 45nm chips for sure... the 780 is supposed to...

lol, your general statements are killing me!

Looks like this board can run wolfdales. (under test?) but not yorkfields. It seems it can run harpertowns...?

cpu support

.. then theres this post that says quad core yorks are under test...

post

 

[cubeless]

that's the problem with the ne reviews... it looks like some people sort of got it to run 45nm chips (2 core) but no 4 core... and that approved chip list shows that they have left this board in the dust as far as testing or bios upgrades...

none of the tests i saw on the board at review sites were with 45nm chips... i think this board is a possible clunker...

but, if it's stable with a q6600 @ 3.0 and 2 card sli it's not a bad deal for $100...

i'm being general since i have no direct experience, but read a bunch of stuff about this board...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Also, what kind of X-Fi is it equivalent to? ExtremeMusic?

I thought the specs say it's an XtremeAudio, i.e. the stripped down pseudo X-Fi.

IIRC, isnt the XtremeAudio just an Audigy 2 ZS with a few minor tweaks?

 

[cubeless]

looks to me like it's a 'real' xfi, from what pcstats review says...

 

[imported_IronPlasma]

Originally posted by: cubeless
looks to me like it's a 'real' xfi, from what pcstats review says...

Actually it isn't the real X-Fi even though MSI and Creative would want you to believe that. It is the X-Fi Xtreme Audio which is basically a rebadged Audigy 2 with a few enhancements as stated above. Read here: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/12047

Also you can tell just by looking at the picture of the chip on the motherboard in that PC Stats review, it's way smaller than the real X-Fi chip.

http://www.pcstats.com/article...0/MSIP6NDiamond_m9.jpg

 

[cubeless]

ya just can't trust anyone these days...

hadn't looked at the xfi's in a couple years... it looks like what was the regular gamer (got one when they first came out) is now the fatality gamer... all the rest look cut down... sure is a pretty cheesy deal, using the same name for lesser parts...

but i guess it's still better than all the other onboard audio...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: kki000
Im assuming this runs the new procs ok?

"Generally speaking" reference design 680i chipset boards can run Wolfdales but not Yorkfields (with latest BIOS). Non-reference designs may or may not be able to run Yorkfields. I'm not sure if this is reference or non-reference.