680i or not 680i?

[bedwell]

Hello,

I've just acquired a Core 2 Duo E6600. Now I'm looking to partner this with one of the later board currently avaiable. Basically so that it will see me through a good stretch. Rather than getting a cheaper board that won't have as many options.

Now to be honest, I've read about a lot of problems in regards to some of the 680i chipset boards and at this point i'm a little weary of spending such large amounts of cash for boards that, from what i've seen, have a multiple number of issue.

I'd like to hear what other people can say and which 680i board you would recommend. I'm looking at ones under £200 GBP.

Also i'm open to recommendations other than the 680i chipset. i'm basically looking for a motherboard that will give great performance for my processor but allow for expansion and upgrades in the future. for instance the EVGA 680i board seems to have a lot of potential for upgrades. However I hear people have some problems related to bios setups with those boards.

Now I'm not entirely uptodate with some of the latest tech, so if theres anyting else you would recommend I'd be glad to hear about it.

Thanks for your time.

Regards
Leigh Bedwell

 

[Flyingpolok]

Hello,

I actually have a Core 2 Duo E6600 that I bought recently and opted to go with the 680i chipset. It's nice to have the extra USB & SATA support.

I haven't had any functional issues and things seems to run smooth on Vista 64bit. My only gripe with the 680i chipset is that it's raid 0 and 1 performance are kinda lacking. It does have great RAID 0+1 performance, nearly double that of Intel's 7 and 8 southbridge chipsets. Thats's why I chose it. But most people don't look at RAID config's that require more than 2 harddrives for a personal PC. Otherwise the chipset caps out at 115MBps in a raid 0 or 1 whereas Intels caps out at something like 280+ (kinbd of a noticable difference). Also I believe with intel you can have multiple RAID arrays.

Anyhow I bought this board: XFX System Board 680i Chipset

Which is working pretty great. I liked the board because it had high FSB support (1333MHZ) as well as support for QUAD core's. Which I can upgrade to later.

Anyhow hope this helps.

 

[dobby]

you cant go wrong with either a 680i, 690 or (intels) 695p

there all realy good

 

[Slobogob]

you cant go wrong with either a 680i, 690 or (intels) 695p

there all realy good

It´s 965.

 

[zingers]

the bios on the 680i chipset was updated in march.

bios P-26

 

[jeff_2087]

you cant go wrong with either a 680i, 690 or (intels) 695p

there all realy good

It´s 965.

And good luck getting a e6600 into a 690 board.

As for the board, the problems with the 680i have been resolved and my EVGA 680i works very well. Though, unless you want its fancy features like SLi, the 965 boards are good too. The gigabyte 965P DS3 is a favourite, champion C2D overclocker and the new ones support 1333fsb and quadcores.

 

[dobby]

you cant go wrong with either a 680i, 690 or (intels) 695p

there all realy good

It´s 965.


yes mymistake thanks for pointing it out, it is a typo - i should know i have 965, but im sure you got the gist

and again your right about the 690 - i really feel dumb today :roll:

 

[Newf]

We all have days like that...

 

[Talon]

you cant go wrong with either a 680i, 690 or (intels) 695p

there all realy good

It´s 965.

And good luck getting a e6600 into a 690 board.

As for the board, the problems with the 680i have been resolved and my EVGA 680i works very well. Though, unless you want its fancy features like SLi, the 965 boards are good too. The gigabyte 965P DS3 is a favourite, champion C2D overclocker and the new ones support 1333fsb and quadcores.


The 680i has indeed went through many improvements, its asolid board now. If you're looking at EVGA get the more expensive A1 version, its newer revision that has better quad ocing support. More futureproof if thats important to you. The 650i is also a good baord if it has what you need feature-wise. The x8, x8 SLI doesn't limit current cards. Possibly some cards in the future will push them to the limit. The 650i also is right up there with the 680i in OCing. If price is a factor its a good choice as well. I wouldn't go with Asus personally as they tend to make you lose a PCIex1 slot to audio. Most enthusiasts willing to pay much on a board will use addin card anyway so its just a wasted slot. Shrug just a personal opinion there.

Happy Building !!!