Ok, to start i am a little bit of a XFX fan boy, second if i get the XFX i will have enough to buy a Q6600 almost right away iw ill have to wait quite a while longer if i get the EVGA.
my current CPU is: Intel Core 2 Duo E6320, i do not know if it would work in either board if it will work in the XFX i will almost defiantly buy the XFX then, so my question is whats the better one all around, i don't really care if the 750i is to much better because I have read that the 680i is a better overclock'er and i WILL be OC'ing the Q6600 to 3.2 if i am lucky.
My final build: MoBo^ CPU Q6600 / E6320(while waiting and if possible) 2x 250gig WDC WD2500AAKS-00VYA (232 GB) (RAID0) 2x 8800gt Zalman EDT. 4x 1gig Crucial ballistiX ddr2 PC6400 1x SuperMulti drive 1x Asus Xonar DX PCIe 7.1 Sound Card 1x 350watt PSU (will upgrade to 750watt when i have the money) Vista 64bit
Thanks in advance!
Message edited by x_2fast4u_x on 11-09-2008 at 05:22:57 AM
750i. The 680i is a piece of junk, and there is absolutely no reason to buy a 600i series board anymore.
Not to sound like a jerk so dont take it that way, but in this case I think your brand loyalty needs to take a back seat to reality. The 680i is plagued with memory issues and overclocking is hit or miss, emphases on miss, Nvidia chipsets are bad with voltage. If you can afford it, invest in the EVGA 750i FTW version. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188026 Its tried and tested, and is one of the most stable/solid 700i boards. Not to mention it has full 16/16 SLi, while the "value" 750i you are looking at is 8x/8x, incase that is important to you.
Message edited by spathotan on 11-09-2008 at 04:39:48 AM
I used that exact board for my wifes system. The board layout is great, the only problem I had was constant BSOD's and windows install corruption when using a SATA dvd drive. However, after using an IDE drive and installing the chipset drivers (which contained the VITAL Mediashield /driver/firmware) it was smooth sailing. Hooked the SATA drive back up after that and no problems.
However, buyer beware with open box items.
Message edited by spathotan on 11-09-2008 at 06:50:02 AM
Youre not going to find the perfect motherboard, espically with Nvidia chipsets. Even the 750i FTW only has 4 out of 5 eggs. (Take newegg "reviews" with a grain of salt mind you)
The 780i/790i are too expensive to gamble on, the 680i is too old and unreliable to even bother buying. The 750i is the best thing for you.
Message edited by spathotan on 11-09-2008 at 08:28:43 AM
Lol, I rememeber signing that petition back around when I first bought my EVGA 680i SLi board. RMA'd the first one due to RAM slots 0 and 1 being dead, RMA'd the second one for RAM voltages sticking way too high, they got it right on the 3rd board, however I sold it about 3 months later. Worse way to waste $280..ever.
EVGA had like 4 different revisions of the board within a 2 month period and had EVERYBODY confused and pissed off. AR...TR...all that garbage.
The only issue with 680i is with the newer cpu's its a trip updating your bio's and making sure memory timings are correct. Theres tons of posts with people with simple problems. 750i seems more solid if you want to avoid that sort of stuff.
You could be right. The only problem I have with that is the fact that the people that would bytch are the enthusiasts. I suspect that you don't want to be put in a room with them. If you do, then at your expense and peril, I want to watch. I promise to stand against all others that would harm you. Wait ... that makes it my peril, no matter, I'm with you. Gotta love a good fight.
When I was looking to buy a board for my Q6600 I read about the 680I problem, it was only a few items one some of the forums I go to. So I ended up with an Asus P975 chipset motherboard. That one went south and it took Asus 6 months and 5 board to get it resolved. I replaced the Asus board with a DFi P965 board and it's working great. More stable than the Asus board too.
ok can we get back to the subject at hand....i need a mobo for NO MORE then $120 and thats pushing it would like to find one for 100 or less that can SLI/RAID0 support my ram have good OC'ability, and supports quad cores...http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4240124&Sku=E145-2046 this is the only one i found in my pricerange with m needed options, any one have som other MoBo choices?
P45 runs Crossfire yea. But youve got two 8800GT's which are nvidia-SLi. And ECS isnt exactly a great brand, although their newer boards are far better than past products.
Message edited by spathotan on 11-09-2008 at 09:13:34 PM
The AMD Nvidia boards are rather decent. But the Phenom 9550 is significantly weaker than the Q6600 in the long run. AMD processors dont really overclock as well as Intels do.
ok thank you sounds like i will be sticking with finding a MoBo not worring aobut a CPU in a month or 2, most likely will be going with the FTW version u posted earlier thanks
If ANYONE has anything to add please do so now...any deals u see, i will be ordering the MoBo tomorrow
------------------------------Q9650@ 4.05ghz
GTX285 black edition
2x2gb G.kill 1200mhz
780i SLI FTW
Reply to x_2fast4u_x
Another "pre-final" question does the EVGA 750i FTW support raid 0? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813188026 support my CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6320, 1866 MHz (7 x 267) and does the board support Overlocking on my chip and the new Q6600 i will be ordering does?
The EVGA FTW version is so recomended because it dosent follow Nvidia's reference design, its EVGA's own. Also that board supports SATA RAID 0/1/0+1/5/JBOD. And yes it will support your E6xxx.
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