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38 Comments
- jebo4jc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Very interesting.
Obviously wise for anybody considering a 680i chipset build to hold off for the time being, as hard as that might be. - frgmstr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9If you read the article you will see exactly what I am talking about. But I will state it here so we are all on the same page. This is not some made up problem to grab headlines. This is something DIY computer builders need to know as well as smaller SIs that may not be in the loop. Here is a quote:
"Some 680i Suck, Some Don’t
I have personally used four nForce 680i based motherboards here in our test labs without any issue whatsoever. My experiences with the 680i have been great, and I have gone as far to say the 680i has been the best motherboard I have ever worked with. And I still stand by that statement, but given the issues that others are seeing, I am not so gung-ho to put one in my own system any longer. We have had boards from ASUS, BFGTech, and EVGA that have all performed well. Dan, one of our motherboard reviewers, even purchased his own EVGA nForce 680i locally and built a new system with it. "
We go on from there to document the problems and link to MFGs seeing this issue as well as NVIDIA's confirmation of it.
There are some very real problems with the chipset, NVIDIA has recognized this. 1 out of 5 of the 680i motherboards we have used here showed the problem. So 20%. If they sold 10,000 in North America so far that could possibly be 2000 defective boards if it ends up being a hardware issue. Obviously this is not proven nor scientific data but will hopefully illustrate that this is a real problem. One that NVIDIA is very shaken up over. They had no idea this was coming as it was only identified once it was in the field and I don’t think they know where the real problem is yet. - frgmstr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Good luck with that Monarch Order. I would suggest getting with your CC company imediately and moving that order somewhere else. :(
http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MjMwMDgsLCxobmV3cywsLDE= - darktiger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I built a computer using the eVGA 680i MB, and had 0 problems with it. It overclocks great, but a lot of people are having problems running X-Fi card with SLI. I do not run SLI...
- AWBoy666, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have one too and it's absolutely great.
- rhinohelix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While thankfully not your experience, Kyle is responding to what I am sure he feels is potential community-wide issue. He isn't responsible for the problems but is responsible for his recommendations, which might in this case include a product which may be problematic. I think he feels like its his duty to the community that [H] is to make sure everyone is appraised of issues which affects his readers.
My eVGA is still in the box waiting on a case (Damn you Monarch!) but the one friend I have who has one of these boards is having the crackly onboard sound issue (no sli).
Here's to wishing all of those with the issue the best of luck in not seeing problems. - SteelChicken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3wow its the VIA troubles of 1999/2000 all over again.
- bluenullity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I would say you might have a point but when they have intermittent problems between all 680i boards its hard to agree on a "driver issue" when it happens on some boards and not others. You would think "driver issues" would affect all boards.
Anyway, with the 720 some posts at eVGA http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21626 its hard to ignore and it really becomes a community issue then a Kyle Bennett issue. - frgmstr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I had plans to put a 680i in my holiday build as well, but frankly, I don't think that is going to happen until a see what NVIDIA's solution is. I don't want to risk a bunch of corrupted data on my main box. I think I will be going with a 965 board from Gigabyte likely.
- bluenullity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I was going to buy the eVGA 680i board but I think I will wait for a couple months. Need to see how this one plays out before I get into a Core 2 Duo.
- Gadianton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I bought the Asus P5B Deluxe about 3 weeks ago from Newegg. I've had no problems so far. I've heard the deluxe is much better than the simple P5B. I plan on spending the weekend overclocking my e6400.
- Stonedonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"I am sorry you think this is showmanship, but we did spell it out that NVIDIA has confirmed the issue."
I didn't say it was showmanship, and you're not sorry, so don't say that you are. I said, "It's difficult to distinguish the line between his tech journalism and his showmanship." You may also note that I was referring specifically to Kyle Bennet, not HardOCP.
You can rip into me all you want, but keep in mind that that my statements are obviously my personal impressions. I think Bennett's editorializing in this piece was journalistically weak and detracted from things like the facts and nVidia's response to the issue. If he wants to hem and haw, I think he should isolate his gut instincts to an editorial section instead of dropping them into a news article.
But he calls the shots and always will. I've never gotten a sense of collaboration from that site. - adrock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just put together a 680i machine using eVGA's board, and the only problem I have come across is that the manual has the SATA ports labeled backwards. To me it seems like a problem with their RAID config.
- lament, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yup I have the P5B Deluxe. Was going to get the 590 SLI chipset originally but couldn't wait - then it was scrapped in favor of the 680i.
I haven't overclocked my Conroe E6600 yet, but I read there are new BIOS settings that help in overclocking. - mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Just for the record, the 975x series boards don't seem any less buggy. Particularly the MSI 975x board I built my system with. I don't know what Tom's Hardware was thinking when they recommended this one.
- WinMacLin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have this issue it's real! digg this article up please help us get this resolved!
Don't let NVIDIA sweep this under the rug like they did with the first nForce 4 chips where they never fixed the SATA issues and instead just made a revision to the chip!! - frgmstr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2We did test on 5 boards across three different brands. I stated that very clearly in the article.
- achinda99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Disheartening to read this after I assembled my 680i system just last week. However I've been lucky enough to not run into problems but after reading this, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm running one 500gb SATA hard which so far has worked flawlessly... No crashes what so ever...
- jexxie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a P5B-VM, slightly different from the P5B (mATX, onboard video, less sata ports) but all works great for Windows. For Linux stuff, the JMicron IDE controller doesn't work unless with a new kernel, 2.6.18+ I think. (I'm running Linux now, used a usb-cdrom)
- Corneliusm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I too have the eVGA 680i mobo. The onboard sound is terrible, and does pop occasionally - and it's rather loud. I fixed this by buying a X-Fi. The X-Fi does work with the board, and has no crackling problems with the latest bios update.
- temporalwar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1NCQ Issues Soved with Bios update from mainboard vender
CASE SOLVED
so stop talking about Kyle! - pantuky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I got an idea! How about if we do something productive with this thread rather that just saying "YES!' "NO!" "YES!' "NO!" "YES!' "NO!" "YES!' "NO!"
If you have this board please answer the following four questions:
1. Did you install the fan on the northbridge heatsink as you were instructed to do?
2. What CPU heatsink are you using?
3. What is the make and model of your PSU?
4. Please describe the number and size of your case fan
I start by answering these three questions:
1. Yes
2. Zalman CNPS 9700
3. OCZ Game Xtreme 700 Watt PSU
4. I have a pair of 250mm fans (XCLIO A380)
I'm going to lay my theory on the table. If you are experiancing SATA problems with this board I think your South Bridge is overheating, or it is getting bad voltage from the PSU. Heat and voltage are critical issues for all electronic devices - Corneliusm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11. Yes. I've heard that the if the fan isn't installed, northbridge heatsink gets so hot you cannot touch it. With the fan installed, it's hardly warm. So yeah, even though the manual says it's optional or only required when overclocking, they should have just required it to be safe.
2. Stock retail Core2Duo fan/heatsink.
3. ePower ZU-550 (550W)
4. A 120mm in the back, a 80 mm in the front.
I would like to add that I have a GeForce 8800GTX as well as 2 SATA-II hard drives in RAID-0. Btw, the eVGA manual seems to be wrong about the SATA ports (they're backwards). Despite the high power requirements and the midrange PSU, my system has been rock-solid and stable since I built it nearly four weeks ago. - twylight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I have one - works flawless.
680i, 8800 vid card is all thats in it with 2 sata raptors and a sata dvd player
its stupid fast, 12864 3dmarks06 with 10% oc on cpu,gpu,gpu memory
now I can farm gold faster than evah! - Stonedonkey, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I like HardOCP, but Kyle Bennett courts so much drama that it's difficult to distinguish the line between his tech journalism and his showmanship.
For example: "Shooting from the hip on this, and I am no driver engineer, but this sounds like a hardware problem to me. I hate to say it, but there seems to be a chipset problem here that is not apparent in every piece of silicon. I hope I am wrong and it is just a driver issue that can be fixed through a new driver drop, but I am not hopeful of this."
On one hand, he acknowledges that nVidia is aware of the problem, working on it, and isolated it as a driver issue. Then he immediately casts "gut instinct" doubt on their position. So what's the news story? The problem with the nVidia board, or *his* problem with the nVidia board? Hard to tell.
I'll probably get dugg down as a hater. But I hope this is taken as constructive criticism. - balls187, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I also have the same mobo, and I've not run into any real problems (other than a lack of Vista drivers).
- frgmstr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I am sorry you think this is showmanship, but we did spell it out that NVIDIA has confirmed the issue.
"To be succinct, some nForce 680i motherboards have SATA issues. Data seems to get corrupted for no reason causing BSODs and corrupted hard drive errors. Obviously there is a reason, but the problem to the end user may seem very sporadic. The problems are severe enough that they can render a new system build useless. Talking to NVIDIA about this, we came up with the answers to a few questions, but no solutions. "
"Yes, NVIDIA is aware of the 680i issue and has been able to recreate it in their test labs."
I think this is a rather important lead-in sentence to what you quoted which is taken a bit out of context.
"Yes, NVIDIA states it is not a hardware issue, but rather a driver issue so we are all hoping for a fix." - HotGore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have been running it too with no problems. I did hear the BIOS that came with the mobo was crap so the first thing I did was flash it.
- betterth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm gonna build a Core2 soon, and was looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131030
It's the Asus P5B -- it doesn't use this chipset thankfully, anyone have this mobo and want to offer whether or not it's any good? - rslaven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm extremely happy to see this news make the front page finally. A lot of people, myself included had already planned out an entire system for the holidays, now I have to reconsider, a little disappointed, but the extra work I'll have to do will be less than the extra work working around the SATA and other problems...
- shuffle2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1...BSsOD hah
- Kragaroth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+01. Installed the heatsink fan, yes. Not at first, though, but I discovered that the temp was like 85 degrees (celsius), so on it went. It's running at 60%, I think.
2. Scythe Mine cooler. The CPU is cooler than the mobo with this one
3. Sharkoon Silentstorm 700W
4. 4 120mm case fans.
There is a 8800GTX and it sits just above the nforce chip (not the heatsink). Maybe that's why it got so hot. The northbridge fan makes the most noise, so I'm thinking of replacing it, but we'll see. - tewas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I bought http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131045 motherboard few weeks ago and couldn't be happier :) well it's little more expensive but i think it is worth the money.
- RC2k6, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I have used this board to build 4 different higher end systems for clients of mine and I have been very happy with it.
- camix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I agree with Stonedonkey, it's hard to take Kyle serious anymore. I hardly go to HardOcp and read any of there articles anymore. Whether it's a hardware issue or a software issue a week of waiting for a response isn't enough to make a judgment call like this. Seems more like an EVGA issue if anything and to make a general statement like, "the problem also seems to spread across all 680i motherboards regardless of brand" based on forum posts/threads is pretty retarded. He should have at least run some random tests of his own by purchasing 5-10 random boards and then testing them individually. Or what about asking for some other experts that have reviewed the new chipset? Forums can be chaotic and usually filled with inexperienced users/non-experts.
- bytor7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I build all of the computers where I work and have used the Asus P5B-E in 4 or 5 systems recently for use in engineering CAD work. These boards have been very fast and extremely stable, which is most important in a work environment. One of these systems is being used for fluid flow analysis and runs through the computations twice as fast as the computer that was being used for it. Each of these systems has been built with Corsair XMS memory, in either 1GB or 2GB dual channel configs. I have been very impressed with the boards, and may use it when I build my own Core 2 Duo system.
You can find the P5B-E at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131070 - rslaven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1its definitely not just his problem, look at the eVGA forums, in the Motherboard section, theres a huge thread with all kinds of problems with the board...
- pantuky, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Well, all I can say it this: I have the eVGA NForce-680i. I have had it now for almost a month. I had to purchase a board because the NIC perished on my Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6, and I couldn’t afford to be down for a week or two whilst the RMA processed. I bought the eVGA because it was the highest rated nForce-680i on newegg.com based on customer reviews.
It was the easiest get up and run experience I have ever had. I literally bolted the board down, cabled up, and changed drivers, and nothing more. Everything was perfect immediately. With just 2 or 3 minutes of effort in the BIOS I equaled my maximum overclock with 965 board, and improved my stability, which was already very good. I have never had a BSOD with this new board, and my broadband speed suddenly increased from 4.1 to 4.5 MBits due to the improved NICs on this board.
As far as I am concerned, this board is strictly a masterpiece. I haven't got the slightest idea what the hell Kyle and his boys are talking about in this article. His experience is quite the opposite of mine.
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