EVGA i680 problems?

O

OrionNT

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 14, 2002
Messages
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I noticed some people with problems with the Evga i680 and saw this on the end of the [H] review:

"UPDATE: There are some boards showing up on the market that are NOT stable at all and seem to induce IO errors. We are following up on that now."

I didnt see a date when that was updated, so I dont know if that is old or not.

I have ordered a new system including that board and was wondering if I should expect any problems.
 
The one I had was horrible. Plus actual user experiences on the web have varied by quite a bit. Most of them are fine, but in some instances, as in my case, the boards display a number of problems. Stability issues, sound issues, RAID issues overclocking problems and so on.

I actually experienced all of the above on mine.
 
Funny, I had much better sucess with my Asus Express 3200 based board than I have had with this one. Nothing like nvata.sys crashes, even at stock settings, and to find the machine crashed from running overnight.

Maybe I will RMA mine?
 
Mine was defective, and I replaced it with the ASUS Striker. The Striker doesn't overclock as well, but it hasn't given me any problems.
 
personally speaking i can't decide if mine is defective or not, the ps2 keyboard and mouse are erractic when the system is unstable, the keyboard keeps beeping while im typing (known issue i guess) overclocking is great and all but my ntune keeps freezing (might be my video card). so thus far i have 3 problems with my board and hopefully they can all be resolved with a new bios/video card
 
wee96 said:
Mines one of the most stable motherboards ive ever owned.
Click to expand...

Ditto, Mine is happily pushing my E6600 along at 4ghz as I type this ( 500 X 8 ). Stability testing is in process, I would guess I end up back around 3.8 ( Due to the CPU )


Edit, I should add, I also have noticed the PS2 issues mentioned above. I just threw on a USB mouse. That kinda sucked, but hopefully its a timing issue fixed with a bios release.

And, I do not use RAID, so I cant comment there.
 
wee96 said:
Mines one of the most stable motherboards ive ever owned.
Click to expand...
And the same for me. This board is supremely stable and I couldn't be happier with it!
 
The sata issues only seem to affect people running their memory over DDR800. How many people in this thread who say theirs is rock solid are using DDR800+ (400mhz x 4 = 1600+FSB)?

I had mine running unlinked at DDR933 without much problem, but when I try dropping the mult and running linked/synched at the same proc speed it won't boot with any voltage/timing/etc.


On the plus side, rock solid with my config below :D
 
I have had nothing but pure pleasure with this board. It is by far the best C2D Board available. Im loving it. From day one it has been nothing but FUN. I highly recommend. I just wish Vista will support SLI so I could move on over to that OS> Maybe soon.
 
Just started building my new rig with that board last night. Had to mod my HSF. But I will be installing a OS on it tonight and will report back...
 
Mine is so-so. Problems with sound and SLI. It seems to drop the SLI performance randomly and re-installing the driver fixes it. Haven't found an answer on that one yet.

I also have problems with crackling sound, but apparently that is a driver issue so maybe the new 8800 GTX drivers fix it. Will try them today.

Going to RMA mine if the next driver doesn't fix the SLI problem.
 
I really wanted to go with this board myself but decided to go with the bad axe 2 instead due to the stability problems and general all around flakiness of nvidia's new products.
 
My board is rock stable. But I am slowly oc now. I have it up to 325fsb. But I only have had it running for less than a day. But I do not run SLI.
 
masaville said:
Mine is so-so. Problems with sound and SLI. It seems to drop the SLI performance randomly and re-installing the driver fixes it. Haven't found an answer on that one yet.

I also have problems with crackling sound, but apparently that is a driver issue so maybe the new 8800 GTX drivers fix it. Will try them today.

Going to RMA mine if the next driver doesn't fix the SLI problem.
Click to expand...

I had this issue and worse with my eVGA 680i board. After replacing the motherboard with an ASUS Striker, my problems were cured right away.
 
I had some minor usb issues, but so far so good. I started ocing and am around 425fsb and the ram is at ddr1200. It is amazing how fast this pc boots up.
 
darktiger said:
My board is rock stable. But I am slowly oc now. I have it up to 325fsb. But I only have had it running for less than a day. But I do not run SLI.
Click to expand...

Might I suggest an totally different way to overclock that board that seems all but flawless and you don't touch your ram speed.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p1.html

I'm at 3.6 with no issues what so ever using this method. Follow it to the letter, I doubt you will be dissapointed.

Luck ;)
 
BillR said:
Might I suggest an totally different way to overclock that board that seems all but flawless and you don't touch your ram speed.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p1.html

I'm at 3.6 with no issues what so ever using this method. Follow it to the letter, I doubt you will be dissapointed.

Luck ;)
Click to expand...

That's generally how I do it. Unless it doesn't work, in which case I try the more standard method.

On the 680i's I have had better luck with the Linked and Synced modes, than I have with unlinked.
 
Dan_D said:
As far as I know, it doesn't and it also doesn't support the 8800GTX at all.
Click to expand...
Woooooh! That's two things I was clueless on. Is it just a current lack of drivers for Visa and the 8800GTX or somehting else? And the SLI, is that something they are working on?
 
Puterguru said:
Woooooh! That's two things I was clueless on. Is it just a current lack of drivers for Visa and the 8800GTX or somehting else? And the SLI, is that something they are working on?
Click to expand...

It's not a Vista problem, but rather the lack of driver support to make it happen right now. Closer to the launch date, we should see this limitation overcome.
 
With all this being said, since I am upgrading from 754 for the holidays, would it be alright to just go ahead and grab an eVGA 680i? Keep in mind, any OC'ing will be minimal as I will be using stock cooling, maybe grabbing a Zalman in the future. Thanks for any help.
 
Viperman5000 said:
With all this being said, since I am upgrading from 754 for the holidays, would it be alright to just go ahead and grab an eVGA 680i? Keep in mind, any OC'ing will be minimal as I will be using stock cooling, maybe grabbing a Zalman in the future. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

If you get an eVGA 680i board, you will have to modify the mounting brackets of the Zalman coolers to allow the backplates to fit on the board. If you do not, you will crush the resistor on the back of the board.
 
dasilva333 said:
personally speaking i can't decide if mine is defective or not, the ps2 keyboard and mouse are erractic when the system is unstable, the keyboard keeps beeping while im typing (known issue i guess) overclocking is great and all but my ntune keeps freezing (might be my video card). so thus far i have 3 problems with my board and hopefully they can all be resolved with a new bios/video card
Click to expand...

I have seen this ps2 issue on a couple of as well.
 
BillR said:
Might I suggest an totally different way to overclock that board that seems all but flawless and you don't touch your ram speed.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/747/747606p1.html

I'm at 3.6 with no issues what so ever using this method. Follow it to the letter, I doubt you will be dissapointed.

Luck ;)
Click to expand...


We do not concentrate on doing it this way because it usually will limit your FSB high end scaling. Low end stuff no big deal.....but it is not for extremes.
 
When overclocking I try everything I can to get the most out of the board. You essentially do what you have to, and what ever works best with an individual board is what you go with. That said, I have no preference for linked and unlinked modes. I simply have achieved better results with Linked mode. Morry expressed a similar sentiment when overclocking the eVGA 680i.

The memory bus and FSB are picky and seem to like the true 1:1 or synced setting the best when overclocking. That said, we were able to use “Unlinked” settings to isolate the memory bus effectively while scaling the FSB. This would seem to allow you to throw on a cheap C2D and overclock the hell out of it while using crappy RAM! Not that you would want to. ;)

It has nothing to do with wanting to use the Linked/Synced modes, but rather it's done because it gives the best results.

Kyle is right, we concentrate on what we can get with 1:1 ratios. That's the right way to do it IF you can. Though you can't always do this.
 
Dan_D said:
If you do not, you will crush the resistor on the back of the board.
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Oops. :eek: Well, I guess that resistor wont be coming off, and it still works... for now.
 
Dan_D said:
When overclocking I try everything I can to get the most out of the board. You essentially do what you have to, and what ever works best with an individual board is what you go with. That said, I have no preference for linked and unlinked modes. I simply have achieved better results with Linked mode. Morry expressed a similar sentiment when overclocking the eVGA 680i.

The memory bus and FSB are picky and seem to like the true 1:1 or synced setting the best when overclocking. That said, we were able to use “Unlinked” settings to isolate the memory bus effectively while scaling the FSB. This would seem to allow you to throw on a cheap C2D and overclock the hell out of it while using crappy RAM! Not that you would want to. ;)

It has nothing to do with wanting to use the Linked/Synced modes, but rather it's done because it gives the best results.

Kyle is right, we concentrate on what we can get with 1:1 ratios. That's the right way to do it IF you can. Though you can't always do this.
Click to expand...

Hi... newbie here. I'm able to push my E6600 to about 3.7Ghz (Orthos over 12hrs) if I choose linked and the synched mode. This sets my memory to a little over 800. I have Corsair 8500C5 memory that will crash Orthos everytime if I choose unlinked and set the memory to 1066. It was my understanding that the memory should run fine at 1066 if I'm unlinked. Is this normal or is something wrong with my memory or evga 680i? I can get the CPU up to a little over 3.4GHZ set at unlinked and the memory at 1066, but then I get cold boot problems.
 
Dan_D said:
When overclocking I try everything I can to get the most out of the board. You essentially do what you have to, and what ever works best with an individual board is what you go with. That said, I have no preference for linked and unlinked modes. I simply have achieved better results with Linked mode. Morry expressed a similar sentiment when overclocking the eVGA 680i.

The memory bus and FSB are picky and seem to like the true 1:1 or synced setting the best when overclocking. That said, we were able to use “Unlinked” settings to isolate the memory bus effectively while scaling the FSB. This would seem to allow you to throw on a cheap C2D and overclock the hell out of it while using crappy RAM! Not that you would want to. ;)

It has nothing to do with wanting to use the Linked/Synced modes, but rather it's done because it gives the best results.

Kyle is right, we concentrate on what we can get with 1:1 ratios. That's the right way to do it IF you can. Though you can't always do this.
Click to expand...

As you said, “You essentially do what you have to, and what ever works best with an individual board is what you go with.” And I totally agree. I’ve been working with both methods to find that sweet spot. 800 on the RAM and 1600 on the FSB unlinked seems to work very well. Next step is to drop the multi and try linked and synced again.

One seemly small but important detail I have found on this board is, do not over volt the RAM. Any over volt at any RAM settings or timings seems to cause occasional lockups.

Perhaps you, or someone else has had this issue.

Thanks for your and Kyle’s input so far :)
 
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