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

[TBSN]

Just out of curiousity, how many people here are using the Asus board and how many people are using the eVGA one?

 

[Skott]

Here's an interesting post I just read over at XS. First I heard of it anyway. 8800 & 680i problems.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1846288&postcount=49

 

[TBSN]

The problem with having a single thread for one large topic, such as the 680i mobos, is that everyone starts a new subtopic and asks new questions... Let's learn from our dual-core chips and run 'multiple threads' for a such a large topic such as 680i Mobos .

That link you pasted, Skott, is interesting. Unfortunately no one on his forum responded to it and instead started asking random questions about over-clocking. Maybe that issue (No sound with 8800's on SLI) deserves it's very own THREAD

I'd be interested in having that issue explained.......

 

[Skott]

Yeah, I started one in the video section. Wasnt sure where to post it exactly. Its getting alot of hits but no responses yet. I dont want to do alot of cross posting if I can help it. I know it upsets folks sometimes. Also I'm hoping the mods will create a Sticky for each new 680i mobo that comes out like they mostly did for the 965 and 570 mobos. Its up to them to do it though. We can only suggest it.

 

[TBSN]

Yeah, hopefully some one will understand what the video/ sound problem is all about. I would hate to get this board with one vid. card, only to upgrade later to 2 vid. cards and find out that it doesn't work....

 

[Skott]

I hope the problem doesnt transfer over to the Striker Extreme and the P5N32-E SLI

 

[lopri]

Well the thing is, in order to experience that problem one will need 2 x 8800 GTX.. It's not hard to guess why replies are so scarce.

 

[TBSN]

So the problem only occured with two 8800GTX's. I wonder if it could have to do with the Cards rather than the board. Does anyone know if the same problem happens with two 8800GTS's? What about two cards in SLI that aren't in the 8-series?

 

[lopri]

I've heard it only happens with 8 Series cards. GTX for sure, but I don't know whether GTS is also affected.

 

[TBSN]

...bummer. Pretty much defeats the purpose of the freakin' board.

 

[5uperGlu3]

ok, i got a few questions reguarding the e6600 and evga 680i, maybe lopri can answer these
i'm running my e6600 @ 3.3 dual prime95 stable 48hrs+ with 1Gig corsair rated at 1066Mhz and an evga 680i
problem is, when i first got this board i got it to run stable at 3.6, then took it a bit further and had to clear the cmos. after that, i can't get this thing past 3.3 for the life of me... i have been trying for days and for some reason it just won't go past 3.3 anymore. i have the ram unlinked running 800Mhz 5-5-5-15 just to make sure i'm not failing due to the ram. i tired lower multiplyers and just can't seem to get the FSB much over 1500 without problems. i'm running a very good custom H20 setup and my temps never go over 40C on load. ITS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!
i'm also noticing that cpuz is not reading things right. for example, my bios shows cpu voltage @ 1.48, which is correct, cpuz shows 1.28...wtf? cpuz also has no information under the memory tab...any ideas?
also, if someone (lopri )that has had a very successful overclock with this mobo (3.3GHz/>1500FSB) could post a list of all the bios settings they changed I'D LOVE THEM 4EVER hehe.
thanks in advance

 

[johnpombrio]

There is one MAJOR difference between the ASUS striker Extreme and the P5N32-E SLI nForce 680i SLI. E-SATA. There is none on the cheaper board. I have already moved to having a 500Gig E-SATA drive as my backup. Takes me 1/5 the time than with USB 2.0.

 

[lopri]

@SuperGlue

Disregard CPU-Z voltage reading. Also try giving more Vcore. Vdroop is anywhere between 0.04~0.06V on this board, so 1.48V might not be sufficient for 3.6GHz after the drop. How many USB devices are you using? Try disconnecting them and re-connect them once you're in OS. (especially thumb drives) I find the optimal SPP voltage to be 1.30~1.45V on my board. Sometimes giving just 0.05V more caused instability so you'll have to play with it a bit. Vdimm is approx. 0.05~0.06V higher than what you set in the BIOS. Other voltages aren't really important so you can leave them on auto. But don't be afraid with playing with voltages - They won't do any harm for testing purposes. Once you find your sweet spot, you can adjust voltages accordingly. It's much safer than, say, fiddling with memory timings. I also disable Linkboost, C1E Halt State, and Spread Spectrum. Under memory configuration, make sure you set Command Per Clock @2T until you become comfortable with certain frequencies. I find the board will often attempt to set 1T when left auto. Last but not least, if 1600FSB doesn't work, try between 1500~1700FSB with an incremental of 20.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: johnpombrio
There is one MAJOR difference between the ASUS striker Extreme and the P5N32-E SLI nForce 680i SLI. E-SATA. There is none on the cheaper board. I have already moved to having a 500Gig E-SATA drive as my backup. Takes me 1/5 the time than with USB 2.0.

Yeah actually I'm missing eSATA a lot.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Skott
Here's an interesting post I just read over at XS. First I heard of it anyway. 8800 & 680i problems.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1846288&postcount=49

Make sure you are using the 9.53 platform drivers, 97.02 video (beta), and the latest sound card drivers. You will need to download and run the Microsoft October DX9 update and 99% or so of the reported sound issues will go away. We have found two minor issues that NV is working on at this time.

 

[tylerw13]

Originally posted by: 5uperGlu3
ok, i got a few questions reguarding the e6600 and evga 680i, maybe lopri can answer these
i'm running my e6600 @ 3.3 dual prime95 stable 48hrs+ with 1Gig corsair rated at 1066Mhz and an evga 680i
problem is, when i first got this board i got it to run stable at 3.6, then took it a bit further and had to clear the cmos. after that, i can't get this thing past 3.3 for the life of me... i have been trying for days and for some reason it just won't go past 3.3 anymore. i have the ram unlinked running 800Mhz 5-5-5-15 just to make sure i'm not failing due to the ram. i tired lower multiplyers and just can't seem to get the FSB much over 1500 without problems. i'm running a very good custom H20 setup and my temps never go over 40C on load. ITS DRIVING ME NUTS!!!
i'm also noticing that cpuz is not reading things right. for example, my bios shows cpu voltage @ 1.48, which is correct, cpuz shows 1.28...wtf? cpuz also has no information under the memory tab...any ideas?
also, if someone (lopri )that has had a very successful overclock with this mobo (3.3GHz/>1500FSB) could post a list of all the bios settings they changed I'D LOVE THEM 4EVER hehe.
thanks in advance

i am acutally haveing the very same problems as you with not being able to boot over 1500 fsb....i can do it but for some reason my mobo only boots with one core active and i cant activate the other in the bios becsuse it is all greyed out...lol im with you this board is killing me...i understand that new stuff is buggie and all but this is just plain overboard!!!

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: 5uperGlu3

i'm also noticing that cpuz is not reading things right. for example, my bios shows cpu voltage @ 1.48, which is correct, cpuz shows 1.28...wtf? cpuz also has no information under the memory tab...any ideas?

CPU-Z has a point release that shows the memory timing now but not the memory speed yet. An updated version should be out in the next week or two. The voltage issue is still being worked on.

 

[o2brew]

Are there any programs out there that will accurately report the voltages?

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: lopri
I've heard it only happens with 8 Series cards. GTX for sure, but I don't know whether GTS is also affected.

It happens with GTS in SLI as well supposedly. I havent been up on today's news so I dont know if a fix has been found yet. If I hear of any I'll post back.

 

[lopri]

My board performs better with E6400 than with E6600 (Xeon 3060).

If anyone managed to get 1T working @800MHz and beyond, please do share your secrets!

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: lopri
My board performs better with E6400 than with E6600 (Xeon 3060).

If anyone managed to get 1T working @800MHz and beyond, please do share your secrets!

could this be cached related?

 

[5uperGlu3]

thanks lopri and gary! hey gary, will you let us know when the new verson of cpuz comes out?

 

[Skott]

517fsb with a Striker extreme and E6600 @ 7 multiplier. Post #185

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122683&page=8

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: nealh

Originally posted by: lopri
My board performs better with E6400 than with E6600 (Xeon 3060).

If anyone managed to get 1T working @800MHz and beyond, please do share your secrets!

could this be cached related?

Could be. Or it could be just an immature BIOS. Beats me.

Edit: Correction - 4MB L2 CPUs are waaaayyyy better in 3D.

 

[lopri]

I also have a mixed feeling with NV IDE drivers. When it works, the benefit is tangible. Booting into Windows, multiple file transfer between drives seem somewhat faster than default Windows drivers and benchmarks prove it. But I also had to experience system hang when I first set up the system. I'm willing to give it a try one more time - anyone can share their experiences?