Q6600 Pairing! What MoBo?

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by MontanaFX

Nice 1. Is there a Asus alternative. I have heard good things about them!

BTW, thanx for all your input guys.

I recently did a build using an Asus Maximus:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

and it went very well and runs great with the Q6600. Actually it has more whistles and bells than needed for its intended use but again it has been running about 5 weeks flawlessy.

I looked at Intel boards and the main thing was being able to use existing DDR2 I had available.

Ron

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by screwballl

If you plan on SLI then go for 790i when it comes available

The 790i should be available as we speak. Newegg is asking about $350 bones for it. But I agree, if the original poster is intent on going SLI, stick with the 790i and stay far, far away from the 680i/780i series.

[Dread]

I have (I think) 5 Gigabyte P965/35-DS3/L's in my farm right now, 4 of which are running both the B3 and G0 stepping Q6600's without a single issue. I love these boards.

[drew and not u]

If you're looking for an Asus board (I prefer them too) you might check out the P5K-E. It's a little pricier than some of the gigabyte boards but it's a great board all around. Plenty of OCing options, built in wifi, Asus's crash free BIOS. I'm using it an I love it. Had several other boards in this PC before I settled into the P5K-E

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Capper

I'd recommend checking out the Gigabyte P35 boards....we should have a review of their new energy efficient P35 board posted someday, hopefully soon..

I haven't been following Gigabyte boards lately, but what exactly are energy efficient boards? ROHS or speedstep'ed, or both??

[RBIEZE]

Originally Posted by Capper

I won't recommend a 780i board to anyone, especially those using a Quad Core processor....too many issues. The 790i boards are a completely different story.

Thats odd, I'm running a Q6600 on my 780i and its performed flawlessly.
I just plain wouldn't recommend a 790i to anyone but the wealthy,LoL

Ive noticed that there are some strong negative opinions here on Nvidia based boards ,which I find odd since Ive been running Nvidia based systems for the last 5 years with excellent results ,Hmm...

It would be much more helpful if you'd post specifically what you didn't like ,instead of a generic "too many issues"...

I just think your closing the door on some great options without giving them a fair chance.

(please keep in mind I posted this with NO ill will intended):cheers:

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by RBIEZE

It would be much more helpful if you'd post specifically what you didn't like ,instead of a generic "too many issues"...

680i boards could run a quad-core processor, but not the newer Penryn revisions (Yorkfield). The 780i was supposed to address this, and does, but remains basically an altered 680i board.

Why is that an issue? Because the chipset is buggy. Some, like yourself, can run it without issue. Others, such as myself and several others, have experienced numerous quirks and, even worse, dying hardware. Specifically, I had a bear of a time getting an NVIDIA videocard to play nice on my 680i motherboard, let alone two videocards. Under Windows XP, crashes and restarts were the norm. Vista fared nominally better, in that it was able to recover from crashes rather than forcing a reboot, but remained problematic. Hard drive issues crept up, and the final straw was when the board killed a memory kit, which is an all too common phenomenon. And after speaking with reps at last year's CES, we can say (unofficially) that the problem did in fact lie with the chipset. Officially, I can tell you that once I swapped the 680i motherboard for an Intel X38 based board (and kept all other components the same), the problems/quirks/dying hardware disappeared.

More good reading on this topic here:
To hell with Nvidia motherboards - HardwareLogic Forums

Originally Posted by RBIEZE

I just think your closing the door on some great options without giving them a fair chance.

Keep in mind that we're very much involved in this industry, both professionally and on a personal level (we're enthusiasts ourselves). Our opinions represent personal experiences, in-depth testing, and, oftentimes, information garnered straight from the source(s).

[Capper]

Originally Posted by RBIEZE

Thats odd, I'm running a Q6600 on my 780i and its performed flawlessly.
I just plain wouldn't recommend a 790i to anyone but the wealthy,LoL

Ive noticed that there are some strong negative opinions here on Nvidia based boards ,which I find odd since Ive been running Nvidia based systems for the last 5 years with excellent results ,Hmm...

It would be much more helpful if you'd post specifically what you didn't like ,instead of a generic "too many issues"...

I just think your closing the door on some great options without giving them a fair chance.

(please keep in mind I posted this with NO ill will intended):cheers:

Yeah, because we just fired up HL yesterday!!!!!! I actually saw an NVIDIA board once and because I didn't like the way it looked back at me, and because I thought I saw an image of Jesus Christ in the trace patterns
I decided from that moment on that we'd never recommend an NVIDIA board.

However, I'll recommend the new 790i board for all my rich Republican HL friends!!!!

[Capper]

Originally Posted by RBIEZE

Thats odd, I'm running a Q6600 on my 780i and its performed flawlessly.
I just plain wouldn't recommend a 790i to anyone but the wealthy,LoL

Ive noticed that there are some strong negative opinions here on Nvidia based boards ,which I find odd since Ive been running Nvidia based systems for the last 5 years with excellent results ,Hmm...

It would be much more helpful if you'd post specifically what you didn't like ,instead of a generic "too many issues"...

I just think your closing the door on some great options without giving them a fair chance.

(please keep in mind I posted this with NO ill will intended):cheers:

Yeah, because we just fired up HL yesterday!!!!!! I actually saw an NVIDIA board once and because I didn't like the way it looked back at me, and because I thought I saw an image of Jesus Christ in the trace patterns
I decided from that moment on that we'd never recommend an NVIDIA board.

However, I'll recommend the new 790i board for all my rich Republican HL friends!!!!

Sarcasm? Yes, without a doubt! Irritated? Yes, because a simple look around the web will support everything we've said on the topic....and we're hardly alone in this opinion..
NVIDIA 680i problems - Google Search
Digg - NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset Problems

NVIDIA 780i problems - Google Search

[Capper]

Ok, in all seriousness, I was a big fan of the NVIDIA NForce 4 Ultra and SLI boards, I really liked the eVGA 680i SLI, until my original board decided to cook a couple kits of memory, and the NVIDIA 650i Ultra is a fantastic chipset (except when its attached to the ASUS P5N-E SLI....which is the worst ASUS board in a long time).

I spend basically every waking moment testing hardware for articles, to the point that I am constantly testing on no fewer than two systems 24/7. I take this site, our content, and the opinions I and the staff express very seriously, and i stand behind anything and everything we print.