Nvidia 680i chipset

[OptimisTech]

I have been reading all day and I'm still not sure whether the 680i will work for me or not, but I'm hoping at least someone can give me some comparative info.

I have been running an e6600 on and Intel 975xBX2 for about a year and it has been a great machine. It NEVER crashes and seems plenty fast for what I do with it.

Recently my UPS burned up and took my PSU and motherboard with it. I was going to just get another Badaxe2 since bare boards can be had pretty cheap right now and I already have all the other stuff. I am budget limited and cannot afford even the base model P35 with RAID support. (~$140)

However, a friend offered me his old EVGA 680i board for $50. I have never used Nvidia chipsets before and I am a little worried by the nightmare these boards were when they first came out. There are some pluses to this idea though.

I have never been a big fan of ATI video products, so my video card is a 9600gt. (No crossfire for me...) The 680i would at least give me the option of SLI in the future. It would also give me official support for 1333 and 45nm chips.

I guess what I am wondering is what's the operational and RAID stability of the 680i like? Have they ironed the bugs out at this point? Is it worth getting the 680i or should I go ahead and spend some money to replace the BX2?

 

[lopri]

You may want to check out the exact part number of your friend's 680i board (A1, AR, T1, TR, etc.), and if possible the board's revision. After reading your experience with BadAxe 2, though, I am afraid that 680i may not be the right board for you. 680i had some serious issue with hard disks (not just RAID, mind you) which was fixed in later revisions.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. Optimis.

As one who had extensive experience with the 680i board (GA-680SLI-DQ6), you do NOT want to go there. This is especially true considering your comment about wanting to use a 1333FSB , 45nm proc in such a board. Those high speed 45nm procs don't work very well in a 680i board, if at all.

If you are set on a nVidia board, then I be looking at either a 780i or 790i board. The latter will require DDR3 for sure though. Considering the problems with chipset compatibility, drivers, etc with the new 45nm procs, I have gone over to X48 chipset boards. I know they don't offer SLI, but at least they work, and work quite well.

I started a Thread on this Forum in December of 2006 which was dedicated to the Gigabyte GA-680SLI-DQ6 board. It is still a quite lively Thread, and has many, many comments on the difficulties encountered with 680i chipset boards. Maybe you would want to read it.

Best regards. TheBeagle :beer: