Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[Drums of War]

Thanx for the replies, Blazer i do have those settings disabled already and have tinkered with loosening my timings in the past but have not had much luck with getting cpu any higher than the 315. Guess I was hoping for some concrete settings for this cpu and I do know they can vary and some can be crap for OCing.

Another way to Phrase this would be, Do these sound like fair settings for the parts I am using or should I expect to get alot more out of what I have? I have seen such varied results and not enough of them utilizing my CPU. I was kinda hoping others in this forum have either tried or have the same cpu and to basically get some advice as to what i can get out of this thing and perhaps some exact settings to try.

As I posted earlier this has been going on for the better part of 8 months and I feel for the $$ invested I should be getting far better results than I am. Or is this board that Big of a Pile that I am just dreaming.. Then the question comes to mind should i just move onto the EVGA 780 board and hope that i can do better with that.. I am basically getting to the end of my rope with this thing. Just hard to swallow seeing some of the results others have gotten with lesser cpu's..

Again Any help or advice on this matter is Greatly appreciated as I am about to rip this out of my tower and drive it over with my car! Thanx again for your replies.

 

[eklock2000]

To any of those looking at the 780i...

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=231371

"In additional news, Nvidia's recently launched Intel-based nForce 780i chipset has not been performing well in the market due to the fact its specifications do not offer any significant features over the previous nForce 680i, while the nForce 790i will launch into the market soon replacing it in the high-end segment. As a result most of the first-tier motherboard makers have elected to delay or even stop their development of 780i-based motherboards to prevent getting caught out during the transition, noted the sources.

...from other user's posts (Aussie's), it sounds like Giga will be releasing a 780i...? Let's hope? Otherwise, it'll be end of Q2 this year?

EK2K

 

[Blazer7]

Mr DoW,

You already know that your cpu is kind of rear. From what I know some of those chips can hit speeds up to ~3.6 on water and ~3.2 on air. Unfortunately our board won?t let you anywhere near these speeds as it never liked the quads. Still there may be room for improvement.

There is a very good article here at AnandTech which also covers the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 + QX6700 oced. The Article was written by none other than our friend Gary Key.

Here?s the link : http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2936&p=4

As you can see the max they got your chip working was 325x10 with 1.3625V. Have in mind that the BIOS used at that time was the ancient F3b beta. I suggest that you use the F5b or F5e as the F5g and F5 official do not seem to do so well with ocing. From personal experience I?ve achieved the best timings with my 4 G.Skills with the F5b. The F5g and the F5 official gave me hell with my mems so I do not even consider them as an option. Since both the F5b & e are stable and there is no penryn compatibility or some other real advantage with the F5 official, it may be a good idea to revert back to one of these.

 

[GoaGas]

Hi Everyone,
I ordered this mobo back in Dec06 - it finally arrived in the UK in March07. I got 6 months of hassles out of it before it died. In the end I tried removing the battery to totally clear the Cosmos & the whole battery holder fell off (with No force - very Ultra Durable!). I soldered it back on & I could get it to work for a couple of hours at a time before it would die. No point trying to RMA it after the solder: so I replaced it with a GA-X38-DS5. Wow! what a lovely board compared to the N680i - & I don't just mean that because of the chipsets as I don't believe I ever got going with the 680.
What I'm talking about is the rest of the board - the DS5 bit. It's layout is wonderful; everything is so much more accessable. A huge amount of useless clutter has been removed & most sockets are where you want them to be. All the Quad junk (glitter) has gone - the only Quad you'll see on this mobo is in the CPU or Graphics sockets. No Crazzzzzzzzzzzy-Cool on the back! It is really the board we've been asking Gigabyte to produce for ages - a stripped down DQ6. In fact that may be exactly what it is as both CPU-z & GB's own System Info tool show the board as a DQ6.
So I suggest that if you get offered a DS5 version of a new N780i board - grap it quick & run like hell! (& then hope the chip works!!!). Was any of that Quad cr*p really of any real use to any of you? I havn't missed any of it.

I would definitly be interested in an exchange (hopefully they will not see the solder till after I get a replacement!!) - but I'd run it in a back-up machine for a couple of months before I could trust it.

 

[Gary Key]

Here is the latest -

Gigabyte will not be producing a 780i board. They are going directly to the 790i. We are still having conversations about a trade up program for the 790i series or maybe even one of the Intel chipsets. More information when I get it....

 

[Jas6]

I guess most of the motherboard makers don't want to bring out 780i boards with the 790i chipset so close, keep us up to date. Your efforts are much appreciated Gary,!

Cheers

 

[Blazer7]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Here is the latest -

Gigabyte will not be producing a 780i board. They are going directly to the 790i. We are still having conversations about a trade up program for the 790i series or maybe even one of the Intel chipsets. More information when I get it....

Ok, I'm really confused now. What about the GA-780SLI-DS5 ? There 're photos of this mobo everywhere and if memory serves the 790 is DDR3 only. If GB skips the 780 then we'll all have to dump our DDR2 mems and spend more $$$ on DDR3. If that's the case a trade-in program is not looking that appealing any more. The cost of such a replacement will be very close, if not higher, than that of buying a brand-new mobo. (difference of new ? old mobo + shipping costs + new mem, sigh). That's not looking very good right now.

If GB agrees to give us an option between Intel and nVidia based boards this will cover many of us but not all. All these guys that are running SLI or 3SLI setups will be left out in the cold. These guys only have 2 options, either stick with this mobo or replace it with another nVidia based mobo.

 

[justinburton]

You are correct Blazer7. That is some good logic. I did read somewhere that 790i might support DDR2 or a combo of DDR2/DDR3 for the fact that no one is adopting DDR3 very fast and it doesn't show any memory speed increase, only bandwidth.

 

[Smitty1705]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Would anyone be interested in a trade up program from the Gigabyte 680i to the 780i or 790i? I am trying to convince Gigabyte that this would be a very wise thing to do right now.

GARY!

I WOUDL BE SO INTERESTED in a trade in! The issue... we all have ddr2 memory so we would need a board that supports DDR2 and 3 I think. They owe us a trade in!
Thank you for looking out ofr us on this. I follow this site for your advice and opinions on products as well as your willingness to stick up for people out there with vendors. Thank you either way.. just for trying no matter the outcome. You don't have to do this for us yet you do. THANK YOU!

Smitty

 

[GoaGas]

Blazer7 - This wouldn't be the first Gigabyte mother to dissapear; if I remember rightly the 680i-DQ6 was going to have a junior sibling the DQ4 - well she was sensible and did a runner! Pictures of her & her big Sis appeared at the end of Oct06 - but it turned out they were just Mock-ups & working versions of the DQ6 weren't even made for several months.

An interesting question - Did this very thread tip the equation in Gigabyte's decision to produce the 680i board? Possibly I think. The pictures were to test the waters, Gb's success was built mainly on Intel chips but they didn't want to miss out on SLI. The favourable comments by Mr Beagle & the rest of our friends might just have tipped the balance.
Sorry Mr Beagle to blame you for all our troubles! - I love you really! & greatly appreciate all your knowledge,time & effort you have put in starting & maintaining this incredible thread. (& I know I speak for 100's).

 

[Smitty1705]

Originally posted by: GriMRapeR

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Would anyone be interested in a trade up program from the Gigabyte 680i to the 780i or 790i? I am trying to convince Gigabyte that this would be a very wise thing to do right now.

Thankyou very much Gary I appreciate the offer. I have however just spoken to a Gigabyte Rep from Gigabyte Australia as my complaint case was forwarded to him by the Taiwan office (I guess they got sick of me...LOL) Anyway he has agreed that Gigabyte admit that the board was "misrepresented" in the advertising and he has agreed to fully replace my board at NO COST. Unfortunately the new 780i boards do not hit Australian shores until February but he has promised me that as soon as stock arrives he will call me and will ship one to me immediately. The arrangement is that once I replace the board I then send the 680i back, so no down time yippee!!!

So guys it can be done. It's a shame Gigabyte have not taken the proactive step of offering a replacement program straight up and I had to complain my a$$ off before they would do anything but since they have now admitted false representation I cannot fault them in their efforts to gain customer satisfaction. Seriously once I spoke with this guy on the phone, there were no more questions asked, no denials or anything, it was just.... yep, no problem, we will replace the product at no extra charge. I can't complain about that. So guys just get on to them - preferably verbally on the phone. Quote my case if it helps but if they have admitted misrepresntation to me and are willing to replace the board, then they have to do it for everyone else. Good luck with it guys.

NICE JOB GRIM! Do you happen to have a case number we can reference your case by? If we call Gigabyte and we have a case number they can read your notes to get an idea of what is going on.

Smitty

 

[eklock2000]

Originally posted by: GoaGas
Blazer7 - This wouldn't be the first Gigabyte mother to dissapear; if I remember rightly the 680i-DQ6 was going to have a junior sibling the DQ4 - well she was sensible and did a runner! Pictures of her & her big Sis appeared at the end of Oct06 - but it turned out they were just Mock-ups & working versions of the DQ6 weren't even made for several months.

An interesting question - Did this very thread tip the equation in Gigabyte's decision to produce the 680i board? Possibly I think. The pictures were to test the waters, Gb's success was built mainly on Intel chips but they didn't want to miss out on SLI. The favourable comments by Mr Beagle & the rest of our friends might just have tipped the balance.
Sorry Mr Beagle to blame you for all our troubles! - I love you really! & greatly appreciate all your knowledge,time & effort you have put in starting & maintaining this incredible thread. (& I know I speak for 100's).

This would be even more reason for Gigabyte to take care of us in particular. What's that saying in marketing "one dissatisfied customer is 10 potential customers lost?"

I, for one, am hoping for an SLI equivalent trade-in...being an Nvidia fanboy.

EK2K

 

[GriMRapeR]

Originally posted by: Smitty1705

Originally posted by: GriMRapeR

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Would anyone be interested in a trade up program from the Gigabyte 680i to the 780i or 790i? I am trying to convince Gigabyte that this would be a very wise thing to do right now.

Thankyou very much Gary I appreciate the offer. I have however just spoken to a Gigabyte Rep from Gigabyte Australia as my complaint case was forwarded to him by the Taiwan office (I guess they got sick of me...LOL) Anyway he has agreed that Gigabyte admit that the board was "misrepresented" in the advertising and he has agreed to fully replace my board at NO COST. Unfortunately the new 780i boards do not hit Australian shores until February but he has promised me that as soon as stock arrives he will call me and will ship one to me immediately. The arrangement is that once I replace the board I then send the 680i back, so no down time yippee!!!

So guys it can be done. It's a shame Gigabyte have not taken the proactive step of offering a replacement program straight up and I had to complain my a$$ off before they would do anything but since they have now admitted false representation I cannot fault them in their efforts to gain customer satisfaction. Seriously once I spoke with this guy on the phone, there were no more questions asked, no denials or anything, it was just.... yep, no problem, we will replace the product at no extra charge. I can't complain about that. So guys just get on to them - preferably verbally on the phone. Quote my case if it helps but if they have admitted misrepresntation to me and are willing to replace the board, then they have to do it for everyone else. Good luck with it guys.

NICE JOB GRIM! Do you happen to have a case number we can reference your case by? If we call Gigabyte and we have a case number they can read your notes to get an idea of what is going on.

Smitty

Yes my friend the case number is - ID:554359 and the Australian Gigabyte Rep I am dealing with is William Kao.

On the phone I asked him what board he was going to replace my 680i with and he said the 780i when it comes into stock in Australia in February but after I got off the phone to him I did a little reseach on the proposed Gigabyte 780i and found a little rumour exactly what Mr. Gary Key has pointed out, that it looks as though GB are going to hold off on the 780i now and just release the 790i. So I sent the rep an email 3 days ago asking him to clarify if the replacement board will be 780i or 790i and I have not heard back (typical). I will ring him tomorrow and ask over the phone as well as try to confirm this rumour about there not being any 780i release and I will post here as soon as I find out.

As our friend Mr. Blazer has pointed out, if they only go with 790i then an upgrade program or even a replacement would not be very helpful unless the proposed 790i's have combo DDR2/DDR3 RAM (I have yet to find out anything about this though). It's great they are going to replace my board and I have it in writing but I won't be happy if it means I have to upgrade my 4GB of OCZ 1066MHz DDR2 RAM because I find it more than enough for at least the next 12 months or so and especially with the current prices of DDR3, its hardly worth it really. I mean buying 4GB of DDR3 RAM would be more expensive than hitting my 680i with a sledge hammer and going out and buying an eVGA or ASUS 780i board and keeping my current DDR2 RAM wouldn't it........?

And guys before you jump on the proposed upgrade program idea (and I mean no disrespect to Mr. Gary as I do appreciate his efforts on this issue) but if Gigabyte have agreed to replace my board and Mr. Jas6's board based on "misrepresentation" then in theory they have to do it for everyone..... right??? Why pay more money to these guys to upgrade when they are willing to do it for free? Sure you may have to push them but I am sure if you quote our cases and if Mr. Gary championed the cause then you could all get replacements. Just a thought......

 

[EateryOfPiza]

Originally posted by: GoaGas
Was any of that Quad cr*p really of any real use to any of you? I havn't missed any of it.

I actually use all 12 hard drive slots + 4 more on a RAID card and the 4 Gigabit Ethernets as well as the 8 USB leads they provide plus some hubs. Pretty much every open slot on my mobo is filled (except for two of the three PCI-E slots).

But yeah, I'd be interested in trading up the board as well. I've been having all sorts of issues with this board, and I suspect it is electrical in nature.

I was trying to build a server that I could game on every once in a while... but that hope went away. Nothing on the market even comes close to having the amount of hard drive slots and PCI slots that this mobo offered.

It might be that GB bit off more than it can chew with all the additional non-reference electronics.

 

[Jas6]

I think in Gigabytes quest to make a mobo with the most bling they strayed off the parth to much and we have ended up with a board with ghosts in the shell.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Morning Everyone.

It sounds like Mr. Gary may have become an alchemist (turning lead into gold) if he indeed can convince the Gigabyte folks to bite the bullet and redeem the 680i boards for something newer and better for all the buyers. As I previously posted, it was GB's own over-reaching that got them in all this trouble in the first place, and now, with all the "great weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew, 25:30), maybe they (GB) have finally realized that they shot themselves in the butt over this whole fiasco.

All of you are to be congratulated on your persistence for keeping up the pressure on GB to make this right for 680i board owners. And, as usual, Mr. Gary has been there for all of us to be our advocate and direct contact person with the corporate types at GB. Many, many thanks to Mr. Gary!!!

I will be interested to hear how this all plays out in the days ahead. Keep up the pressure for a fair and equitable resolution.

Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle :beer:

 

[GoaGas]

Jas6 - Its not just a Gigabyte problem - most other mobo makers have problems with this chip. None of them seem to have got it totally sorted. Back in Jan07 there was a huge ammount of chatter about different makers bringing out many variations based on this chip; but they all vanished & only those that produced early boards remain. Very few new boards have appeared since March. This was meant to be nVidia's great new flagship chip (& still is on their web site).
The chip is BAD. We & all the Mobo makers have been caught up in a cat-fight between nVidia & Intel.

 

[Jas6]

I have no doubt that its not just a Gigabyte problem, clearly the 680i chip set has problems and then you have the whole fight between nVidia not wanting to give sli to Intel and Intel then supposedly "changing" there new cpus which funnily don't want run on anything with 680i in its name.

But all that really is insignificant because at the end of the day from the customers perspective its a gigabyte problem, they made the board and they made the claims such as "the GIGABYTE GA-N680SLI-DQ6 features several next generation technologies including FSB1333 support for the record-setting Intel Core2 Extreme Quad Core processors" which have not been true and then you have the many bugs with the bios and on board bling in which I think is partly to do with the 680i chip set and partly to do with gigabyte straying to far from the nvidia reference board specs.

This brings use all to where we are now in this point in time with boards that don't operate as advertised and gigabyte are finally maybe thinking about offering us a trade up program.....maybe. Its just a shame that it has had to be such a long and drawn out process just to get where we are now, when gigabyte could have followed EVGA's lead and offered a trade up program and shown us what good customer service is all about. Instead they have harmed there customer image by pretty much doing nothing.

And to end my drunken rant, if any good is to come from all of this mess its the fact that gigabyte have a chance to make amends with the owners of the GIGABYTE GA-N680SLI-DQ6 and offer a full trade up program!

So if your reading this thread Gigabyte, show use why we should buy your products over others and do the right thing by your customers.

Cheers :beer:

 

[eklock2000]

Does anyone have a pic of the front of the box showing the FSB1333/Quad-Core support claim? That is what is needed for me to get the replacement process going here in the US.

Thanks,

EK2K

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Here is the latest -

Gigabyte will not be producing a 780i board. They are going directly to the 790i. We are still having conversations about a trade up program for the 790i series or maybe even one of the Intel chipsets. More information when I get it....

Thanks for your work Gary. I had just about completely written off Gigabyte due to this (and you can let them know that).

I bought a EVGA 780i this week, because at least EVGA has been taking care of their customers (replacing all early boards with ones that did support their claims of 1333 and Quad core, and even now offering a trade-up since they know the 680i still doesn't do what it was originally advertised). I need a board that will work with SLI and Penryn, and the Gigabyte board that was suppose to do that couldn't. I was/am planning on putting the Gigabyte into my other PC, and at least upgrade that from a NForce4 AMD 939 to an Intel 775.... But that was going to be the last Gigabyte product I ever bought that was for sure, especially since most of us early buyers paid well above retail for the board (I paid something like $320), and SHOULDN"T have to put up with any of this crap with issues right and left for a top tier product. ABIT did that to me 10 years ago, and I havn't purchased or recommended them to anyone ever since (and I am the one that everyone asks what to get, both in my work and at home). EVGA's attitude and response over the issues earned them not only my new 780i motherboard purchase, but also my graphics card for the HTPC and when they get released, whatever their Nvidia 8800 GTX replacement card is in the 98xx line....

 

[Drums of War]

Well with my ongoing problems, I have just been sent a new Bios Update F6a. No attached notes, just give this a try is what their email stated. I am about to call them and see exactly what it is that I am flashing before I just go ahead with this. I will Keep you all posted as to what this new workup fixes.

Also had another question reguarding my OCing in the review of this board utilizing my CPU the Voltage is set to 1.362 and getting 325 out of the cpu. I cannot seem to get the same results. As far as relaxing my Mem timings I should still beable to get them to the stock 4 4 4 12 2t should I not ? Or in order to hit that mark on cpu am I stuck with the 5 5 5 15 2t settings ?

 

[raisinjack]

Originally posted by: eklock2000
Does anyone have a pic of the front of the box showing the FSB1333/Quad-Core support claim? That is what is needed for me to get the replacement process going here in the US.

Thanks,

EK2K

pm me your email as I got 2 pictures you may want!

 

[dlbetz]

Drums, I just recieved the F6a Beta Bios from GB from a contact Janus in the tiawan office. I am about to go to work but i am going to flash mine as soon as i get home. If anyone else wants it PM me your email and I will send it to you.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Blazer7

Originally posted by: Gary Key
Here is the latest -

Gigabyte will not be producing a 780i board. They are going directly to the 790i. We are still having conversations about a trade up program for the 790i series or maybe even one of the Intel chipsets. More information when I get it....

Ok, I'm really confused now. What about the GA-780SLI-DS5 ? There 're photos of this mobo everywhere and if memory serves the 790 is DDR3 only. If GB skips the 780 then we'll all have to dump our DDR2 mems and spend more $$$ on DDR3. If that's the case a trade-in program is not looking that appealing any more. The cost of such a replacement will be very close, if not higher, than that of buying a brand-new mobo. (difference of new ? old mobo + shipping costs + new mem, sigh). That's not looking very good right now.

If GB agrees to give us an option between Intel and nVidia based boards this will cover many of us but not all. All these guys that are running SLI or 3SLI setups will be left out in the cold. These guys only have 2 options, either stick with this mobo or replace it with another nVidia based mobo.

Gigabyte pulled the board at the last possible moment a few days ago as they did not think the QX9650 performance was acceptable. I can tell after working with the 780i boards from ASUS and hearing Raja's frustration with his recently arrived board, they might be on to something. We have new boards coming from ASUS and EVGA early next week to retest.

As far as the 790i is concerned, NV might cave like Intel did on the X38/X48 and offer DDR2 capability. I am working on that angle right now. Whatever this ends up being, I will keep everyone updated, plus the fact that I am really on Gigabyte every day to do something here.

 

[Drums of War]

I have not installed the new Bios as of yet, still waiting on an answer from our friends at gigabyte as to what fixes are on this build.

New question does anyone have Teaming working in vista 64 enviorment? everytime I install that portion of the Nvidia drivers I get a StackHash Error on cetain web pages and when firing up certian apps, namely crisis and myspace. atleast those are the two things I am using to test it and cant seem to get it to work.
If any of you are successfully using this feature please fill me in as to what I need to do so I dont get the StackHash errors.