Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[XB3]

All, posted some time back (03/25/2007) in this thread about the problem I'm having with 2 RAPTORS in RAID-0. Everything works fine until I download and install the 70+ updates from Microsoft for WinXP. Then the RAID corrupts and I can't boot. Gigabyte tech support wasn't very helpful, but Western Digital suggested I jumper pins 3 and 4 to enable PM2 (power management). On boot, the NV Raid Controller hangs the system searching for a RAID (even though none exist at that point). When I remove the jumpers, everything goes back to normal and I can enter the RAID util.

I'd like to try the Gigabyte RAID, but with the 2nd 8800GTX installed, access to the plugs are limited to left handed SATA cables.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[eklock2000]

Maybe a dumb question, but you did install the Raid drivers...before the XP install using F6? Just an idea.

 

[Curr]

He most likely wouldn't have been able to install XP in RAID if he didn't !

 

[XB3]

Yep Curr, you're right.

 

[Smitty1705]

Gary -

I'm not sure if i missed it or not, but a week or so ago you said that Gigabyte was going to give you some information about the F4 bios you were testing. Do you happen to have any information you can share with us on this bios so we know what to expect?

Thanks again..

Smitty

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Afternoon Mr. XB3.

Are you aware that there is a "secret" utility that Western Digital (WD) developed to activate the TLER function of Raptor 74 and 150 drives? TLER stands for Time-Limited Error Recovery, and it is a specific feature that is useful, indeed sometimes absolutely necessary, for SATA drives being utilized in RAID arrays.

If you check the WD web site, you will find that they (WD) tout that those Raptor drives have the TLER feature built into the drive, and that is true, to the extent of that statement. However, what WD DOES NOT TELL YOU is that the TLER feature is disabled (turned-off) from the factory! To further compound this problem, the last time I checked (the other day) on the WD web site, they (WD) still had not even acknowledged this issue, let alone made the "secret" utility available to the purchasers of those drives.

Incidentally, the other series of WD SATA drives which has this feature is the "YS" drives. However, only the read portion of the TLER is activated and the write portion is disabled from the factory. WD never tells you that either. It is also curious that WD states in their extremely limited information on the "YS" drives, that the TLER function cannot be turned off. That appears to be a blatant untruth, inasmuch as the "secret" utility has features to turn on and/or off any of those TLER features on both Raptor and "YS" drives.

I was able to get a copy of that utility from WD support after I notice an oblique reference to it in a review article written by our friend, Gary Key, which he published on this Forum several months ago (search for WD Raptor drives and you will find it). I believe that you may be able to obtain a copy of that "secret" utility from WD Customer Support; or if not, then Google for it, and I think you may be able to find a collateral source.

Of course, I'm not guaranteeing that using the TLER "secret" utility will, in fact, correct your problem, but it might sure be worth a try, since you can deactivate it via the utility if it doesn't work. I hope the foregoing is of some help to you. WD should be ashamed at their intentional withholding of this information from the consumer public!!

On the issue of SATA cables that have different right angle configurations and are also extremely flexible, try this source: SATACables.com. I have purchased SATA cables from them and their products are very well constructed and quite flexible to install.

Best regards. TheBeagle :disgust:

 

[bravo36]

Whew! I finally found a single board in Canada. Unbelievable that this MB has disappeared from EVERY U.S. vendor's website for purchase. The one in Canada was the last one from this particular vendor (NC!X). Cost a small fortune by the time you figure in shipping from Canada to Texas and a little extra insurance ($30.00) for an expedited RMA (which I felt might be a good investment).

Happily, it shows to have shipped out today and should be here by Monday. It really helps that this thread has so much useful information that has been contributed by greed-less enthusiasts like you guys. It should greatly assist with getting this board up and purring in less time and with a lot fewer headaches.

So, in advance of it's arrival, here's a simple "Thanks" for all the hard work, dedication, and posted data and recommended configurations. I'm sure I will be spending some more time on here once I get it in my hands and the assembly begins.

KB

 

[Smitty1705]

Since the board STILL doesn't show on NewEgg... I called them! They said it's not in their system at ALL now and usuaully when that happens it doesn't come back! I guess they could have just said that but now I'm worried. I don't want to buy an EVGA 680i but the NewEgg comment freaks me out. Usually they just set an ETA on it and push it out but to remove it?!? ZipZoomFly does have it listed but on a backorder status... This really stinks! I get to watch all of you turds play with your fancy boards and I'm still poking along on my P4 2.8! hahaha I WANT MINNNNE! =)

Okay.. I'm bored and I am probably checking this thread for the 5th and last time for the day.. Have a good one!

Smitty

 

[Bayard]

hehe I'm so glad I went out and bought mine like 2-3 weeks after it came out. Had been debating so long to either get the abit one or the evga one... so glad I waited til this one came out.

 

[cdfire]

The NewEgg thing is pretty wierd. I was one of the lucky ones who ordered the board the first day NewEgg had them up. Not sure whats up with the Egg, but I can say I am more then happy with the board, in fact its the best board I have ever owned.

 

[sd]

I WANT ONE NOW!!! I WANT ONE NOW!!!!!! oops...er...uhm...sorry?

 

[XB3]

Beagle,

Thanks for the tip about the TLER. I'll look for it, but the point may be moot. W/D agreed to an RMA for the one troublesome drive. In the mean time, if I find that TLER util, I'll try it before I ship the drive back.

On the issue of SATACABLES.COM, a few weeks ago I order some left hand to right hand cables from them. I received right to right cables, and when I told them about it they told me they would ship replacements, but I never got them. Later I was told that the entire batch was wrong, marked L-R, but actually R-R. Anyway, then didn't offer a credit for my problem, so I'll be looking for another vendor.

Cheers,
XB3, or X for short.

 

[Curr]

Good morning XB3,

I have always had good luck in ordering from www.frozencpu.com, and use them and the 'Egg for just about everything. I have never had any issues from FrozenCPU and would highly recommend them for fans, cables, coolers, and other things that the 'Egg might not have. In fact I got some nice silver 36" SATA cables from them, and liked them so much I got some 24" ones too.

And as a side note I also just had to RMA a Raptor with WD, and it was quite painless and fast, I was pleased with the whole experience.

 

[justinburton]

FrozenCpu is a nice place to shop with a wide variety of products but they are quite pricey. http://svc.com/ is my favorites b/c I xcan do local pickup and save on the shipping.

I have two of the original 74GB raptors (WD740) in raid and they are still working fine and have been for three years. Excellent hard drives.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. XB3 & Mr. Curr.

I pretty much agree with you about the WD warranty service. I had one bad experience with an extended replacement delay on a Raptor 37GB drive, but then when they couldn't replace it within 30 days, they sent me a 74 GB in its place - can't complain too much about that. Sorry to hear about the problems with the SATA Cable vendor that I recommended (SATACables.com), I haven't had that experience with them (yet), but if do, they can expect a challenge to their billing lodged with AMEX.

You know, that's really dumb on their part, since countless thousands of enthusiast computer junkies (like us) read the postings on this Forum, and others, and one bad reference like what happened to Mr. XB3 can kill a whole bunch of business for them. Considering that the enthusiast market is their primary target, it's doubly dumb!

I bet they NEVER thought that their name would get a going over like has just happened above! In fact, someone ought to send them an email with a link to this page and let them see what kind of damage that they have caused themselves. I don't blame Mr. XB3 a bit for sharing his negative experience with SATACables.com with the WHOLE WORLD! Have a nice day. TheBeagle

 

[eklock2000]

Originally posted by: bravo36


Whew! I finally found a single board in Canada. Unbelievable that this MB has disappeared from EVERY U.S. vendor's website for purchase. The one in Canada was the last one from this particular vendor (NC!X). Cost a small fortune by the time you figure in shipping from Canada to Texas and a little extra insurance ($30.00) for an expedited RMA (which I felt might be a good investment).

Happily, it shows to have shipped out today and should be here by Monday. It really helps that this thread has so much useful information that has been contributed by greed-less enthusiasts like you guys. It should greatly assist with getting this board up and purring in less time and with a lot fewer headaches.

So, in advance of it's arrival, here's a simple "Thanks" for all the hard work, dedication, and posted data and recommended configurations. I'm sure I will be spending some more time on here once I get it in my hands and the assembly begins.

KB

I have the revision 1.0 board and it natively recognized my SATA DVD and HD without the F6 Sata/RAID drivers. So if you're not installing the OS on a RAID, there's one step you could save. Before anything, I flashed to the F4c immediately using the Qflash (super-easy), so that may have helped. I was worried about only IDE drives being detected natively so I had them on standby, but didn't need 'em. This board is awsome.

EK2K

 

[bravo36]

Thanks for the heads up EK2K. I expect it around the first of next week...along with a big box of goodies from Newegg.

Siding with JustinBurton above, I can also recommend SVC. Their prices are very competitive, and usually have products readily available. Returns have also been painless. Just my 2 cents.

 

[justinburton]

I would like to add that I ordered my board from a wholesale retailer 10 days ago. I know the owner and he told me the boards are delayed. He doesn't know why. I bet Gigabyte had to correct a few problems with the board.

Maybe Gigabyte didn't anticipate how popular it will be like someone said earlier.

Whatever the case, the mb's are made in Taiwan so shipping takes awhile. Dammit.

 

[ALV7]

Beagle or anyone i cant update my bios coz im using XP x64. so if i cant update it i cant make use of my SLI memory?? its on default (800mhz) when its actual speed is 1066mhz which i cant get to.

can anyone help me?

 

[ALV7]

another thing since i have a pretty good air cooling setup, can anyone, based on my specs on my computer, help me in getting a good OC?? wanna see what this baby could do (on the safe side of course)

again thanks!

 

[cdfire]

Is it possible the delay in stocking these boards could be related to teh Asus / Gigabyte partnership fall threw? Whatever the reason I hope they hurry it up and sort it out. After showing my GA-N680SLI-DQ6 off to a couple of buddies last night, they can't wait to get there hands on one, in fact I have to have my dog stand gaurd with shotgun in paw, in front the pc case all day and night to prevent them from stealing my board. LOL

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Mr. ALV7.

I'm not sure what you're referencing about not being able to update your BIOS. If you mean that you won't be able to do it within Windows because you are using a 64 OS, I'm not sure about that, since I never tried it.

However, You don't need to go there to be able to update your BIOS. During the early POST process on boot up, as soon as you hear the single "beep" from the motherboard, you need to press the "delete" key several times. That will launch you into the BIOS setup program. Once in Setup, you will set a menu at the bottom of the screen. One of the options will be for a program called "Q-Flash." I believe the menu key to select that item is F8. Anyway, once you enter that applet, you need to have the new BIOS file already on a 1.44 floppy disk, and insert the disk into a corresponding 1.44 floppy drive.

Then just following the prompts to "update from the drive." Be damn careful not to interrupt the flash update process once it begins, otherwise you will corrupt the BIOS. However, since modern Gigabyte boards have a Dual-BIOS feature, you most likely will be able to recover the main BIOS even if you do screw it up.

Hope that offers some help on that issue.

On the other question about your selection of components, if you can't get that rig to rock-n-roll with those items, then you're likely to never be able to do it. That's certainly a more than decent array of goodies, and should give you some excellent results. Go for it! TheBeagle

 

[MraK]

hello sir Beagle, I'm new to the forums but have been reading this thread for 4 weeks now and i can see that this board is really something.

As to start, the specs of ALV7 are very similar to mine and it so happens that we're using the same OS. My question though is, is it possible to update my bios through getting the file from the hard disk (since its saved there) instead of it being saved to a floppy??? and second of all, I'm sort of like a Noob to this OC as well, could you give me a setup your using to OC ur system , basically you processor (example being a stable setup with the voltages and the other stuff you do in the Bios )

Any help would be nice thank you

 

[MraK]

basically i want to get my C2D 2.4Ghz @ 3.2Ghz atleast
as as for my memory i get this problem as *continuous buzzing sound* when its on 1066 and when i decrease it to 800 its gone, i thought my memory would work at 1066 but it seems to be unstable i think.

what could be the problem?

 

[MraK]

and lastly I'm totally an Amateur when it comes to linking and unlinking in the Bios (FSB/CPU section)