Did i make a big mistake?? 650i vs 680i and a Q6600

[maverick7]

ok im very worried, i just bought the following parts and i had a strict 2k limit for a friend so i went with a 650i instead of a 680i and now im already regretting it..

here are the system specs:

Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12
Q6600
EVGA 8800 Ultra (i got it for price of a gtx, only $590 canadian)
evga 650i
700 watt ocz psu
thermalright ultra 120

now i bought this system hoping to be able to oc the processor to 3.2 or AT LEAST 3ghz.. now will the 650i allow me to get to that speed or is my system severely crippled by the motherboard?

 

[merc14]

The 650i will have very little to do with overclocking the CPU outside of matching the RAM. More importantto a CPU overclock is that the EVGA board has 4 phase power instead of 8 which means, in all liklihood, a bigger vdroop and less stable power so it probably will impact the Overclock. Getting to 3.0-3.2 shouldn't be all that hard, though, even with 4 phase.

Not sure about the memory bandwidth on the 650i but you should be OK as long as you don't push it.

The 650i straight has 16 lanes of PCIe available for graphics. That is plenty for an 8800Ultra.

You won't get the highest benches on that board but you should be able to overclock the CPU to 3.0-3.2 or so, get adequate memory bandwidth and run a single 8800 Ultra without a problem. If this is all you care about then you'll be fine and made a good choice.

 

[maverick7]

... **** ok im going to go return the 650i...

thanks for the information..

 

[merc14]

What is your budget and will this be a benching rig? If you're just interested in good performance in games and such then why send the board back? It's a great buy at under $100. If you're disappointed you can always get another board later, when you have some more money. I have this Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus that uses a hybrid 680i chips coiupled with a 570i as the SB , has 8 phase power and most of the goodies of a 680i at under $180. It overclcoks like a banshee, is very stable and is a great board all the way around. Personally, i have seen to many problems with the 680i to trust it much.

 

[maverick7]

too late 680i already purchased.. and i cant take it back.. i hope to god there isnt a problem with it