Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[TheBeagle]

Good Afternoon MrAK.

Welcome aboard! With regard to updating a Gigabyte BIOS, you definitely want to NOT cut any corners with this update process. Like I told ALV7, I haven't had an occasion to attempt to update a Gigabyte BIOS from within a Windows 64 bit OS. I really don't know if that can be SAFELY accomplished - the operative word is SAFELY! As general rule, updating a BIOS from within any OS is the LEAST desirable method of accomplishing that task, since there are SOOOOO many things that can crop up and bite you in the butt utilizing that particular process.

Now, I certainly understand that the modern Windows Flash BIOS programs are much better written that the earlier stuff, BUT there's always the possibility that some peice of rogue software is lying rather dormant in the background of the OS and is somehow brought to life by the flashing process, and then it's time to put your head between you legs and kiss your butt goodbye!

With that said, I sense that you may not have a 1.44 floppy drive readily available to you. If that's the case, then you ought to seriously consider buying an external one that can be attached to the PC through a USB connection, OR, just buy a regular 1.44 floppy, open the case, temporarily connect a floppy cable (make sure to get the #1 pin in the correct position - red stripe to the #1 pin), and a miniature power connector, and run the BIOS flash program from that temporary setup. However, the long-term best solution is to just make a very modest investment in an external floppy drive, and that way you won't have to be bothered opening up your case, etc every time you want to flash the BIOS.

As far as a starting point to OC is concerned, my experience teaches me that every rig I ever worked on has its own personality and peculiar characteristics. Therefore, I would begin rather modestly. Turn of all the Spread Spectrum stuff, and set the CPU speed to 334, with your memory linked, and all the rest of the settings at "auto" or the closet you can get to that. Fire it up and see how it reacts. After that, you can SLOWLY increase some settings to see how far YOUR particular combination of components will safely go into the OC realm. From that point on, you're in God's hands!

Unless you get really crazy with your settings, it is very unlikely that you will harm your board or other components, but the operative word is SLOW!! - as in LITTLE steps, then reboot, and see how it looks with that setting, etc. Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[eklock2000]

To all,

Happy Saturday...do any of you have knowledge (that you would be willing to share) about a utility that can monitor CPU/GPU/Northbridge temps. I've checked out Motherboard Monitor 5, nTune 5.0, and Giga's EasyTune, but they all leave a bit to be desired.

Also, some weird stuff going on with this board. Both CPUz and EasyTune report the CPU clock speed at 1600, even though the BIOS reports FSB=266.7 and Multiplier=9 for an actual 2400?

To...Mr. MrAK, a coupla things...

At least 3 users on page 19 of this post reported their settings in detail. While they may or may not have similiar setups, copying these values into your system is risky at best. My advice is to read nVidia's 680i overclocking guide... Just Google nforce_680i_SLI_overclocking.pdf and read that thorouhgly to get started. I plan to run my system at stock for a few weeks to burn everything in, then try incremental overclocking...slowly, as recommended by others. In the end, I think this board will OC like a monster.

With regard to the BIOS flashing, I went through the trouble of buying an internal floppy and hooked it up only to find that it didn't work. My friends USB floppy worked flawlessly and it was extremely easy to use the Qflash utility. Agreeing with Mr. TheBeagle, much safer too.

Peace

EK2K

System Specs:

GAN680iSLI-DQ6
Intel E6600 w/ Zalman 9700
eVGA 8800GTX w/ 97.94 forceware
Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 (BL2KIT12864AA1005)
Corsair CMPSU 620HX
SATA DVD/HDs
Antec900
WinXP SP2

 

[MraK]

I can see your point Beagle and eklock2000, Thanks to the both of you, as with getting a floppy drive, my roommate actually has a drive in one of his 3 computers in the other room. I'll just go and borrow it, since i want to safely update my bios by using Beagle's method. And the term "slowly" will be much appied for when i start OCing my new rig. And with eklock2000, as for burning-in everything, 2-3 weeks enough to burn it in before i start OCing it?

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. EKlock.

The "weird" stuff you may be seeing (maybe in CPU-Z) might be the nifty thermal drivers at work. I know that in Vista, if you have the EIST functions (about 4 of them) active in the BIOS, they act to drop the CPU down a peg or two when it's not stressed, and then instantly bump it back up to full speed once a load is sensed by the system. Actually, they're kinda neat, and it doesn't seem to bother the OC at all.

On the other hand, if that's not what you're referring to, then I'm not sure what else you could be experiencing. Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[MraK]

whooh..! finally got my e6600 (2.4ghz) OCed to 3.34Ghz and its finally stable, i just tried out my Medieval II: Total War game for a couple of hours with no problems.

I just have one question tho, since my memory is 1066 and it needs to be set on 2.1v for it to work (when i added .3v, it turned light red *the v adj* in Bios) is that bad or is it just normal? i dont want to destory my memory let alone everything else in my computer.

as what i could remember, please (anyone) tell me if anything seems to be out of place, so far going online, gaming, watching movies, etc seemed stable atm.

CPU core: 1.425v
Memory: 2.1v (added 0.3v)
CPU HT-Link (+0.20v)
FSB Memory Clock Mode: unlimited
NB: +15

 

[MraK]

awwww my rig gave up on me after 3 and a half hours.... so now i went back to its default (2.4Ghz) wish i knew what i have to adjust to make it stable longer if possible. Whats everyone's OC setup???? i saw someone on this thread reach 3.8Ghz but i could only wonder how much stress his/her overall PC is hacking.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello MrAK.

Sounds like you are making good progress. I would suggest that you work with that setting for awhile. Yes, your memory is one of the most sensitive components with regard to excessive voltage. If you have reached that level of OC (which is almost a 50% increase in default clock speed), you are doing quite well. Without some exotic CPU and other component cooling, you might be approaching the safe limit of an OC for your board, etc. However, a new BIOS revision (which I hope arrives pretty soon!), may refine the board processes even further, thereby creating some more safe headroom for OCing - we will just have to wait and see about all of that.

(I just read your latest post about that speed bombing out on you. Try the 334 speed that I suggested in an earlier post, and run it for awhile like that and see how it does).

The "red" BIOS indication is to alert you that you are entering a possible danger zone. This board was built with a 1.8V memory default. Therefore, in order to achieve significant OCing with high performance memory sticks (which were built on a 2.2 or higher voltage model), you obviously have to bump up the voltage a bit.

However, higher and HIGHER is NOT always better!! Go very slowly on this area of OC, since I'm sure you don't want to be buying new memory sticks because you fried them!

Enjoy your new toy. You ought to be seeing some real increases in performance on several applications, especially the latest Adobe apps that are written to take advantage of dual-core procs. Remember, always wear your seat belt when you're flying that rig! TheBeagle

 

[Andrei80]

Hi to all,

You guys are very experienced when it comes to overclocking a dual core so i would like to ask you a couple of questions. I have the same board as many of you have: Gigabyte Ga-N680 Sli DQ6 paired with a core 2 duo e6600 overclocked at 3.0 ghz (9X 333). My core temps are arround 26 C on idle and 40 under load ( 53 C after 2 hours of orthos). I didn't do any adjustments to the cpu, nb, sb voltage. I plan on keeping it overclocked 24/7 and keep this processor for at least 3 years. According to CPU-Z the voltage on it is 1.312V. My questions are:

should I add more voltage to the cpu,nb,sb even though the system has been rock solid for the past couple days( the voltage is set to normal setting)?

Are temps ok in terms of keeping it overlocked 24/7 ?

Also, i have 2 gig pc8500 running at 2.2 V. The FSB MEM ratio is 5:4 (linked).

Should i keep them linked or unlinked?

Thank you in advance. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bayard]

I don't know why people have so much trouble getting to 3.6 ghz. I leave mine's at 3.42 ghz since I had my board (9x380) and I am very stable at 3.6ghz....... I don't have much ocing ability either since is this my first overclocking board. Maybe I got a good ocing cpu maybe?

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Andrei80.

Sounds like your board and its components are very happy with the settings that you have selected. Therefore, if you're pleased with the board's performance at those settings, just leave it alone. From what settings you have described, the board and components are not being stressed very much, if at all. So you are very likely to get good performance and very good longevity just like it is now. Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[MraK]

hmmm i have a similar question Sir Beagle, is it just as ok to change the FSB and CPU to (8x450) 3.6Ghz and leaving all the other voltage settings to normal???????????????????? another things though, i raised the CPU voltage to 1.425v is that ok????

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello MrAK.

Sounds OK to me. Although you didn't indicate whether or not your memory was linked or unlinked - I presume unlinked from that 450 setting, but maybe it works linked as well. The CPU voltage is not too high, but I'd be careful going over 1.45v. Otherwise, I think you've found the sweet spot for your rig. As I said in an earlier post, each rig has its own personality and characteristics. What works wonderfully for one might not be the best for another. Sounds like you've arrived where you want to be. Enjoy it. TheBeagle

 

[bravo36]

It has arrived. Express mail from Canada! Wow, nice looking box and great packaging. Damn, I can't believe I can get this excited over the fricking box. Really, I'm just happy and lucky to have found one.

Other components should arrive within the next 3 days, and the build will begin!

 

[Smitty1705]

Still no word on the F4 bios or when more boards are going to be shipped out? Do we know if any hardware changes were done on this next batch for quad core CPU's and overclocking? I tried to call Gigabyte today but got sent to a voicemail. If anyone hears anything... post it up..

Smitty

 

[cdfire]

Mr. Beagle can you help me with this please. If I do just a small oc of say just 2.8 unlinked on my E6600 I get a warning about volts not being optimised in the bios. I have not changed any of them except I did changed the ram volts to 2.1 per specs of my ram. If I select auto for the volts the warning goes away but then I have no clue if that messes with or changes the ram volts I set. Is it safe to just ignor this warning or must I change some volts and if so to what? Totally new to the oc thing so any help would be much apprecaited.

 

[Andrei80]

Hey cdfire,

I have the same "problem" with the voltage. I have 2 sticks of corsair xms2 running at 2.2v. I added .4 V and i get the red message in bios saying that voltages are not optimized and DDR is failing the test at 1.8V. I was told to ignore it because the standard voltage for ram is 1.8V, hence the reason for the mobo to act funny when the voltage is higher than its default value- which kind of makes sense. This is the response that i got from one of the members

Hello Andrei80,

Yes, that is the motherboards way of telling you that the DDR2 voltage is not 1.8V, it's not saying that the RAM failed, but just that the voltage you have set is "out of spec" for 1.8V even though that RAM is very happy at 2.2V (I have the Dominator version of the 1066 / 8500C5D). I wish we could turn that off, but alas, we just have to live with the red-flashy thing when on that page of the bios.

 

[MraK]

Hey Sir Beagle,

I updated my bios to F3 through @Bios in windows, it shows at my bootup screen F3 but when i check my sys info in windows it shows F2, what gives??

Another thing, in bios i set the memory voltage to +0.3 (1.8+0.3= 2.1v) since thats the specified voltage for my memory, but when i use easytune and change it to 2.1 the computer reboots, whats the problem??

 

[Gary Key]

New BIOS - F4E - Final Next Week, this one addresses memory compatibility and additional overclocking headroom.

 

[Smitty1705]

Gary -

Can you tell us what kind of additional headroom you have noticed with F4E? Since you speak to them, can they give you any idea on when we can expect more boards to be coming out to places like NewEgg and other online vendors?

thanks again!

Smitty

 

[Smitty1705]

Okay...

I just called Gigabyte and they said that NO revisions were made to the board, it is purely a supply issue. They said the best ETA they had on them showing again was 2 weeks. Sooooo.. HANG IN THERE!

Smitty

 

[Curr]

Thanks for the update Gary, I know what I'll be doing tonight!

And great job Smitty1705, I was seriously wondering if something was up with the "revision" rumor, glad to know people are really after our great motherboard!

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Everyone.

Sounds like there's some movement in the information area. Thanks Gary for the F4E BIOS revision. That revision sounds encouraging. I also heard that the nVidia 680i chipsets were in VERY short supply, and that's why there has been a shortage of boards available after the initial batch got swept away in the buying frenzy when the word got out about how well they worked! Do you all suppose that we here on this thread in this Forum might have had anything to do with that frenzy? LOL

Anyway, to our colleague MrAK, what I would seriously suggest to you is that you flash your BIOS with the F4E revision that Gary posted. The reason is quite simple. You can bet your butt that Gary worked extensively with that BIOS revision and found it to be solid and an improvement. He's not the kind of a guy who would post something like that and have it blow up in his face. Indeed, he's probably one of the prime sources for the Gigabyte engineers to get the bugs out of the BIOS revisions for this board. Once you flash the board with the new F4E, set the stuff at auto and start around 385 for a processor speed, and see what it does. That should give you a good indicator on how it's handling a reasonable OC. Then post your results on this thread. I'm sure others will do likewise, and we'll therefore build our knowledge base accordingly.

Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[Curr]

I agree 100% with TheBeagle, the first "hiccups" I saw were around 380MHz FSB. I started with 333MHz for a couple hours, then 350MHz, and then 375MHz, finally stepping by 2-3MHz increments until it was unstable. Then I started playing with NB, FSB, HT, SB and Vcore. I can benchmark "stable" at 410MHz which puts my E6600 @ 3690MHz but I was having "issues" with BSOD's possibly caused by drivers, heat, and / or memory timings. I'm still playing around, but I really am glad I bought this board. I'm pretty positive I'll stay at 3.6GHz once all the drivers (chipset, video, and motherboard) learn to play well with each and as the bios matures.

 

[MraK]

oh i see , sounds like a plan ^_^ thanks for the info guys i really appreciate it!

 

[Beacon147]

Hellooo folks...

I just recently have purchased a GA-N680SLI-DQ6 myself (last saturday), and started to build the system...

And I coudn't install any OS... I cant finish the instalation... I get BSOD's, lock-ups, boots... Only once, in my trys (and believe, I almost didn't sleep), the XP enters... but then, inside, I haven't been able to install many things... I suffered to install gpu drivers... n680 drivers... many times it gave me an BSOD... And it was an XPSP2... and I loaded the drivers to the sata in the disk and pressed F6 during the instalation...

And I tryed the vista... and nada, zero... the instalation still frezzes... I even got the sata drives from the nvidia website, for the vista x86... and nothing... :brokenheart:

I've been in love for this board for LOONNGG time, and finally get the money to get one... and can't make it works... I'm almost loosing it... And I have built systems before... but, haven't seen anything like this in such a good reviewed mobo... I wonder if it was something about the earlys nforce problems... :disgust:

Ah, other thing... I had an adhesive in the box, saying that it was an GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Rev1 Generation 2.0... has anyone heard anything about it?

Well... i'll try another configurations tonight... and install the F4e, and hope to have it working...

and thx for any help you could gave me, and for the help you already gave... hehe...