*** Official eVGA 680i Thread ***

[Tony Eveready]

crosspost:

Hi, I'm new here... just ordered one of these.

I'm wondering if I should just ship it back, a few things.

I ordered this ram:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590

With the Evga version of this board, the 122-CK-NF68-AR model and an E6600 core 2 duo CPU.


I am looking to overclock later, but not at first. I realize the thing is sensitive to voltage and ram timings, but is it worth the trouble? Do you guys honestly think this will stabilize with a future bios release?

I also have one IDE drive I want to use with it, yet I see you say don't install the IDE controller drivers... what?

If I can keep this board, are there any things I should know out of the box? Like will everything work at stock settings or do I need to change anything and screw with it for days on end to find stability?

I'm pretty confused because I ordered this based on the great reviews it got then I found this thread through a thread deep on the back pages of the HardOCP forum. Kinda disappointed.


Also, what is this I hear about the south bridge(or north bridge) heatsink being bent or having too much paste? Jesus.

 

[mc866]

See how it works for you, not everyone is having problems. The BIOS updates seem to have taken care of some of the problems this board had initially.

 

[QuantumPion]

The reason why you aren't supposed to install the nvidia IDE drivers (as opposed to the motherboard chipset drivers, which you are supposed to install) is because they are buggy and don't work correctly. This applies to all nvidia boards, nforce3, 4, nf68, etc.

FWIW my system runs fine at stock settings. I haven't messed with overclocking much due to the PS/2 bug but for a while I was running at 3 ghz with stock voltages and no problems.

 

[Bryant05]

hey, i just purchased an evga 680i nForce Motherboard about a week ago and its giving me the shits.. i just cant seem to get it to work. it sometimes freezes on the boot screen (first screen after turned on) where it shows all of your drives and cpu specs and stuff, it sometime freezes when im in the bios, and then other times it comes up with "NTLDR missing" or something similar.

any help would be highly appreciated.
thanks,
Bryant05

 

[MartinM210]

After about a week of playing, I have this board up and running great. I did have my share of problems off the start though.

First off it recognized my corsair dominator 6400c4d DDR2800 ram at slower timings 5-5-5-18 and 1.8V!. Changing the 1.8V to 2.1 solve most of my problems, I'm just glad it at least would enter the bios at that much undervolting. It also seemed to undervolt my E6600, I think it was something like 1.28 and I changed that to 1.35 which is really about 1.31.

My USB mouse was giving me fits too on windows install, so I poped on the adapter and all was well afterwards.

Also I was having a hard time adding one of my IDE drives to the system, one worked fine, but adding the second was somehow trying to make it the boot drive or it conflicted with my system drive. I finally went into the drive setting and changed the channel to manual and it worked fine.

All in all it wasn't the greatest experience getting it up and running initially. My suggestion is to make sure you know the voltages and memory timings and enter them in manually, also keep an eye on USB issues and IDE channel conflicts.

With that said, my overclocking experience after I was up and running has been the best ever. I'm still slowly turning up this E6600 and testing, currently at 3.1 GHZ at 1.35V(1.31 actual) and it's easy as pie. What I like most is the memory unlink option, this really helps make it easy to keep your memory speed in check as you work on clocking the processor. You set it at 800 and it automatically adjusts the multiplier to keep it there or just slightly under. It also has tons of voltage increments, so you can readily get just enough volts to your stuff without any more heat than needed.

So my experience was a little rocky at the start, but smooth sailing on the OC front.

FYI the Scythe Infinity cooler does fit this board, slight modification to one of the fan clip positions and it's a great match.

 

[espressomaker]

Just an update on the Thermalright XP-90. They revised the backplate and you no longer have to modify it. The XP-90 installs perfectly right out of the box. Maybe I'll post a pic later.

Yesterday, I put together the system in my sig without any issues. The 680i board installed great with the P23 Bios but I installed P24 ASAP. Even launching Vista RC1 (build 5600) was flawless with nothing installed from the EVGA disk and a clean Device Manager. I think the fanless heatsinks are awesome (I really go for quiet systems). My temps are good right now but I have not yet stressed the system or OC'd anything. I can always attach a fan later if necessary but I think the design of the P180 will keep it manageable without any more fans.

 

[Bryant05]

Originally posted by: MartinM210
After about a week of playing, I have this board up and running great. I did have my share of problems off the start though.

First off it recognized my corsair dominator 6400c4d DDR2800 ram at slower timings 5-5-5-18 and 1.8V!. Changing the 1.8V to 2.1 solve most of my problems, I'm just glad it at least would enter the bios at that much undervolting. It also seemed to undervolt my E6600, I think it was something like 1.28 and I changed that to 1.35 which is really about 1.31.

My USB mouse was giving me fits too on windows install, so I poped on the adapter and all was well afterwards.

Also I was having a hard time adding one of my IDE drives to the system, one worked fine, but adding the second was somehow trying to make it the boot drive or it conflicted with my system drive. I finally went into the drive setting and changed the channel to manual and it worked fine.

All in all it wasn't the greatest experience getting it up and running initially. My suggestion is to make sure you know the voltages and memory timings and enter them in manually, also keep an eye on USB issues and IDE channel conflicts.

With that said, my overclocking experience after I was up and running has been the best ever. I'm still slowly turning up this E6600 and testing, currently at 3.1 GHZ at 1.35V(1.31 actual) and it's easy as pie. What I like most is the memory unlink option, this really helps make it easy to keep your memory speed in check as you work on clocking the processor. You set it at 800 and it automatically adjusts the multiplier to keep it there or just slightly under. It also has tons of voltage increments, so you can readily get just enough volts to your stuff without any more heat than needed.

So my experience was a little rocky at the start, but smooth sailing on the OC front.

FYI the Scythe Infinity cooler does fit this board, slight modification to one of the fan clip positions and it's a great match.

hey,
thankyou soooo much ur a friggen legend mate. my computer works perfectly now!!!

 

[lupi]

Running a system with this board, using an e6600 and 2 gig crucial. All settings at default/stock except mem volt set at 2.1. Generally have no problems except when I enable SLI. At which point I suffer constant random lockups and reboots.

Anyone else experience this or have helpful ideas?

 

[XMan]

What's the EVGA 122-CK-NF68-TR? Newer revision? It has less "stuff" in the box than the AR, and is about thirty bucks cheaper . . .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188010

 

[bosstone]

got mine this morning a TR, it's the same board just with a 2 yr warranty instead of lifetime and it does not include serial/com bracket, firewire and usb bracket, and you get 2 sata cables versus 6. and one 4pin to sata cable instead of 3.

mine had the P24 bios already on it, it did have the capacitors on the bottom ,but no issue with the tuniq backplate.

 

[Journer]

i got my board a week or two ago...built a new system...its been running e4400 @ 3.2 fine for a week now

before i did anything, i pulled the mobo out of the static bag and got all the goo off off the chipsets..was tedious but i feel it was worth it...my mobo temp is like 38C and the MCP never gets above 55c...usually under 50C

my cpu is stable as hell at 3.2...idles at 30C and i havnt seen it go past 40C even when playing oblivion at full specs @ 1080p
i have a thermaltake big typhoon...its giant as hell but i can still get to everything without troubles (ram, power ports) but the mounting system on it kinda sucks...one of my screws was stripped and it took me forever to fix it... -_- oh, i've also got a differnt 120mm fan on it...pumps out 108cfm (stock is 54cfm) might be loud to some, whatever, my room is loud anyways
sadly though...my 8800gtx is running at 60C idle and sometimes gets up to 70c ingame >_<!!!

i had ZERO driver problems with vista 32bit. didnt need any mobo drivers...didnt install any nvidia CRAP except the BIOS update tool and video card drivers

ill post if i start to have some problems
oh, mine came with p23...updated to p24 with update tool...no problems...
and i dont think i had any capacitors on the backside...if there are any there they are being squished against the heatsink mounting pad...oh well...hasnt seemed to be any trouble so far

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Bryant05
hey, i just purchased an evga 680i nForce Motherboard about a week ago and its giving me the shits.. i just cant seem to get it to work. it sometimes freezes on the boot screen (first screen after turned on) where it shows all of your drives and cpu specs and stuff, it sometime freezes when im in the bios, and then other times it comes up with "NTLDR missing" or something similar.

any help would be highly appreciated.
thanks,
Bryant05

Most likely your memory timing is too tight or the board doesn't like your CD/DVD-ROM drive(s). Make sure you set 2T manually (the board often sets 1T when left auto, even though it shows 2T) and loosen memory timings. (4-4-4-12 with 2.20V should be fairly fail-proof) Also try booting with a different CD/DVD-ROM or without a CD/DVD-ROM.