Where Are The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 Motherboards?

[bravo36]

Originally posted by: Smitty1705
Still no siting of the board for sale again?

I had to find and buy mine from an online retailer in Canada for Christ's sake. Even they are all sold out now.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. Bravo.

Glad to hear that you could locate a board in North America. They sure seem to be the "hot ticket" right now. With a few more tweaks to the BIOS, this board just might be the one to top them all. We can only hope. Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[Ava1anche]

Wow! This was a long post! I want to thank all of you for all the info provided. And I want to thank Gary Key for the new Bios Beta's. Also to let you know about the QX6700 on this board. I currently have my QX6700 @ 340 FSB with the 10 multiplier using the F2 Bios. Tonight i will flash to F4E. (Again thank you Gary for this) Cooling it with a modified Monsoon II

Everyone have a good weekend!

Forgot to add I am running Vista also...

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. Ava.

Sounds like you are doing well with your new rig. That's great news, and is what we are all about in the Forum, and especially this thread. You may have noticed that we are not plagued by flamers here. That's due to the very good oversight by the Forum Administrators and Moderators, but more so due to the professional and thoughtful attitudes of the contributors. You are quite correct about the longevity and significant accumulation of solid information on this thread - it is quite incredible. However, the credit goes to everyone who contributed, but especially Gary Key. But there's more to come when the newest BIOS revision gets released in the near future.

It is my personal intention to obtain a Quad-Core proc like you are using, but the 1333 FSB model, in the not so distant future. I was always previously an AMD Athlon X2 fanboy, but I'm now convinced that AMD can't compete at the present time with the Intel products. I never though I'd say that, but the truth is the truth - at least presently. I sure hope that AMD's reorganization and new products launch is not too little, and too late. Without some meaningful competition, Intel is likely to quickly become a runaway 1200 lb. gorilla.

Good luck with your new rig, and be sure to fasten your seat belt when you fly that thing. Enjoy. TheBeagle

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Saturday Morning Everyone.

On 04/23/07 I wrote:

Just so you know that you're not alone in this matter, I too have had those issues. In fact, I just ordered several sticks of PC2-8500 Crucial Ballistix memory from the Egg, here: Crucial @ The Egg. As you can see from that link, a 2x1GB stick kit of that memory usually sells for $270.00, BUT there's a $75.00 MIR on it until May 3rd or so, which brings it down to $195.00. That's the best price I have ever seen on that level of high performance Crucial memory.

Well, the new Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 memory sticks arrived yesterday and I installed them last night. They are a substantial improvement over PC2-8000 sticks (not that the PC2-8000 stuff was bad, but these are better). I am now able to launch 384x9 (3.45GHz) with AUTO settings in the F4e BIOS, and the memory set at 1066 unlinked. It will be interesting to see how much better I can get it to reliably run with some tweaking.

In case anyone is interested in a good review article on this new Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 memory, here's a very recent article: Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 @ CDRinfo. I'll let you know how I make out with the tweaking. Have a nice day. TheBeagle

 

[MraK]

just dropping by and giving everyone the heads up that my PC is still stable @3.4Ghz (straight with no let down, for almost 2 weeks now) and to top it all off, i did a test for my video card, played Company of heroes and NFS Carbon for 8 and half hours with no slowdown or failure (in the case with my video card) seems like this board is doing its job very well
plannning on getting another GTX for SLI, wanna see what this MB has to offer

 

[dlbetz]

Mr Gary Key, Any New news on the next Bios update? Also when do you plan on putting together a new review on this board? Thanks for all your help so far!!!

 

[KSEDK]

To all:

The Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 has gone EOL! I was so lucky to get one from the last shipment that would come here to DK.

Now to a few questions:

How do I set the timings on my RAM?

Why does it say "FAIL" when I check the voltage on my RAM?

Is there anything to gain with the new F4E BIOS and will it ever get out of the BETA stage now the mobo has gone EOL?

Best regards,

KSEDK

 

[TheBeagle]

Hello Mr. KSEDK.

I'm unaware that the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board has reached EOL, and haven't read or heard that statement anywhere else. I'd be curious to know where did you get that info?

I'm aware that the present board is now being labeled on the Gigabyte web site(s) as Rev. 1. That usually means that there's a Rev. 2 lurking somewhere on the drawing boards, since it would be unnecessary to have revisions of a board that was truly EOL. Furthermore, it would seem a bit odd that a board that was just released for sale in January of 2007, and has received rave reviews from all over the world, would be EOL three months later. But I guess stranger things have happened, so I'll be interested to hear about the source for your statement.

What we do know is that 680i chipsets are VERY costly and VERY scarce right now. Also, there seems to be a push by nVidia to move a large portion of their 775 Socket business to the 650i LT chipset due to cost and availability factors. The 650i chipsets have a reasonably good performance to low cost factor, which makes boards manufactured with that chipset much more mainstream and easily marketed. There is no doubt about the fact that the GA-N680SLI-DQ6 boards are truly the bling-bling boards of our time, and are on the bleeding edge right now.

As far as your memory timings are concerned, the AUTO settings are a good place to start until you get things stabilized. After you get a good OC on your CPU, then start tweaking your memory. The "Fail" message about the memory in the extended BIOS settings is nothing to worry about. It is just telling you that the memory is not the 1.8V version. However, since most all DDR2 high performance memory is between 2.1-2.3V, you'll always get that message - ignore it!

From a recent discussion with a very knowledgeable technical source who posts on this Forum and Thread, it is believed that the Final F4 BIOS will be released some time in the next 10 days. The Gigabyte engineers are reportedly still tweaking the Quad-Core aspects of the new BIOS. In the meantime, I would recommend the F4e BIOS, it is stable and has some additional headroom for OC.

Enjoy your new board (toy). TheBeagle

 

[MraK]

EOL?

 

[KSEDK]

Hi TheBeagle

I recieved this from Gigabyte thursday this week:

"Dear Mr. xxxxxxx,

Thank you for your interest in GIGABYTE products.

Unfortunately this is true this model is EOL.
At the moment we do not have any DQ6 mainboard available.

The replacer of this model will be the P35-DQ6.
We are waiting for the new shipment to arrive, we expect it at the end of May available.

With kind regards,

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY"

That is how I know it. if it's the truth, I can't say but I do know that it's the same message all resellers, distributors og retailers here in DK have given me!

If there will be a rev. 2 model I will be looking for it

So far this has been an awesome board to play with. I am just getting to know it and soon it's limits will be tested.

Thanks for the tips about the timings, I just think that I have looked through all the "Auto" settings.

Best regards,

KSEDK

 

[eklock2000]

End-Of-Life...uh-oh. Just lucky I got one I guess. Furthered by the fact that Newegg and ClubIT don't even show it as out-of-stock, but rather have removed it from their inventory entirely.

Suxors.

EK2K

 

[cdfire]

WOW! Hard to beileve a board in such high demand is being shelfed. As for the P35 board, I dont see how that can be the replacement since thats an Intel chipset board expected to be ATI Crossfire board, not an Nivida 680I SLI board, since Nvidia and Intel can't play nice together. Its a dang good board, at least on paper since its not out yet, but how can it be a 680I SLI replacement?

 

[dlbetz]

If it is EOL. I wonder how long they will continue supporting it. Also I wonder if they will even keep trying to make the Bios any better. That is very crappy that you spend all this money on a brand new MOBO and they shelf it so quicky. I would be very very disappointed in Gigabyte if this rumor is true.

 

[TheBeagle]

Well, I have sent Gary a PM to check this out. If he's not under some sort of a NDA, I'm sure he'll find out what the story is on this issue and report back to us. If any of you want to, send him a PM and ask him yourself, I'm sure he will be pleased to hear from you. Best regards. TheBeagle

 

[Smitty1705]

This is odd, I agree! This board was # 1 on so many sites, it wouldn't make sense to end it. Could this have anything to do with quad core issues and the FSB stuff? I really hope gary can give us some insite on this one.. I really wanted this board, and I don't want to go buy an EVGA 680i board in place.. =(
I would be VERY upset if they killed this one. Considering the price and the rave reviews, it just doesn't add up for them to kill this off on people. After spending that kind of money I would expect this board to be around for a while and see tons of bios updates etc.

Help Gary!

Smitty

 

[Smitty1705]

I just called Gigabyte myself (again) and got a totally different story from the one I posted a few back about it coming back. The lady DID tell me that is HAS been discontinued and they are suggesting their 650i board instead now. She spoke broken English and I coudl not get the reasoning on WHY the 680i board was killed off.. Wow... I'm at a loss of words and really bummed out on this one.. Gary will know more for sure..

Smitty

 

[cdfire]

Well it sounds like those of us who have this board are a real lucky bunch or we have been left out to dry. Hopefully Gary has more info. So far though, this board has been working great for me, but I read at Warp2Search today that Intel has released a Critical Core 2 Duo / Quad update that can only be addressed threw a BIOS update, so I am hoping Gigabyte keeps up support for this board.

 

[TheBeagle]

Hold On Everyone - That's NOT what I've been told!!

Here is what I wrote to Gigabyte last evening:

Hello Gigabyte,
Some significant rumors are beginning to circulate on several Forums (i.e., AnandTech.com) which are indicating that the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 motherboard has arrived at its End-Of-Life (EOL). Is this true? If so, would you please explain how a new board that only became available in January of 2007, and has received rave reviews from writers all over the world, can be at EOL in a mere 4 months? This is made even more confusing by the fact that Gigabyte is advertising this board on both their USA and Taiwan web sites.

Since I paid almost $400.00 for one of these boards, I believe that I?m entitled to a straight answer on this issue, not to mention the fact that I began the thread on the AnandTech forum concerning this particular board in December of 2006, and it has been one of the most popular postings on that Forum. Kindly just tell me the truth about this EOL issue. I would also like to know if there will be any further BIOS improvements and revisions for this board? Thank you for your anticipated prompt reply. TheBeagle

In response to that inquiring email, I just received the following from Tomas Lee @ Gigabyte-USA:

TheBeagle,
Thank you for choosing our brand.
Providing a stable image platform to consumers is always one of our corporate missions.

I am here to clarify that our GA-N680SLI-DQ6 is NOT End-of-Life. The short supply is due to the limited supply of chipset from our vendor.

This board will continue in manufacturing until our vendor has announced End-of-Life with the nForce 680i SLI chipset.

And you will continuous receiving our top quality of support, including BIOS improvement.

In May, there will be a BIOS revision F4 for improving the overall performance and its memory compatibility.

Pls feel free to write us again if any suggestion.

I also received this response from Charles Huang @ Gigabyte-USA:

Thanks for your inquiry with Gigabyte.

We have no plan to EOL the 680SLI-DQ6 board, just did not get a good supple from Nvidia on the Chipset. This is the main reason that you see supply on and off in the market.

Thanks and regards,
Charles

I also received this reply from the Customer Service Dept. @ Gigabyte-USA:

Dear customer,

Due to the high demands these boards are currently back ordered and will be available in MAY 2007.

Thank you

Now unless they are all lying to me (not likely), then I believe the answer to this matter is exactly what I said it was the other day, namely, a lack of 680i chipsets with which to manufacturer a new batch of these boards. It is indeed unfortunate that some apparent misinformation was given to a few of the Forum contributors. Obviously that's not the contributor's fault, it's just the way that unfounded rumors get started. Thanks to everyone for bringing this matter to our attention so that we could get it straightened out. Enjoy your boards - there's a good deal of life left in them. TheBeagle

 

[KSEDK]

TheBeagle:

Pfew

That is great news!

I have just written to Gigabyte about the different "stories" we have gotten. It's not very professional of them if one supporter tells me one thing and then the next day they tell you something totally different. I just hope and prey that what they have told you is the truth

And how I am looking forward to this new BIOS ...

 

[Smitty1705]

WOW.... they really need to tell the people answering the phones this info at Gigabyte then... hahaha
This lady told me something TOTALLY different. I'm going to hope yours comes true (it only makes sense), I really want this board but I can't wait much longer! haha

Gary!!! Get us some more concrete evidence on this!

Smitty

 

[cdfire]

Whew, sounding much better. Thank You Mr. Beagle.

 

[dlbetz]

That is some great news!!! Thanks for the info Beagle...

 

[MraK]

THATS GREAT TO HEAR MR BEAGLE!! now i could buy another one of these boards for a computer im building for my sister! lol

 

[dlbetz]

Mr Beagle, What do you think about making this the official Gigabyte GA-N680sli-DQ6 Forum? Then making it a sticky? As much as we all continue to post and update I bet we could do it.. What ya Think? Also were is Gary? Long time no see post...