*** Official eVGA 680i Thread ***

[QuantumPion]

I should be getting my new stuff in today, I am getting the Seasonic 550HT with a p180, so I will be able to tell you if it fits tonight.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Technically it's 1.325 volts (I think), but I don't know if intel has necessarily set a 'default' voltage for these processors (it depends on clock)... In any case, I've been able to run my E6400 @ 2.8Ghz, 1.3 volts without any issues.

 

[FireChicken]

Is it true that the evga, BFG, etc 680i boards are just re-branded foxconn boards? And if it is does foxconn have a good rep for quality?

 

[TBSN]

I think they are Nvidia reference boards rebranded, like most of the 8800 video boards are. They should be well made. I'm not sure, I'll try to find the link I was thinking of...

 

[nippyjun]

Hi, Does anyone know if the zalman 9700 fits this mobo?

 

[SniperWulf]

Just an FYI, I have the Zalman 9500 and I had to cut my backplate with a razor in 3 places to keep it from crushing the resistors.

 

[Skott]

The BFG, eVGA, and the ECS 680i are nVidia reference mobos. Meaning nVidia says, "This is how/specs are to be." Period. Nothing else is changed. Its FoxConn that makes the boards for the three companies to sell using their Logo brand. ASUS, DFI, MSI, ABIT, and others will take the nVidia reference design and alter/change/modify it to their idea of what they want to make for the consumer. At least thats how I understand it.

 

[PoopyPants]

Originally posted by: SniperWulf
Just an FYI, I have the Zalman 9500 and I had to cut my backplate with a razor in 3 places to keep it from crushing the resistors.

yup you cant use the XP-90 nor any of the Scythe coolers either.
the XP-90 uses a backplate. if you dont use the back plate and just use the screws. it will flex the board really bad and lifts the PWM heatsinks right off the pwm and pretty much makes the heatsink useless.
the xp-90 backplate also hits the resistors thus cant use it.

the Scythe infinity cant be used cuz it hits the NB heatsink. that just pisses me off to no end as the scythe is now a ****** paper weight.


i am on my 2nd eVGA 680i and neither one can boot at 450mhz FSB or higher.

absolutely freaking retarded. my god damn DS3 was bootable at 500fsb. and this freaking board cant even do 450.. wtf kinda crap is that.


im so tired of wasting money on worthless extremely buggy conroe boards. jesus.. wtf is wrong with these a-holes making these boards.

 

[Skott]

Actually the eVGA can boot higher than 450 but its a crap shoot. People are getting 500fsb stable on them. Half the people have no problem and the other half have nothing but problems. From everything I have read this is what it looks like.

1)Once again the manufacturers rushed out unmatured BIOS software. (I'm beginning to think these guys are the same that design games too) Get it out now and we'll fix it later. I hate that!
2)The 680i chipset is very quirky and tempermental. There are various levels/settings it wont boot at. Dead spots people are calling them.
3)The 680i mobos arent newb friendly. They aint exactly experienced friendly neither. New techniques are having to be invented in how to get them to work properly it seems. These arent like past chipsets and mobos.

The single biggest problem is the BIOS from what I'm reading. A month or so from now (assuming regular updates comes out and a few have so far) the mobos will be more stable and usable. Just like the early Conroe mobos it seems. Personally, I wished they'd have made the consumer wait the extra month or two and get a more stable mobo out but I guess thats asking too much.

 

[QuantumPion]

Holy crap, I didn't know I had to modify my zalman's back plate for it to fit! I installed it without any modification and didn't have any difficulty. I better go take everything apart and mod it now so something doesn't break later on!

 

[mharper]

Its depends... The CPU socket is close to the edge of the board so the fins will extend past the edge. If you have no room in your case then "no". I found this out the hard way. The 9700 does not fit into my Lian-Li V1000B+II. I had to get an Artic Cooling Freezer Pro 7.

Michael

 

[mharper]

OK, I am stumped. Where is the audio header to plug in my DVD/CD?

Michael

 

[QuantumPion]

I just finished putting my box back together. The zalman back plate was contacting those little resistors that stick out, so I dremmeled the plate a bit. It is a bit more flush with the motherboard now, but it is still contacting the little tiny bits on the board, so I don't know if it did much good. It probably wasn't really nescessary but whatever.

 

[nippyjun]

I have a question about installing windows from a sata dvdrw drive. Do you have to do the F6/install raid drivers from the floppy first even if you aren't using raid?

 

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by: nippyjun
I have a question about installing windows from a sata dvdrw drive. Do you have to do the F6/install raid drivers from the floppy first even if you aren't using raid?

Supposedly, no. I always just loaded the floppy driver though. However, I just got rid of my floppy drive so if I have to reinstall XP I will find out for sure

 

[tim500739]

My board shipped with a foxconn protecter on the zif socket

 

[nippyjun]

Originally posted by: tim500739
My board shipped with a foxconn protecter on the zif socket

I believe foxconn makes the boards for nvidia/evga.

 

[TridenT]

Just got mine.. Overclocked it straight from the beginning works good for that. Although something is running sort of hot. 55C, MPC or something like that. Also my father tried to turn the computer on this morning and it hit a "dead spot" I believe. As it would just stall. So when I got home from school I turned off the PCI-E linking thing.. Fixed it I think. Also I noticed it wasn't booting to the correct OC. Instead of 2.94ghz, it was 2.93ghz.
E6300 @ 2.94ghz
2x1GB OCZ DDR2 800
eVGA 680i
Just PC 600S 600W PSU
eVGA 8800GTS woot!

Oh and my Arctic cooling freezer 7 barely fitted in. It was very very close to hitting the motherboard chipset heatsink.

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

Well Ive had the following system running perfectly stable for about two weeks now:

E6600 @ 3.15 350FSB 1.416v FAN = Zalman CNPS9500
eVGA 680i P21 BIOS
Corsair Dominator CM2X1024-6400C4D @ 420Mhz 2.1v 4-4-4-12-2T
PC Power & Cooling 650W
Seagate ST3250620As 7200.10 SATA 2.0
BFG 7950GT OC Stock Speeds

I'm fairly new to overclocking to be honest, so as you can see I'm somewhat conservative with the settings. I have the FSB & RAM Linked with auto voltages on everything except for my RAM. If I set any voltages manually, aside from the ram, I can't get the system to boot into Windows. CPU idles at between 43-45C and while playing FEAR cranked up to near max settings it doesn't break 55C. I have benched near everything past a similar x6800 machine (at least according to SiSoft) except for the Cache & Memory Benchmark in SiSoft which lags behind considerably. I really don't know what to make of that.

 

[ToadkillerDog]

New beta p23 bios out - supposed to fix sata and data corruptioni ssues many were having.

 

[TBSN]

If this BIOS actually fixes the major problems that this chipset has been having, it would make buying this mobo a no-brainer rather than a risky proposition... I will wait patiently to see if the problems get fixed!

 

[Bozo Galora]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82578

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82578

Look who posted it too hehe good ol' Rollo.

I actually kinda miss that guy

*hides*

 

[QuantumPion]

Anyone know how fast I can safely overlock without installing the northbridge fan? For what it's worth, I have my zalman 9500 vertically aligned in my p180 case, so that the fan is pulling air directly over the northbridge heatsink and out through the top of the case. I'm running my e6600 at 2.8 ghz (~311 fsb) now with no voltage changes and it is working fine so far.

 

[politicalslug]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
Anyone know how fast I can safely overlock without installing the northbridge fan? For what it's worth, I have my zalman 9500 vertically aligned in my p180 case, so that the fan is pulling air directly over the northbridge heatsink and out through the top of the case. I'm running my e6600 at 2.8 ghz (~311 fsb) now with no voltage changes and it is working fine so far.

I wouldn't overclock it at all without using that NB fan. It's there for a reason. It even says in the manual that anything past stock bus speeds and you should employ the fan. I'm running an e6600 as well and I've been at 3.25 (with a 358 fsb) and it's completely stable. the memory is at 955 @ 4-4-4-12 with 2.2v

"keep firing assholes!"