Help? Building a new Rig... Whats the best i680 Board out ??

[jkurz]

I'm building a 775 system. Leaving AMD...... Im looking to by a i680 chipset MB. What are your thoughts on the eVGA board? Also what do you guys think the best i680 board is?

Here is my new Rig

QX6700
Motherboard-???
2x 1gb Geil memory
2x Raptor 150's Raid0
1 500 gb storage drive
2x 8800 GTS SLI
750w thermaltake PS
Thermaltake Armor case

What do ya think?

 

[aevm]

I'm planning to get this one for myself:

Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 LGA775 NF680i ATX

It's a bit more expensive than my second choice (the Asus Striker Extreme) but apparently it's more reliable. It had an excellent review at anandtech some time ago.

My third choice would be the P5N32-E SLI.

Good luck

 

[ausch30]

I like mine (see sig) but I have read of people having problems with OC'ing quads with it although I think recent BIOS revisions have solved that. A lot of people seem to like the Evga 680i and it's about $50 cheaper than mine also I've seen good reviews on the MSI and Foxconn. Stay away from the Striker Extreme the price is too high for no performance gain.

 

[ausch30]

Also with the way HDD's have advanced there really is little advantage to spending the price premium on Raptors. you can get about 5x the storage for the same price and virtually the same performance from a current 7200 rpm drive. For less money you could get 3 drives and use Raid 5 to get more storage, and fault tolerance as well as a speed increase.

You would be better off getting 1 GTX rather than 2 GTS's. 1 GTX would give you 75% of the performance of those two cards and you would have the option of getting another one and adding it when your system starts to age.

 

[aevm]

Excellent advice there. Let me add a few:

The Striker Extreme and the P5N32-E SLI are identical, except for a few things that the Striker has and most people don't need. If money is an issue and you are trying to decide between those two then definitely go with the P5N32-E SLI and not the Striker.

The QX6700 is overpriced. A Q6700 (available July 22) will cost $530. I believe the QX6700 is easier to overclock but that's the only difference AFAIK. If you need the rig sooner consider a Q6600. (I'm waiting for the Q6700.)

If you really want SLI do it with two GTX cards. If you can only afford one for now that's also fine. I'd go with the 850W version of that PSU for 2 GTX cards. 750W is fine for one GTX.

Will you overclock, or are you concerned about noise levels? In that case you need a good after-market cooler. Plenty of threads about this subject in this forum. I'm getting a Zalman 9700, but there are some other great options too, some cheaper.

Edit: get 4 GB of RAM if you're planning to install Vista at some point. Right now you'd get a better experience gaming on XP, but one of these days both Vista and nVidia's drivers for it will become very good, thanks to all these enthusiasts doing beta testing and reporting the bugs

 

[Jonny2Bad]

I have a striker and havent any problems with it but I do know people who havent upgraded the bios and have had plenty of problems. But if your not really into your o/c then i would go for the cheaper P5N32-E SLI as said b4 it is practically the same board. Personally i do like my striker tho!!

 

[jkurz]

Thanks for the advice...O and I already have all those parts Just no motherboard..

 

[squatpuke]

.
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I'm considering the MSI P6N w/Creative X-FI sound and esata.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130080

 

[ausch30]

But if your not really into your o/c then i would go for the cheaper P5N32-E SLI as said b4 it is practically the same board.

The reduced cost for the P5N32-E SLI has nothing to do with overclocking potential. The only thing useful on the Striker is the esata and the one extra heat pipe, I have OC'ed my board plenty and haven't once opened the case so why bother having power & reset buttons on the inside. I'm glad you like your board but I personally didn't feel the extra $130 or so was worth it. That being said the board squatpuke pointed out looks nice I would just find out if it has the Creative sound processor on it if not it would use the CPU which would hurt performance.

 

[squatpuke]

That being said the board squatpuke pointed out looks nice I would just find out if it has the Creative sound processor on it if not it would use the CPU which would hurt performance.

Audio
• Chip integrated by Creative ® Tina3
- Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
- Compliant with Azalia 1.0 spec.


http://www.cpu3d.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1461&Itemid=2&limit=1

 

[ausch30]

looks like a nice board, let us know how it is if you buy it.

 

[Jonny2Bad]

[ The only thing useful on the Striker is the esata and the one extra heat pipe, I have OC'ed my board plenty and haven't once opened the case so why bother having power & reset buttons on the inside. I'm glad you like your board but I personally didn't feel the extra $130

I agree it wasnt worth the extra money at all even with the fact that ive used the buttons especially the clr cmos button which has been quite useful, but as you say certainly not worth the extra money.

 

[ausch30]

I actually went back and forth with myself for about a month trying to justify the added cost, I really wanted the Striker just because it looked cool. Eventually I came to my senses and bought the cheaper board. The last ultra high-end board I bought was the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe to run my P4 3.2 Northwood, great board and at the time it was an astronomical $200. I just fail to see how a board could be worth almost $400(at the time I was looking at the Striker) that's why I didn't buy it.

 

[Jonny2Bad]

I know what you mean but we had a real shortage of the boards in the uk and i waited so long for the thing that i became quite stubborn about it and nothing else would have done (no sense lol). But it's done and i'm happy with it so no regrets as they say it is a fantastic board so not a complete waste of money (i tell myself anyway)

 

[anurok]

Would you guys recommend the P5N32-SLi over the P5NSLi? I have the P5Nsli board and I think it is shot along with the memory...Should I go with the P5N32 board as my second board of choice and just RMA the 4GB of PQi turbo?

 

[pshrk]

I like my board (P5N32-E SLI), but if i were building today i would get a P35 board or wait for an X38. P35 boards will work with penryn, nobody knows if 680i boards will work with penryn or not.

My initial impression of the P35 boards is that they are cooler, cheaper, and overclock just as well if not better.

Edit: I just noticed you want to do SLI... 680i is probably better than the P35 in that case. X38 may support SLI however, if so it would be the better choice.

 

[joewho]

Well if you want those Raptors in RAID, I would go for a Intel chipset.

 

[Yoosty]

If you are going for OC, would suggest this board. DFI LP UT NF680I LT SLI-T2 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136035

Good Luck on you build.

 

[baddad]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013

 

[ausch30]

My initial impression of the P35 boards is that they are cooler, cheaper

I could be wrong but what I've read has said that the P35 boards run very hot, also they're cheaper because the are designed to replace the 965 chipset. If your going to wait I would wait for something other than P35 I think it's the bottom end of what's about to be released. I really like my motherboard, I would suggest to anyone to get the P5N32-E SLI. My only complaint would be that the NB runs very hot but I haven't had any stability issues because of it, I wish it had the Striker's heat pipes. Asus has another 680i board the Striker (not Striker Extreme). I don't know why they would need 3 680i boards but you might want to check that out it should be cheaper than the Extreme.

 

[kamran5461]

newegg is awesome !
..oh and ... my friend has striker which cost 400 bux at the time. he never even OCed his 6600. i bought a cheaper intel board. asus p5bdeluxe and OCed my 6600 to 3.2. take that u rich bastard!

:twisted:

 

[mbs49]

I'm building a new system too with similar parts and have gone back and forth on the mobo myself. As far as the eVGA boards go, there are just way too many bad reviews on the 680i SLI for me to feel comfortable getting one of those. The 680i SLT LT has far fewer bad reviews, but you get a little less on the board.

I am now leaning towards the MSI 680i SLI board. Overall it is getting good reviews and has everything on it I would want.

Good luck!