eVGA 680i SLI....it's alive!

Quakindude · December 2nd, 2006

Today is my sons birthday, so I won't be working on it a whole lot. Installing Windows XP Pro right now. I have about 45 minutes before the wife gets home and I have to leave the computer till tonight. My son is busily showing off with his new Skateboard right now. He got that last night. Took he and I about an hour to build the thing. Of course, the holes for the truck (Axle) spacers were off a bit, making that whole process a lot more painful than it needed to be.

But he's having a blast and I will be too. Then tonight, after he and his friends start watching movies, I can work on this baby a little more.

polobunny · December 2nd, 2006

Err... sorry, but what does it have to do with eVGA 680i SLI?

Quakindude · December 2nd, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by polobunny

Err... sorry, but what does it have to do with eVGA 680i SLI?

It has a lot to do with it. I have it installed, Windows loading, but can't get really get into it until later tonight since today is my son's B-day.

polobunny · December 2nd, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quakindude

It has a lot to do with it. I have it installed, Windows loading, but can't get really get into it until later tonight since today is my son's B-day.

Oh ok. Looks like I forgot/missed something because I still have no idea what you're talking about.

I wasn't there alot in the last few days.

Quakindude · December 2nd, 2006

Ahhh, OK. My old mobo fried a memory slot. It was a 590 SLI. Since I had to RMA, and I was still under my 30 days, NewEgg gave me the option of going with the same mobo or going with a different one. So I chose to get the 680i mobo for a few dollars more.

polobunny · December 2nd, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Ahhh, OK. My old mobo fried a memory slot. It was a 590 SLI. Since I had to RMA, and I was still under my 30 days, NewEgg gave me the option of going with the same mobo or going with a different one. So I chose to get the 680i mobo for a few dollars more.

Neat, we'll be waiting for your first impressions on it then.

**gvblake22** · December 2nd, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quakindude

Ahhh, OK. My old mobo fried a memory slot. It was a 590 SLI. Since I had to RMA, and I was still under my 30 days, NewEgg gave me the option of going with the same mobo or going with a different one. So I chose to get the 680i mobo for a few dollars more.

aaahhh, NOW the story makes some more sense!

Let us know how you like it!

**simple_inhibition** · December 2nd, 2006

yeah, ive had my eye on that board. let us know how it turns out!

Quakindude · December 3rd, 2006

So far, so good. There's a good many settings to be digested and utilized in the Bios. Currently, I've got my E6600, stock speeds are 2.4Ghz @ 1.175v, over clocked to 3.375Ghz @ 1.250v. Maxing out the voltage (1.35v) didn't allow me to achieve higher FSB speeds with the stability you'd wish at 3.475Ghz. I was able to run SuperPi for 32m calculations for a time of 16m55s. 15.00s for 1m at that highest speed. Anything over that, the computer would go into a reboot loop, rebooting after verifying DMI Pool data.

3.475Ghz will not remain stable with two instances of F@H running for longer than 30 minutes. I have yet to lower the multiplier and jack the FSB, so I may at least get it stable @ 3.425Ghz. Right now, I've been running 2 F@H for the last 2 hours and it hasn't crashed at 3.375Ghz. It seems like right around a 1Ghz over clock is the norm for this CPU from the searches I've made on the matter. I think the E6400 and below, those CPU's with 2Mb of cache (Allendale's), are better over clockers than the E6600 is. I just don't know what the performance trade off is for having the lower amount of cache.

There are still many settings within the Bios to tweak around with. The OCZ DDR2-800 Rev2 Platinum Ram I'm using has been very stable up to 900Mhz and 2.1v. At 902Mhz, I get a failed boot. This leads me into another aspect of this board that's simply outstanding and damn near worth the cost of admission in and of itself. When you tweak too far, you'll get a failed POST, an 8 second delay and a return to the previous working settings. I did, however, note that this boards Bios is flakey when it uses this failsafe mode. Sometimes, it simply returns everything in the Bios to defaults and you've got a couple pages of settings to rework.

This failsafe mode also happens when you're on the cusp of figuring out your max CPU over clock. Sometimes, it's just stable enough to begin the boot sequence, but not able to load Windows, which leads to the looping I was talking about earlier. Other times, if you simply exceed the CPU's abilities, it will drop you back to the last working configuration.

So far, my initial impressions are quite favorable. As far as benchmarks and gaming performance goes, that will have to wait until I've completed everything and write my review.

Wait until you hear about the Windows Based NTune app!

wtcnbrwndo4u · December 8th, 2006

How is eVGA handling the mobo duties? Looks like a good board!

December 2nd, 2006	#1
Quakindude I'm Diggin it! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Rucker, AL. Posts: 2,736 Blog Entries: 7	eVGA 680i SLI....it's alive! Today is my sons birthday, so I won't be working on it a whole lot. Installing Windows XP Pro right now. I have about 45 minutes before the wife gets home and I have to leave the computer till tonight. My son is busily showing off with his new Skateboard right now. He got that last night. Took he and I about an hour to build the thing. Of course, the holes for the truck (Axle) spacers were off a bit, making that whole process a lot more painful than it needed to be. But he's having a blast and I will be too. Then tonight, after he and his friends start watching movies, I can work on this baby a little more. Q6600@ 3.2GHz w/ CNPS9700 \| EVGA 780i \| 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 \| EVGA GTX 280 1Gb Video \| 1x WD 640Gb HDD, 2x Seagate 400Gb HDD, 1x250Gb WD \| 2x Samsung SH-203B Opticals \| Antec 900 \| ABS/Tagan BZ700 700W PSU

December 2nd, 2006	#5
Quakindude I'm Diggin it! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Rucker, AL. Posts: 2,736 Blog Entries: 7	Ahhh, OK. My old mobo fried a memory slot. It was a 590 SLI. Since I had to RMA, and I was still under my 30 days, NewEgg gave me the option of going with the same mobo or going with a different one. So I chose to get the 680i mobo for a few dollars more. Q6600@ 3.2GHz w/ CNPS9700 \| EVGA 780i \| 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 \| EVGA GTX 280 1Gb Video \| 1x WD 640Gb HDD, 2x Seagate 400Gb HDD, 1x250Gb WD \| 2x Samsung SH-203B Opticals \| Antec 900 \| ABS/Tagan BZ700 700W PSU

December 2nd, 2006	#8
simple_inhibition socket 939 junkie Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In front of my pc in Ft Bragg XD Posts: 1,436 Blog Entries: 1	yeah, ive had my eye on that board. let us know how it turns out! Q6600 @ 3.6ghz (400x9 @ 1.408v) Gigabyte X38-DQ6 2x2GB G-Skill DDR2 1000 @ DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 2T 2.1v Visiontek HD4870 Seagate 7200.11 500GB 32MB Cache HDD Razer Barracuda AC1 Silverstone DA750 Samsung Dual Layer DVD Burner Lian Li G70WB Thermochill PA120.3\|Swiftech Storm Rev.2\|Swiftech MCP 655

December 3rd, 2006	#9
Quakindude I'm Diggin it! Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Fort Rucker, AL. Posts: 2,736 Blog Entries: 7	So far, so good. There's a good many settings to be digested and utilized in the Bios. Currently, I've got my E6600, stock speeds are 2.4Ghz @ 1.175v, over clocked to 3.375Ghz @ 1.250v. Maxing out the voltage (1.35v) didn't allow me to achieve higher FSB speeds with the stability you'd wish at 3.475Ghz. I was able to run SuperPi for 32m calculations for a time of 16m55s. 15.00s for 1m at that highest speed. Anything over that, the computer would go into a reboot loop, rebooting after verifying DMI Pool data. 3.475Ghz will not remain stable with two instances of F@H running for longer than 30 minutes. I have yet to lower the multiplier and jack the FSB, so I may at least get it stable @ 3.425Ghz. Right now, I've been running 2 F@H for the last 2 hours and it hasn't crashed at 3.375Ghz. It seems like right around a 1Ghz over clock is the norm for this CPU from the searches I've made on the matter. I think the E6400 and below, those CPU's with 2Mb of cache (Allendale's), are better over clockers than the E6600 is. I just don't know what the performance trade off is for having the lower amount of cache. There are still many settings within the Bios to tweak around with. The OCZ DDR2-800 Rev2 Platinum Ram I'm using has been very stable up to 900Mhz and 2.1v. At 902Mhz, I get a failed boot. This leads me into another aspect of this board that's simply outstanding and damn near worth the cost of admission in and of itself. When you tweak too far, you'll get a failed POST, an 8 second delay and a return to the previous working settings. I did, however, note that this boards Bios is flakey when it uses this failsafe mode. Sometimes, it simply returns everything in the Bios to defaults and you've got a couple pages of settings to rework. This failsafe mode also happens when you're on the cusp of figuring out your max CPU over clock. Sometimes, it's just stable enough to begin the boot sequence, but not able to load Windows, which leads to the looping I was talking about earlier. Other times, if you simply exceed the CPU's abilities, it will drop you back to the last working configuration. So far, my initial impressions are quite favorable. As far as benchmarks and gaming performance goes, that will have to wait until I've completed everything and write my review. Wait until you hear about the Windows Based NTune app! Q6600@ 3.2GHz w/ CNPS9700 \| EVGA 780i \| 2Gb Corsair DDR2-800 \| EVGA GTX 280 1Gb Video \| 1x WD 640Gb HDD, 2x Seagate 400Gb HDD, 1x250Gb WD \| 2x Samsung SH-203B Opticals \| Antec 900 \| ABS/Tagan BZ700 700W PSU Last edited by Quakindude; December 3rd, 2006 at 18:04.

December 8th, 2006	#10
wtcnbrwndo4u Resident Brownie Join Date: May 2006 Location: KS Posts: 2,187	Re: eVGA 680i SLI....it's alive! How is eVGA handling the mobo duties? Looks like a good board! - Core 2 Quad Q6600 - DFI Infinity 975X - 4GB Corsair XMS2 w/ DHX DDR2-800 - 250GB Seagate 7200.10RPM + 160GB Hitachi 5400.4RPM - ATi Radeon X1900XT 256MB - Cooler Master Centurion 5 + OCZ StealthXStream 600W - Acer 19" P191W Monitor - Logitech Z-5500 Digital + Logitech MX Revolution - Vista Ultimate x64 Last edited by gvblake22; December 8th, 2006 at 16:35.

December 2nd, 2006	#2
polobunny T-Rex Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 4,595 Blog Entries: 6	Err... sorry, but what does it have to do with eVGA 680i SLI?

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