*** Official NVidia nForce 680i Thread ***

[Skott]

I think there is a belief out in consumer land that the Striker will be a better performing mobo compared to the P5N32-E SLI. Of course we wont know that till reviews and comparison of both get to the reviewers and the enthusiasts. I think the Striker is overpriced but I expect it to come down below $300 after a good supply is established and maintained. I got a sneaking suspecion that both mobos BIOSes need more maturity because ASUS rushed out the earlier Conroe mobos. I'm thinking they'll do it again. Just a feeling I have. Hopefully I'm wrong. So I sit and wait and see what happens. Btw, there is a new Striker review out.

 

[nitromullet]

Question: can anyone confirm that the Zalman CNPS9500 cooler will fit on the reference boards? Apparently, the mounting plate has issues... Odd, considering the fact that NVIDIA distributed literature with a picture of the board with a Zalman CNPS 9700 cooler mounted on it, and you can buy an NVIDIA branded Zalman cooler....

 

[Giffen]

The software bundle is also better with the Striker, and it looks like it has more heat pipes. The big question is why would ASUS come out with 2 boards that basically are similar and price them so close together?

The striker is to be the highend board so why not price it 200-300 more than the mainstream board? They would sell just about the same number since highend stuff is bought by people that have loads of money...

 

[Skott]

Check out its big brother, The Striker Extreme

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=905&cid=8


Yeah, the 9500/9700 should fit I think.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Skott
Check out its big brother, The Striker Extreme

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=905&cid=8


Yeah, the 9500/9700 should fit I think.

The Striker Extreme isn't a reference board, and of course the CNPS9500 should fit as it is a socket T cooler, but if it doesn't 'should' isn't going to make it fit. I have heard about people claiming to have to modify the backplate for the CNPS9500 coolers to fit on the EVGA board (which is a reference board), but then I hear some say it works just fine. Curious if anyone has any firsthand experience...

 

[Genx87]

Is there any real advantage going with a 650i Ultra vs something with a P965 chipset? I am not planning on SLI or overclocking my cpu. I will be putting a single 8800GTS and overclocking that then use it for ~ 28-36 months.

btw it sounds like the audio issues on ASUS boards is rampant among more than 1 line. I am assuming they are using another supplier for the sound?

Ill checkout that Gigabyte board, the DS3?

 

[nitromullet]

To anyone else wondering about the fit of the CNPS 9500/9700 coolers, here are some pics of what one guy did to his backplate to make it the cooler fit:

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21045#top

 

[skrewler2]

New BIOS is released..

btw, with this card I'm at 1500FSB.. but when I jump up to 1600FSB my system acts really weird, one core seems to get pegged, also 3dmark06 runs like ******, about 5 fps at the beginning of return to proxycon..

Any setting anyone can think of that would cause that?

 

[skrewler2]

BTW, the Tuniq Tower ROCKS.. BIOS reports 28C temps idle, TAT reports 36-38. Strangely, the second core seems to always be 2C above the other.. Now I don't get past 50C under load from what TAT reports, when before I could get up to close to the 70's running Orthos for about 10 minutes.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: skrewler2
New BIOS is released..

Yes, I was just about the mention the new BIOS. Support from partners looks good for the reference boards. Both EVGA and BFG have the new P20 BIOS available for download today. Support has been one of my big questions with these, and seeing this may have just tipped the scales. I'm really getting tempted to pick up that BFG at Comp-USA for $250 AMIR.

 

[ExCrow]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
To anyone else wondering about the fit of the CNPS 9500/9700 coolers, here are some pics of what one guy did to his backplate to make it the cooler fit:

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21045#top

FYI, the Zalman 9700 fit just fine on my new P5N32-E-SLI... no heatpipe clearance probs, and no obstructing capacitors to deal with.

 

[nitromullet]

I actually have a few more questions that some of you may know the answers to...

Mainly, it's about the whole EPP/SLI Ready RAM thing... What exactly does that mean with the reference boards, does it actually do anything or is it just good marketing, and does Asus also support that with their 680i boards?

I ask mainly because I really get the impression that NVIDIA is really going in the direction of a 'platform' with 680i/8-series, as opposed to just motherboard and video card, and I'm kind of intrigued by the idea. Obviously, I realize that any compatible components will work with each other and that there is going to be a healthy dose of marketing in anything like this, but if there is actually some technology behind it that increases these components' performance, I'd be interested to know about it. Besides, I already have everything (apparently my RAM is 'SLI Ready' according to the sticker on the package) except the motherboard...

 

[lopri]

It's marketing. SLI motherboard, SLI PSU, SLI memory.. I've even seen SLI case. What it does is setting a bit more agressive timings than SPD, when you leave your memory settings at 'Auto'. Normally that means 5-5-5 timings @667MHz (or 800MHz), which is very loose. EPP seems to set 4-4-4 @800MHz, but from enthusiasts' point of view that is still loose. You will want 3-3-3 timing @800MHz, and most D9 based sticks can do that with 2.2~2.4Vdimm. But then again, I'm having a problem gettin 1T to work @800MHz/3-3-3 timing and it's possible that 1T can be achieved with less problems using those certified memory. If you have experience with A64 memory tweaking, things will get familiar very quickly.

I've flashed my board with P20 BIOS and I see a slight improvement in Super Pi times. (4 secs decrease in 8M calculation) Though I still have a problem getting 1T @800MHz and above. (This board really stretch its legs @DDR800/3-3-3-1T, IMO) Both sets of my memory, which do 1000MHz+/4-4-3 on Intel platform, fail to run stably with 1T, which is disappointing. Then again on Intel platform you don't even have a chance to run 1T, and this board performs superbly in everything else, so I'm overall satisfied. (As for my dead X-Fi, I concluded it was faulty. Fresh X-Fi from RMA doesn't show such burn-mark, and I blame Creative's quality control)

 

[NYHoustonman]

I'll be trying the new BIOS when I get home; my main issue right now is that my E6400's clock speed isn't represented correctly in the BIOS. Every benchmark I've run sees it as it is, 2.8Ghz (I could go higher, but I don't see the need), but according to the BIOS it's less than this because, for whatever reason, it sees the multiplier as 7x rather than 8x.

 

[lopri]

For people who have a problem with FSB overclocking, don't give up at a certain FSB. Many people (including myself) like even FSB numbers and just type in 1500, 1600, 1700, etc., but you never know at which FSB the board will boot. If 1600 doesn't work, try 1596, 1604, 1610, etc. (But use even numbers, instead of odd numbers) Also note that too high a voltage for NB doesn't do any good for this board. Lowering NB voltage a notch can sometimes play a wonder.

I picked up an E6400 to see if my board is a dud or not (since FSB overclocking with my Xeon 3060 hasn't been spectacular - not that it's needed), and at first the board didn't want to boot at any FSB beyond 1600 (400FSB quad-pumped). But in less than 20 mins, I achieved the followings.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9201/fsb1880sw3.png
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7765/fsb1920nn3.png

Board will not even post @1800/1900, but it's perfectaly fine @1880/1920. :Q

Update: Board works fine @1900FSB, too.
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/6711/sp8mbhg4.png

First two 8M results were 'Unlinked' (async) where memory is set to 800MHz/Auto (5-5-5), and the last one is with memory 950MHz/4-4-4. Board responds to memory bandwidth/timings better than any other board I've dealt with so far.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Originally posted by: NYHoustonman
I'll be trying the new BIOS when I get home; my main issue right now is that my E6400's clock speed isn't represented correctly in the BIOS. Every benchmark I've run sees it as it is, 2.8Ghz (I could go higher, but I don't see the need), but according to the BIOS it's less than this because, for whatever reason, it sees the multiplier as 7x rather than 8x.

Nevermind, I assumed the multiplier was locked, but I found a setting for it in another section of the BIOS (separate from FSB, etc.) :x.

 

[skrewler2]

Originally posted by: lopri
For people who have a problem with FSB overclocking, don't give up at a certain FSB. Many people (including myself) like even FSB numbers and just type in 1500, 1600, 1700, etc., but you never know at which FSB the board will boot. If 1600 doesn't work, try 1596, 1604, 1610, etc. (But use even numbers, instead of odd numbers) Also note that too high a voltage for NB doesn't do any good for this board. Lowering NB voltage a notch can sometimes play a wonder.

I picked up an E6400 to see if my board is a dud or not (since FSB overclocking with my Xeon 3060 hasn't been spectacular - not that it's needed), and at first the board didn't want to boot at any FSB beyond 1600 (400FSB quad-pumped). But in less than 20 mins, I achieved the followings.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9201/fsb1880sw3.png
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7765/fsb1920nn3.png

Board will not even post @1800/1900, but it's perfectaly fine @1880/1920. :Q

Update: Board works fine @1900FSB, too.
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/6711/sp8mbhg4.png

First two 8M results were 'Unlinked' (async) where memory is set to 800MHz/Auto (5-5-5), and the last one is with memory 950MHz/4-4-4. Board responds to memory bandwidth/timings better than any other board I've dealt with so far.

Your theory seems correct.. I couldn't get 1600 to load Windows w/o an immediate hang, so on a whim I tried 1720 and it just worked. SuperPI finishes fine, system seems stable 3dmark06 doesn't crash, but Orthos fails within about 10 seconds.. any hints?

My cpu voltage is set at 1.5v, memory is unlinked, FSB at 1.5v, memory at 2.2v, all others at auto.

Whats the highest safe voltage I can goto w/ this Tuniq Tower?

 

[TBSN]

Hey people, i hope this is the right topic to post in, or maybe i should start a new one? Anyway, I have a few questions....

I'm thinking of getting an EVGA 680i instead of an Asus P5B Deluxe. I am thinking of the 680i because I would like to future-proof the computer, and having the option to go SLi in the future, plus amazing OC'ing, sounds good...

That having been said, I wonder about Bios issues in this relatively new board. Has anyone had any experience with this board? I am pretty new to this whole OC'ing thing, and I'm worried that there will be less support and info on this new board then if I got something like the P5B....

Any advice would really, really help, Thanks!

 

[lopri]

If you read this thread you'll read others' experience. BIOS support should be good for this board since NV write it and many vendors (practically all of NV's AIB partners) rely on it. Current BIOS is buggy, however.

 

[TBSN]

Originally posted by: lopri... Current BIOS is buggy, however.

That's what I was worrying about. I guess that the major problems will be resolved soon... What kind of bugs does it have, and are they engough reason for someone to go with the P5B mobo if they are not going SLI right away??

 

[tylerw13]

dude honestly i cant understand this board....it looks like it would be nice but every time i go over 1500 it doesnt say i have dual core...it only finds one...and when i go under the freakin bios its greyed out???dang im getting way frustrated i just dont know what i can do...ive tried all your different hints but nothing works....its really weird...anyway it sux

 

[lopri]

Bugs are mostly related with overclocking. FSB holes and memory compatibility being the biggest ones. I can't seem to trust the voltage reading in the BIOS, not to mention in Windows where nothing, I mean nothing, reads anything correctly. At high FSB (1600 and up), USB ports can go banana but this is sort of common for every board. Just switch to a different port and you should be fine. Somehow I managed to burn my X-Fi off, and while I haven't seen anyone with the same loss but there certainly is an issue with X-Fi and nForce in general.

I ran the new version of Sandra to see the memory bandwidth (previously I used to get half that of 975X in Unbuffered bandwidth), and got some unbelievable scores. (Note: 'Unbelievable' as in 'Not believable')

Buffered Bandwidth 11260 :Q
Unbuffered Bandwidth 6813 :shocked:

Suffice to say that Sandra isn't the most accurate measurment of performance.

 

[TBSN]

Wow, it sounds like this board has a LOT of unsolved bugs.... I think I'll step down to the P5B and forego SLI. Too bad i guess....

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I'm still waiting for more than two boards (not counting the Striker flavor) to be available... I hope more come out soon...

 

[lopri]

Memory clocking (which to me is pointless) is ridiculous on this board. Just for fun, I decided to see how high my sticks would go. My sticks which barely did 1066~1080MHz on 975X are clocking up to 1300MHz. (1266MHz so far) It doesn't even take sweat to get there, either. But again, without performance gain 1300MHz/CAS 5 is totally meaningless to me.