Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[cdfire]

LOL, I think you mean me Kapt. My mem is set to 4-4-4-12 at 2.1 volts, 800MHZ no OC.

As for the RMA, the deal is they have to issue you a RMA number before you can even send the board in, of which they still have not gave me such number. The thing is, I just need to know what the issue is for sure of which Smitty does make sence. Once I know that for sure I can proceed from there. In any event this is my only pc at this time so weather a RMA board or Monitor, if either is the issue, I can't wait around for a RMA any longer, I have enough cash to either A: Buy another motherboard or B: Buy a new monitor and worry about RMA-ing this or that latter. The important part to me is having a pc up and running, after that they can take all the time they need for RMA stuff. But is it the motherboard? Is it the monitor? or is it like Smitty came up with, nothing to worry about, just set it to 60Hz. If it is as Smitty suggest I will get a new monitor anyways for this viewsonic looks like Yuk at 60Hz. But like I said, I have enough cash for one or the other, not both, so knowing for sure is the key.

Beagle, Glad to hear that F5b is working out for you. Gives us all hope.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hi Mr. CD.

It sounds like your problem is that you want to drive your monitor to the very edge of its performance limits. That has a tendency to heat things up and wear things out damn fast. Since there's no realistic way to add extra cooling to compensate for that extra stress on the monitor, I suspect that when you reach just the right combination of factors, hardware, software, thermal, etc., the monitor says "whoa, I'm not doing that!"

My sincerest suggestion to you, from all that you have written on this subject is as follows: 1. You obviously are not satisfied with the display performance of your present monitor at 1280x1024 @60MHz. 2. You want, and probably need, a higher performing display. 3. It is NOT likely that your motherboard, nor your graphic card is the culprit in this case. 4. A larger LCD monitor will give you the display resolution and sharpness (even @ 60MHz) that you are trying to obtain with the present monitor, and at the same time, not be pushed to the limits of its display ability. Therefore, I have the following suggestion:

Buy.com has some very nice LCD monitors on sale (ViewSonic as a matter of fact), with free shipping, no tax, and an unconditional return (postage pre-paid) if you don't like the monitor. Here's two such items: ViewSonic VX2435wm @ $649.95 (in stock), or, this one ViewSonic VX2255wmb @ $329.95 (in stock - this one has a built-in web cam to boot - very cool).

I would recommend that you select one of these monitors, order it immediately, and in the meantime set your present monitor to 60MHz so it will function properly for the next few days until your new display arrives. Of course, that's only my suggestion, but if I were in your position, I'd sure consider that option. Best of luck! TheBeagle

 

[cdfire]

Thanks for the info Beagle.

 

[Smitty1705]

CDFIRE -

Have to agree with Beagle, I think most of your issues are monitor related. I would get a new LCD 20" or higher, (I like the 22") and then you can expect the performance you are looking for. The 19" and below are just so limited when it comes to resolution. Let us know how it goes.

Smitty

 

[trx]

is it true that ga-n680sli-dq6 doesn't support conroe based celerons?

http://www.giga-byte.com.tw/Su...uctName=GA-N680SLI-DQ6

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Mr. TRX.

The Rev 2 version of the board which you referenced appears to be "under testing" with regard to Conroe based Celeron procs. However, and with no disrespect intended, it is hard to imagine why anyone would ever buy this kind of high-performance motherboard and then emasculate it with a Celeron based proc? There are quite a few less expensive boards that will perfectly handle that level of a proc, and save the buyer a ton of money in the process.

However, if $ is your issue, then just wait a few weeks until the end of July, and the present Intel Dual-Core procs will be selling at Celeron prices. I just pre-ordered an E6850 proc for $286.00 USD last evening, so you can bet the present E6600 will probably be less than $150.00 USD when the new procs arrive. You can then have a buyer's holiday! Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[Kaptdeath]

CDfire,

Darrrr, yes, sorry about that. If you want to pick the monitor up locally a good resource is: http://www.salescircular.com/ Just click on your state and and all the advertised specials on your area will be displayed. Pretty handy really. That Corsair memor will work fine so long as it is not overclocked. (At least that was my experience.) Oh, and my 2 cents. I like the the ViewSonic wide screens. I have always run them at 60Hz, and to my aged eyes, they look fine.

The Kapt'n

 

[Kaptdeath]

Mr. Beagle,

What was the checksum that you got when installing F5B. I got "0600". The machine refused to boot. (Or even show me a POST screen.) I recovered and will try again. If it fails again I will try the reset the CMOS method as described. (Why can't I just leave well enough alone!!!!) Let the howls of dismay start now.

The Kapt'n

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Kapt.

I believe that I did get that same checksum ("0600'). However, your description of the lack of the ability to bootup is quite unusual in this circumstance. The first thing that I would do is to download that BIOS file again.

I then would suggest that you go into your present BIOS and adjust the settings to as close to Default as possible, but still accessing all the necessary hardware in the rig, but WITHOUT any OC of the CPU or MEMORY. Then SAVE that BIOS setup and reboot.

Now on restart, use the "End" key to take you directly into the Q-Flash utility. Since you're having difficulties, I would ONLY flash the Primary BIOS at this time. Then SHUTDOWN the PC to cold. Then restart and (hopefully) on the POST you will be able to go into the BIOS setup and reset everything to your liking.

Good Luck, and let us know how you make out. TheBeagle

 

[Kaptdeath]

Mr Beagle,

I will follow your advice if I ever get the machine to start again. Something VERY BAD has happened to windows. The "ntoskrnl" error is back with a vengence and even when I get past that, the machine will not boot anyway. I had just scheduled a "chkdsk" as Norton had indicated a problem with the drive (RAID). (I figured that it would be wise to make sure that all problrms were fixed before updating the BIOS.)

I am now in Windows recovery and trying a chkdsk from there. It doesn't look good. chkdsk is runnig VERY slowly and seems to keep starting over when it reaches about 80%. I have a very bad feeling that NVIDIA RAID corruption problems that were "fixed" are a "feature" of this board.

By not OCing the memory, do you mean clocking it to 800Mhz. (It's rated at 1066.)

The Kapt'n

 

[TheBeagle]

Hi Mr. Kapt.

Sounds like a corrupted RAID array. Am I correct to presume that you set up a RAID 0 array as your boot drive? If so, unless you can get it back to stability somehow, it's likely to be kaput, and will need a fresh install. I've tried a RAID 0 array a few times on the boot drive, and it ALWAYS, sooner or later (usually sooner), got corrupted, and the whole thing went down the pipe.

That is the main reason that I now have twin Raptor 150 drives, in a RAID 1 array, so that I will always have a spare boot drive if one of them craps out. Coupled with Vista's very nice utility that makes a complete image of the boot drive, stores it on another drive, and you can access it right from your Vista DVD (kinda like Norton Ghost), that seems to be the right combo of redundancy for me.

I've also noticed that OCing has a direct bearing on corruption problems in RAID 0 arrays, since it doesn't take too much for one drive to momentarily fall out of sync in the array, and then the trouble starts. For those who insist on RAID 0 arrays for boot drives, I tell them to use Western Digital Raptor or "YS" drives, and to be damn sure they run the "secret" WD TLER utility to ensure that the drives don't stall while trying to re-write a missed data stream.

Anyway, I wish you the best on getting your rig back on track. And with regard to the memory, since it's 1066 sticks, then its OK to set it at that speed, just don't add any extra voltage until you get a stable flash upgrade. Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[trx]

is there some kind of list of coolers that can be mounted on this board without cuting/removing/modding of anything?

could Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX fit?

 

[Kaptdeath]

Mr. Beagle

That is most unfortunate. I had planned on using this machine as both my gaming rig and video editing machine. I just completely reinstalled Windows. On the first reboot I got the now only too familiar "ntoskrnl.exe corrupt or missing. My previous video machine was on a Gigabyte KNXP using 2 SATA RAID0 arrays. It's been running fine for about 3 years. It's a shame that the "mighty" 680 can't even keep it together for 3 minutes. It seems kind of odd that it is always the exact same file. If is was a syncronization problem I would expect it to be a bit more random. Also that once it is running it is perfectly reliable for hours on end while stress testing. It also seems odd that I cannot run "chkdsk" on this array. Something is rotten in Denmark. Perhaps I should setup the boot RAID on the Gigabyte RAID disks. Doesn't look like the NVIDIA RAID is too reliable. Hmmm, I'm going to have to study on this one a bit.....(maybe have some biscuits and mustard umhm)

The Kapt'n

 

[trx]

does this mean that after all these months of upgrading BIOS there's still SATA data corruption on the board of this class?

 

[imported_ragman]

Hey ppls

I have been reading this thread for a while now and finally had the chance to purchase the Rev 2.0 version of these fine boards.

My issue at the moment is that as of this time I can not get any of the Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2GB here in Australia, the sole distributor dont even have an eta and every retailer/etailer i have contacted are out.
This is what i had chosen to match my e6600 till end of july when i can grab a q6600 cheaper hehe.

I do have the chance to get hold of the OCZ DDR 8500 either "Reaper" or OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel.

To some ppl it may be a no brainer but OCZ own memory configurator only points to the DDR2 533 for this board as corsair at least have spent the time to test, let alone update their website to show the results of their testing.

Appreciate any thoughts you guys can give me.

 

[Kaptdeath]

Mr. Ragman,

I have the OCZ Reaper memory on my rev 1 board. It is difficult to give a firm recommendation as my system is plagued with so many problems. I can say this:

1) It fits nicely with a Zalman 9700 CPU cooler.
2) It runs very cool.
3) I think it is stable at 1066 & 2.2V.

Many people have had problems with this memory, so if you decide to get it be sure that a defective return ir RMA is no problem. It is rated to 2.35V. I think that people are cranking it up to that voltage and frying it. Never trust an ad man.

The Kapt'n

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. Kapt.

You may have been the "victim" of a "perfect storm" of sorts. Considering the trouble you seem to have (sometimes) with your memory sticks, coupled with the probable out-of-sync of your RAID 0, plus some OC, plus an older BIOS (you did say you were using one of the F3 versions didn't you?), that may have spelled the recipe for the problems you are describing. However, I would suggest you try the following:

Remove all unnecessary hardware from the PC. Install the OS on a SINGLE drive. Try to boot the PC. If it boots, then flash the BIOS with the F5b version. Reboot, and check the PC's functionality. If it's OK, then reinstall the drives, etc that you originally had, and make very sure that you do a FULL FORMAT on your RAID array to ensure sync with the revised controller from the BIOS flash.

I would further suggest that you consider a RAID 1 array, rather than the RAID 0. Even on AnandTech's review articles, they have tested RAID 0 arrays and found them to be only very slightly faster than a single drive, and then only in very limited environments. In my humble option, the continuing risk of array corruption in a RAID 0 array is just too great a chance to take for the very minimal benefit (if any) that you get from that type of setup.

Using the foregoing process will rule in or out most hardware issues that might be giving you the problems. Keep us posted on your progress. TheBeagle

 

[bigbillyt99]

Hello,

This is my first post to this topic, maybe to this forum. First I want to thank everybody, particularly Gary and the Beagle for all the great information here. I have had this motherboard for just over a month and there is a lot to like, but I have a few problems I need to get ironed out. So, anyone that has expereince or knowledge they want to share, please chime in.

First, my config: GA-N680sli-DQ6 motherboard, Kentsfield Q6600 quad core 2.4ghz proc. with Zalman 9700 cooling (removed the 1 coppper plate and heatpipe to install), 4 sticks of Patriot DDR2 800 2gb memory, NVIDIA 7950gt 512mb video card, 2 WD 160gb HD, 1 for Boot drive running off the Gigabyte SATA controller ch1 and ch2, 1 seagate 320gb drive on ch3 for a fall back (thank goodness), 4 Seagate 320gb drives running off the NVIDIA RAID controller in a RAID 5 array (drives have jumpers removed to ensure SATA2 performance). 1 floppy drive and two LG DVD burners, All in a Coolermaster Stacker case with a PCP&C 750W Silencer power supply. Running Windows Server 2003 x64 (primarily to run large VMWare environments). Typical setups I might need would include mutiple Win2k3 x64 servers running Exchange 2007 with each server having a unique role, or possibly an Exchange 2007 Mailbox Store server clustered along with a hub transport server, client access server and DC, plus maybe a client system or two.

On to my questions:

1. How can I be sure which rev. of the MB I have, rev. 1, or rev. 2? Is there a way to tell without opening up the case? Unfortunately, I was stupid and threw away the packaging so I have no easy way to get to a serial number to tell right away. I don't see any software utilty that will give me enough detail on the southbridge to maybe tell from that.

2. I believe the BIOS I had when I first started my build was the F2 version (although I won't swear to it). I flashed all the way to the F4 to have the latest and greatest. This caused me to not be able to process the shutdown command from the OS. I then back-revved to the F3 BIOS revision using a floppy drive and the Q-Flash utility. I now see mixed results from SysInfo and PC Wizard. SysInfo reports "BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F4, 2/14/2007" and PC Wizard says F4 for the version as well, However PC Wizard reports the OEM Signature as "NVIDIA NF68 BIOS for GA-N680SLI-DQ6 F3", Also the boot screen shows F3 as well. So, which BIOS revision do I truly have F3 or F4? I assume I should go to the F5b but I want to be sure I perform the procedure correctly to avoid another mixed versions situation. From previous post I believe I need to clear the CMOS with a jumper for a length of time, then reboot, set BIOS to optimum defaults then reboot and then go to Q-Flash and flash both primary and secondary with F5b then reboot again and load optimum defaults then tweak from there? That is pretty much what I did last time but perhaps I was not cautious enough.

3. This is the big problem I am having, I can't get the NVIDIA RAID controller to work correctly under a load. I have downloaded and applied the latest NVIDIA nforce drivers for my OS and everything seems fine with the array. I configure it from the F10 prompt and the NVIDIA utility says it is healthy. I have tried everything I know to do, I have synchronized, rebuilt (repeatedly), I have done a quick format to NTFS, slow format. I have run Seatools, check disk, Symantec disk utility etc. the drives appear to be fine. I even ran duke and nuke on the drives which took forever. As soon as I put the array under a load (i.e. load up more than two VMs at once) the NVIDIA RAID controller kicks one of the drives out of the array and shows performance as degraded. It is a different drive each time, more or less. The drives are on 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 channels respectively and it has dropped all four drives at one time or another. I also tried the RAID driver that came on the CD with the board. I don't know if it is the controller or the driver but something ain't right. It puts an Event ID 1006 in the system event log from a source of NVRAIDSERVICE, but I can't find anything useful about that error anywhere. There is one post on NVIDIA's forum from somebody that gets that only when they overclock. My sytem is running stock timings and voltages on everything. Any suggestions?

Anyway, sorry for being so long winded but I have tried a lot of stuff and I can't ge the RAID array to work no matter what. Oh yeah, if I run my VMWare sessions off of a single 320gb disk they work fine, in fact, I have had up to seven systems running at once. I just set affinity for the most cpu intensive sytems to specific cores and they hum along nicely.

 

[bigbillyt99]

A few additional notes:

My memory timings with the Patriot memory are 5-5-5-12.
System runs a little on the warm side, but not terrible: Proc around 115-125F, Motherboard around 105-111F, HDs around 95-98F.
I believe I did originally try flashing the F4 BIOS off the web site with the @BIOS util but I believe that is also what caused me to have to clear the CMOS in the first place.
CPU-Z reports the F4 BIOS version also.

One more thing, maybe I need to pay attention in Q-Flash to clearing the DMI pool data?


No overclock, might try it if I get this other stuff ironed out.
Just a side note, I have a nearly identical system (74gb Raptor boot drive, same HDs in RAID 5, same PS, same Video card, C2d proc instead of quad core and 8gb kingston RAM) with an Intel 975XBX2 board with no problems. Doing the same kind of large VMWare sims)

If I can't figure out a solution soon I may need to consider a thrid party RAID controller (not cheap, but may be worth it).

Oh, I did e-mail Gigabyte but I never got an answer regarding these issues. Maybe they need more time to research.

Wish I had waited to purchase as the price has really dropped since I paid $349 a month ago.

 

[eklock2000]

BigBillyT99,

Glad to have you aboard. Nice to have so many users on this forum. I can help you only a little bit as I do not have the expertise of others on your software config and/or Raid questions.

Unfortunately, you threw away the box (being the only place I know the revision number to be posted) other than on the mobo itself. It is in the corner closest to the 3rd PCI slot...top of this photo,

http://s162.photobucket.com/al...current=RevisionNo.jpg

With regard to your BIOS, I would not trust any programs for the version no., but would rely on what it shows in the F2 Setup screens. To be extra safe, I would follow Beagles recommendations for clearing the BIOS/CMOS on page 47 of this thread and flash a fresh F5b.

Stay tuned, as I'm sure someone else will get back to you on the RAID stuff.

EK2K

 

[sskmercer]

@bigbillyt99

I would be pretty certain you have the Rev1 board due to the fact it shipped with the F2 bios and as you mentioned had the shutdown problems with with the F4, that quite alot of poeple have had. Though the F5 that Gary (thanks again) posted appears to have fixed this issue.

As for myself and the board, i went out and bought the DFI LANParty UT NF680I LT SLI-T2R, which straight out of the box allowed me to get my Q6600 to a 335fsb on the same voltage settings as the Gigabyte(although the DFI does allow you to adjust alot more voltage areas also).

Hopefully for those with a Rev1 board the F5 bios will help, but after alot more studying the diff boards out there it's more to do with the chipset than anything else. As the DFI and eVGA use the same setup as the new Rev2 board with the 570sli sth bridge (if thats right), also they allow more volatge to goto the 2nd,3rd,4th cores of a Quad which is what is allowing them to O/C Quads alot better.

A bit of info about the Voltage etc.. (Fairly technical, but this is what i think is letting the the Rev1 down atleast is the lack of voltage to REQ areas for Quad O/C)http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=87

A link for the DFI board to show the various volatge adjustments allowed, thus allowing better O/C's on Quads. http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=163

Also please dont take this as a bashing Gigabyte 680 board as i couldnt have been happier with it besides the Quad O/C issues.

Cheers

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Mr. Big Billy.

Welcome aboard!! Sounds like you have a few issues. First of all, I would definitely flash the BIOS to the F5b version that Gary provided a few days ago (thanks Gary). Since you have indicated that you had an original BIOS which used a combination of letters and numbers (F2), then you definitely have a Rev 1 board; since the Rev 2 boards use just letters (FA). If you built your system while still using the F2 BIOS, that may be a significant part of your problems, since there were a whole bunch of issues, especially RAID array data corruption and timing problems in those early BIOS versions. Therefore, an upgrade to F5b will definitely have a positive effect on those troublesome issues. However, as I will discuss shortly, just flashing the BIOS will NOT necessarily correct the problems with a corrupted array.

Next item, the RAID 5 array itself, is a bit more complicated. You need to be aware that even with the most modern boards, with fast procs and loads of memory, a multi-drive RAID 5 array is a huge drain on you system resources. The fact that you are having a drive consistently drop out of the array is a fairly strong indication that those drives are possibly not particularly suited for this type of application. I didn't see that you were using the Seagate ES version of those drives, so I will presume that they are stock Seagate desktop type drives.

In RAID 5 arrays, a whole lot of processes go on constantly throughout the drives. Coupled with the several other drives you have, that can present quite a bit of a load to the onboard systems. I have ALWAYS found that offloading the significant burden of a RAID 5 array onto a separate RAID controller card, which card has its OWN SEPARATE PROCESSOR (Most Important!!) is the absolute best way to NOT muck up the whole system with RAID problems.

As I mentioned above, the first thing that I would do is Flash the BIOS to F5b. That will embed the latest upgrade to the hard drive controllers on the board. Next, if you are still staying with the RAID 5 array, and likewise intending on using the motherboard controller as the source for that array, I would carefully rebuild the array, including wiping the drives clean, and rebuilding the array from within the CMOS utility for RAID construction and management. Then I would FULL FORMAT that array, so that you get a complete read on any possible bad sectors and clusters on those drives. However, that is no guarantee of a long-term, successful RAID 5 array.

The reason I am cautious about that RAID 5 array is if you are using standard desktop drives in that array, your drives may be trying to do that which they are designed to do as single drives, i.e., seek to re-write any data stream that they might fail to read properly the first time it was transmitted to the drive. That standard type of desktop drive error correction is exactly what that drive was designed to do. However, that type of error recovery is the "kiss of death" in a RAID 5 array. This is due to the fact that the operating system software will sense that prolonged error recovery activity as drive failure, and the OS will drop the drive from the array. That is precisely why Western Digital produces a particular type of drive, the "YS" series drives, that have a Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER) feature built into the drives, to limit the amount of time the drive will spend trying to recover a particular data stream (the operating system will eventually re-write the temporarily lost data stream, so no need to worry). I know that the foregoing is a bit long-winded, but if you are going to proceed with your RAID 5 array, you need to know the factors that can mess it up.

Aside from that, the only other problematic issues are the Quad-Core you are using, since this board will not presently go beyond 320 FSB speed, so significant OC is not yet available (but I am told they are working on it in their little workshops in Taiwan). The other issue is your prime operating system. I would definitely consider using Vista 64 bit Ultimate as my prime OS. The drivers and related OS functions are quite mature now, and the stability that you will get, not to mention full use of your memory, will be of great value to your numerous system tasks. Hope the foregoing is of some assistance. Let us know how you make out. The Beagle

 

[Blazer7]

Hi guys,

This is the best thread I?ve seen for quite sometime now and it?s the only one that had me tempted to the point that I HAD to become a member of this great forum. I (and lots of other people for sure) particularly appreciate the zero tolerance shown against flamers from both users and admins, not to mention the time and efforts many have put into this thread.

Many thanks to Gary & The Beagle for all their help and dedication to this thread.

I do have rev 1 of this fine board and so far I had no real problems regardless of BIOS ver (and my insane setup). The only problem that I?ve run across is one with the Face wizard program. Since BIOS ver F4e I cannot combine/upload my image to the BIOS file no matter what. My Image is ~302k in bmp format, however, it is significantly smaller in pcx format or bmp with RLE compression (under 80k in both forms). Anyway, I get a ?not enough space? error whenever I try to upload the std bmp file. If I try the pcx or the compressed bmp file I get no error messages, the image seems to be loaded into BIOS, but nothing happens. This is by far a significant problem ? the thing is it gets on my nerves to have everything working but this, especially as I had no problem uploading my image before BIOS F4e. (Currently on BIOS F5b ? Thanks Gary)

Something that is not relevant to any issues associated with this board but definitely is worth to have a look at, is this article of today regarding a Critical update for Intel Core CPUs.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40567

Mr Beagle I?ve noticed your post on page 47 in which you mention that you have already pre-ordered an E6850 cpu. Do you have any insight as to whether our board is/will be, compatible with this cpu ? Does the F5b BIOS support the E6x50 cpus ? I?m looking forward to a possible upgrade to my E6600 and the 1333 FSB looks quite tempting.

-------------------------------
GA-N680SLI-DQ6 rev 1
E6600@stock
4GB DDR2-1066
WinXP SP2

 

[Smitty1705]

I found an interesting update that pertains to an update for Intel Core 2 procs..

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936357

Smitty

 

[Blazer7]

Yes Mr Smitty.

This is the link on the bottom of the article on the inquirer.

The fact that microsoft has a fix for 32 & 64 versions of Vista, 2003 & XP is an indication that the article is "valid". There must be a problem and it seems that they are trying to fix it by "patching" the OS. After all it is not possible to fix the chips out there.

I wonder how this problem affects the processors mentioned in the article. Q6600 is mentioned but not E6600. Odd !