Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[cdfire]

BEAGLE!!!! I LOVE YOU MAN!!! Ok I spent 3 weeks testing and changing out parts, pulled out all my hair and so forth. Well it was not the sound card per say but as it turns out being that this was my first x-fi card, upon install I installed everything on the creative disk figuring it would be cool to see what it all does and such. Well I am not sure what program was the issue but after uninstalling all of it except the drivers, volume control and the thingy to change from game mode to other modes, all seems to be working great now. Computers been on for 3 hours since I removed all the junk from the creative install and office xp and picture files open in a heart beat. The plan was to remove the card all togather, but upon uninstall it gave the options of what to uninstall so for kicks I just selected the stuff I dont really need, if that did not work, move on to complete uninstall, but something worked. WOOT!

Once again, THANK YOU BEAGLE!!!!!

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Fire Man,

Sounds like the Lord has shined His light on you! Glad to hear that you have resolved your problem. I kinda had a strong feeling that the problem was software based and not your first-class hardware rig. Enjoy and give thanks to Him. TheBeagle

 

[justinburton]

I had a sound card problem just like that a few years back. The way i fixed it was not installing any drivers for the sound card except the latest ones from the soundblaster website. DON'T USE THE CREATIVE DISK! Well I guess it's too late now being you already solved the problem, soooo sorry I couldn't be of help.

 

[cdfire]

Ah but you did help Justin, not in fixing the problem but in making me learn more in the SATA department. After your post I went a reading again and learned allot, so TY for that.

And Beagle, you was the second one I thanked, the man upstairs heard TY, TY, TY a thousand times before I made the post.

 

[Smitty1705]

Gary -

Any update on the new F4 Bios yet? Reallllly looking forward to your thoughts on it!

Thanks again!

Smitty

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello To Gary.

About three (3) weeks ago you mentioned that you would have a "Part 2" to your review on the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board. Can you give us any update on when that second shoe might drop? Also, I believe that we all are awaiting a report on the suggested BIOS settings for the F4B (or newer) BIOS that you likewise told us was forthcoming. Thanks for all your efforts. TheBeagle

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: TheBeagle
Hello To Gary.

About three (3) weeks ago you mentioned that you would have a "Part 2" to your review on the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board. Can you give us any update on when that second shoe might drop? Also, I believe that we all are awaiting a report on the suggested BIOS settings for the F4B (or newer) BIOS that you likewise told us was forthcoming. Thanks for all your efforts. TheBeagle

Hi,

I am trying to get a short update posted this weekend. Gigabyte was suppose to have a new BIOS spin this week so I was holding off but it appears it will be next week now.

 

[cipher7]

Here's a good place to start for overclocking settings on 680i boards...

http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/45121/nforce_680i_sli_overclocking.pdf

 

[cdfire]

Thanks for the update Gary.

Good Find Cipher7

 

[TheBeagle]

Thanks for the reply Gary. I am also interested in your examination and conclusions concerning some of the multitude of other features on this board, namely, the 4x Ethernet ports and the various networking possibilities; the audio performance, etc. As we all now know, although there are some pretty sophisticated Ethernet features on this board, but there is virtually NO usable information in the User's Manual concerning such features. This is coupled with the fact that there are elements within the BIOS that are not even mentioned in the Version 1 Users Manual, let alone explained in any meaningful way.

It is hard to understand why Gigabyte almost ignores this user information issue. One would think that a first-tier manufacturer such as Gigabyte would never want to get an erroneous bad rap from the consumers for lack of a proper documentation concerning their products. Yet, that seems to be exactly what they are doing with this new 680i board. Maybe the folks at Gigabyte PRESUME that everyone else is one their page of info, but that is just not the fact, and they are damn fools for not following through on providing more in-depth consumer information, especially about their complex products.

I would suggest that in your frequent discussions with those Gigabyte folks that you firmly suggest that they get their head out of their butts (a/k/a: inverted-cranial-rectal-syndrome! OR ocular rectitus!), and provide some meaningful info on this board! Thanks for any assistance you can generate on this matter. Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[Curr]

I agree with Mr Beagle 101%! I just assembled my 680SLI-DQ6 last night and there is nothing in the manual about configuration options for the quad-lan. (Any other others of this board sick of the word "quad" ? )
Has anyone tried the F4b bios Gary posted, my board came with F2 and I'm going to flash to F3 tonight, but was considering F4b...

Also, I was having a bit of trouble with the NV SATA Raid controller seeing my HDD. I don't plan on running RAID at all, but was told I could enable the NV SATA Raid controller, and that would enable AHCI and NCQ for my Raptor (my boot drive). I enabled NV SATA Raid, and set each of the channels to disable (I don't want to use RAID), and when I went to install WinXP it didn't see any HDD for me to use. Am I completely bollocksing this up? Do I need to enable the channels? Should I just turn off the NV SATA Raid controller all together? (Do I need NCQ / AHCI ) Should I leave it on, but F6 at WinXP install and use the MCP55 Raid Drivers?

For Beagle, and others, which controller are you using, and how did you set it up?

Right now, all that I'm powering up is my E6600 / Mobo / Samsung IDE DVD-R / 1Gb RAM / 1 74Gb WD Raptor

 

[cdfire]

I agree some of the stuff in the BIO is just a pain in the butt, like the voltage settings, why not just say what they are instead of adding or subtracting to get to a voltage setting. I dont mind the hitting the extra buttons to get at the extra features, but once there it would be a lot easyer for the user if it was plain and simple instead of guess what the default is and add from there.

Curr I just installed my Hard drive and DVD burner to the yellow SATA ports. I did not install any raid drivers. I can not speak for ACHI, but NCQ is enabled on my hard drive. I have the raid controls disabled in the BIOS. I don't know much about ACHI, but that may require some form of driver upon windows install F6 button, maybe someone else can help you with that since I really don't know much about it, but I did not install anything for it. Hope that helps you some. Also make sure your SATA Hard drive is selected in the BIOS as the boot drive. I believe by default it selects the drive on the IDE controller.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello To Mr. Curr and CDFire Man.

Maybe I can offer some bit of assistance. ONLY Windows VISTA has native drivers that will recognize SATA peripherals, especially hard drives, and more especially SATA RAID arrays. If you are installing WinXP-SP2 (as it appears you are), then you MUST install the proper drivers via the F6 button on bootup during the initial install, otherwise the operating system has no way to "see" the drives.

If you are NOT going to use RAID, then you should disable the RAID option, but keep the controller ACTIVE. That way it will default to an IDE level, and through the use of the proper drivers at F6, the drives will be recognized. It is only necessary to load the mass storage nVidia driver through the F6 option if you are NOT using RAID.

I hope that is of some help to you. Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[cdfire]

I dont get what your saying Beagle. I did not install anything threw F6. My drives where detected np. XP PRO SP2 Once windows was up and running I installed the chipset drivers and the Nvidia SATA controller drivers which just make the drives hot swapable from what I can tell. I selected IDE mode in the BIOS for teh SATA drives. If I go into device manager and select the controller my hard drive is on I can see that NCQ is checked and enabled along with DMA mode and such.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Again To Mr. CdFire Man.

No copy/version of WinXP-SP2 that I have ever owned had native nVidia SATA drivers. Therefore, I'm at a bit of a loss to respond to you. Even if you check the Gigabyte web site and the nVidia web site, they both list F6 drivers that must be loaded at initial install in order to allow the OS to "see" the drives. If somehow you have been blessed with a version of WinXP that has that native capability, then God bless you and enjoy your PC.

However, I have never been able to initiate SATA drives on initial install of the operating system without the F6 drivers. Of course, once the OS is installed, then installing hard drives, including SATA drives is quite a simple task. I hope that further explains what I mentioned earlier. TheBeagle

 

[cdfire]

Hum, now you got me wondering. Anyone else have to install drivers at F6 to see the SATA drives? Maybe I do have a magic version or something. I bought it at the store retail version.

 

[justinburton]

It is possible to not use F6 in the initial Windows setup. It is called slipstreaming drivers. You can use the program nLite to do it. I have done is before. It basically lets you add any drivers you want to your original Windows disk. You can also make it an unattended setup, where everything is already filled out and you never have to use the mouse to click through the steps.

 

[pistolpat]

If you don't use F6 when installing Wndows, the OS will install just IDE driver for your drives. IDE is the standard for pretty much all controllers out there on the motherboard. But if you want to see your temp, NCQ and advanced stuff on the SATA 2 drives, then you have to install the SATA controller driver using F6. Clear as mud right?

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello To Mr. PistolPat.

Generally speaking, I believe you are correct. However, it is important to remember that WinXP (all known retail forms) does NOT have any embedded SATA (serial) drivers. WinXP arrived on the scene BEFORE SATA become a defacto standard in the Windows operating system. Therefore, in order to accomplish an initial install of WinXP onto a SATA hard drive, you MUST use the F6 option and a floppy disk to load the SATA drivers into the OS, except as noted below. The primary reason for this is because SATA controller chips on the more recent motherboards require a different hardware/software communication link than the older PATA (parallel) chip sets and IDE software.

Otherwise, you most likely will get a message on the blue install screen (after you press F8 to acknowledge the EULA) indicating that Windows cannot locate a mass storage device onto which it can load, and will bomb out at that point. Of course, if you have a regular PATA IDE drive attached to the PC, WinXP WILL see that device, since (as you correctly noted) there are native PATA drivers embedded in WinXP.

Mr. Justin's earlier comment about slipstreaming is also correct, but that's NOT the known state of a retail copy of WinXP, but rather a hybrid created to avoid the need to utilize a floppy drive during the initial install sequence. A number of folks use that method when they don't have a floppy drive in their machine, and without it, they would not be able to initially load (or reload) WinXP (or Win2k). Some PC manufacturers, i.e. Dell & HP, use a form of slipstreaming to produce the "reinstall" CD that either comes with the PC or which you can buy at the time of initial purchase, since most of the lower cost machines don't have floppy drives installed in those PCs.

I believe we have beaten this dead horse enough. Everyone's contribution to this sub-thread I'm sure is appreciated. TheBeagle

 

[eklock2000]

Mr. Beagle,

Is your rig humming along? Any luck with the new F4 BIOS?

EK2K

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello To Gary!!!

We are all anxiously awaiting some further information on your discoveries and adventures with the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board. I, for one, would like to hear about your findings with the new BIOSes that you've been lucky enough to receive from Gigabyte.

Also, as was pointed out by some other Forum contributors, we sure need to get the straight scoop on these "Quad" Ethernet connections. What the hell good are all this sophisticated motherboard features if the consumers don't know how to enable them and set them to their proper state, all BECAUSE Gigabyte is so damn dense that they don't realize (or care) that such things are NOT really that self-evident! In that regard, I renew my request to you to be our collective "voice" to Gigabyte that they still need to have that "disclosure surgery" to cure their damn-near fatal case of inverted-cranial-rectal-syndrome, and thus begin to "see the light!"

Have a GREAT weekend Gary, and we ALL hope to hear from you SOON!!! TheBeagle

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Eklock Man.

Well, to be honest, it's been a case of fits and starts. As a Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) farmer once said, "the farther I go, the behinder I get." While it's not quite humming, the PC is percolating, and as I work through the Vista Ultimate issues, it's getting a little better each day.

I'm still having some difficulty maintaining a steady overclock setting, and I think that's due to tinkering around with the features in the OS, and that has a tendency to mess up the boot into Windows capability. I can OC the heck out of the CPU and board, but getting it past the POST, and successfully into Windows has been the challenge.

I've been re-reading the nVidia Overclocking Guide that our colleague Mr. Cipher7 pointed out to us in his recent post, and that has given me some additional ideas on how to approach some problematic issues. I am still quite confident that it's just a matter of time and a few more BIOS revisions (and hopefully some further product info) that will result in tapping into the full potential of this board. Our friend, Gary, will have to take the lead on those further initiatives and developments, since he's likely the only person (at least the only person I know of) that can get his hands on the cutting edge stuff for this board.

It is of some interest that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of "other" discussion on various forums/boards about this new motherboard. So, I guess we are all in this together at this time. Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[Gary Key]

We did not get a new BIOS before the weekend break. I am hoping we receive something on Monday. In regards to the F4B, memory compatibility and 1T performance has improved, overclocking is slightly better, but we are still stuck at 335FSB with the QuadCore.

 

[cdfire]

Well teh SATA thing still has me baffled, but alls I know is XP Pro is installed and everything is now running great, F3 BIOS with none of the problems I have read about with other 680I boards. I did not mean for it to sound like a debate with the Beagle man for that was not my intention and I am sorry if it was taken that way, just stated how my install went without F6. In any event, I agree with the Beagle, lets get back on subject and see what we can do with this board. Very interested in learning everything I can about this board and what it can do and as such would like to take a second and thank AnandTech for this great website and forums they have here for us to discuss such stuff. Also a big TY to Gary for his review and keeping us updated. With that said, I look forward to sharing info and learning with you all as we work at getting the most out of this, what appears to be, a dang good 680I board.

 

[GriMRapeR]

I am new to these forums but I have been following this thread since early February. I would just like to say a big thankyou to everyone who has posted in this thread, especially TheBeagle. You guys have been most helpful while I was sorting through which motherboard to go with in the new system I am building. I had heard about these boards coming out and could not find any forums discussing it besides this one.

Just wanted to let you guys know that there are probably many people like me who have been following this thread as guests and I am sure they have gleened as much useful info as I have so top job to all. Big thanks to Gary, your review has been most helpful and I am looking forward to the supplementary review and info about the F4 BIOS. As a result of all you guys input I have now chosen to buy one of these boards for my new system which should be ready by 04/04/2007.

For anyone interested the specs are:

Case - Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 Evolution Black (NVIDIA SLI certified)
CPU - Core 2 Duo E6600
Mobo - GA-N680SLI-DQ6
RAM - 4Gb OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 1066MHz SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel Model: OCZ2N1066SR2GK
GPU - 2 X Inno3D 8800GTX Factory Overclocked running in SLI
HD - 2 X Seagate 320GB 'ST3320620NS' SATA II 3Gb/s ES HDD - 7200rpm, 16MB Cache
DVD - 2 X Samsung SH-S182F Black Internal DOUBLE Layer 18x DVD±RW Drive
Audio - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
LCD - Samsung 22" 226BW Wide TFT Monitor ? Black
Fan control - Aerocool Gatewatch II LCD Fan Controller and Monitoring Device
PSU - 850W OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (NVIDIA SLI-Ready)
OS - Dual boot XP Pro and Vista Home Premium x64 (XP Pro default boot)

Once again thanks a lot guys, I will keep tabs on this thread and will post my thoughts on this motherboard when I get my new rig

Cheers.