I know what you mean, but this goes back to CeBit and my conversation with XFX went something like this:
Bindi: "Send us something interesting!"
XFX: "k, we have a pre-overclocked (???) LT board coming soon"
Bindi: "Sounds great, send it on"
Two months later we get a plain Jane 680i in the post and I don't check the box til I come to review it :(:(
Anywaaaay, at least this lets you know the differences aren't that much across the entire range and the whole difference is in the packaging. It's still good to know there isn't much to know, right? :)
i supose 21 on the board description diagram is the power and reset switches and not a second RS232 Port? somehow it does look more like switches than a pinout... :)
Originally Posted by Mankz. Do we really need constant reviews of all of the referance design 680i boards?
Anywho, good review as allways!
Second the motion... A good review, though, even if it's basically the same hardware the third (?) time around.
Out of curiosity, are the rounded IDE cables the same as the ones from the EVGA package? They look round, but on the inside, it's just the ribbon cable that's been sliced into strips, so it doesn't bend worth beans?
thanks for the review! ;) ..this just makes my choice of 680i board harder :P heh ...too bad you couldnt include benchmarks with 8800's vs 7900 .. oh well :)
I think the other issue is that bit-tech only has the one 30" screen and the numbers on a pair of 8800s at 1600x1200 would be pretty pointless because they'd be stupidly high. :)
That said, I do want to upgrade our graphics cards for mobo reviews at some point because, yes, the 7900 and X1900-series cards are getting a bit long in the tooth now.
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi Well Tim does those in Gfx reviews :)
Yea.. I'm just being selfish.. heh :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim S
I think the other issue is that bit-tech only has the one 30" screen and the numbers on a pair of 8800s at 1600x1200 would be pretty pointless because they'd be stupidly high.
I suppose... but who doesn't love stupidly high numbers!? :D
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi Well Tim does those in Gfx reviews :)
Who does the mobile graphics reviews? I've yet to see any review for the new 8xxx and 2xxx series cards from Bit-tech. And other sites just don't compare with that bitty-techy quality ;)
Originally Posted by DrewBear11 Treated myself to this
Very nice board, really like it, however mine didnt come with any nuts/bolts/whatever and didnt have any motherboard stand offs.
Also missing a drivers cd.....
Moving on, only real problem is that it will not work with my xfi extreme gamer, blue sceen's, locks up.....
I also bought this as I thought it matched with the XFX 8800gts 320mb XXX i purchased
Mine didnt have a drivers cd either :(
(No nuts and bolts either but i wasnt expecting ne, shud I have been? (plenty came with my case neway))
I have a creative x-fi extreme gamer and works perfectly fine installed the drivers after loading windows and that was it. Im assuming youve checked your xfi extreme gamer was fine on another system?
Originally Posted by Fused Mine didnt have a drivers cd either :(
Maybe they want you to go on the site to get the drivers, because by the time u install them off the CD they are usually out of date anyway
Quote:
(No nuts and bolts either but i wasnt expecting ne, shud I have been? (plenty came with my case neway))
i haven't seen a motherboard come with nuts/bolts, most likely because that is all done with the case
probably because the standoffs depends on the case, and the nuts depend on the standoffs, so it makes more sense to put the nuts/bolts with the case and just give you a motherboard
Ah right, yeah maybe i was expecting too much for it to come with extra bolts and standoffs.
I was getting blue screens with the xfi, with the drivers off the cd, i havnt tried newer drivers with the card yet, maybe i will in the next few days.
Is there anywhere i can request a driver cd or anything, because i couldnt find specfic drivers for that exact board on the xfx site..
I've got this board, and I cannot get any IDE drive to be recognized. My SATA HDD is seen no problem. I've tried 4 or 5 different IDE optical drives with every reasonable jumper configuration; the controllers in the BIOS are enabled; I've tried different IDE cables rather than the one that was included.. What else have I done? Everything I can think of, that's for sure. I've noticed that none of the drives will open despite being plugged in. I would think that the drive tray would open and close regardless of the computer recognizing it so long as the power cable is inserted.. I'm at a loss here.. I can't imagine what the problem is. I'd be grateful for any suggestions. Thanks!
If you plug the power in, regardless of the IDE cable being plugged in and press the button to open the tray then there's something wrong with the molex or your PSU. Try not only different molexes but different cables coming from your psu.
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi If you plug the power in, regardless of the IDE cable being plugged in and press the button to open the tray then there's something wrong with the molex or your PSU. Try not only different molexes but different cables coming from your psu.
It would appear that the issue must be my PSU. It is interesting, however, that the PSU is seemingly distributing power to everything else without any problems. I've taken the 4-pin molex that is powering the case fan and plugged it into the optical drive, and that didn't work. I've tried numerous different configurations. Is it possible that the PSU is supplying power through the 4-pin molex connectors, just not enough to power an optical drive? It seems unlikely, but that's all that comes to mind.
Originally Posted by hellojosef It would appear that the issue must be my PSU. It is interesting, however, that the PSU is seemingly distributing power to everything else without any problems. I've taken the 4-pin molex that is powering the case fan and plugged it into the optical drive, and that didn't work. I've tried numerous different configurations. Is it possible that the PSU is supplying power through the 4-pin molex connectors, just not enough to power an optical drive? It seems unlikely, but that's all that comes to mind.
Originally Posted by completemadness sounds like the dvd drive is dead then
I don't doubt that one, or even two, of the drives has kicked the dust, but five? It would be very strange indeed if five previously working drives suddenly stopped (of course, I'm trying them one at a time). I will add this though: After plugging in one of the drives and powering on the system, it made a "popping" sound and immediately starting to smoke. Another drive, I plugged in, and, after powering on, the system immediately powered back off. That drive didn't visibly smoke but clearly had the smell of a drive that had just met its end. I unplugged it, reset the switch on the PSU, and everything powered back on right away without any issue. Maybe whatever caused one or both of the drives to die also possessed my PSU.. I'm not so sure. I think I may have to return the PSU, and perhaps get a better one.
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Anywho, good review as allways!
Bindi: "Send us something interesting!"
XFX: "k, we have a pre-overclocked (???) LT board coming soon"
Bindi: "Sounds great, send it on"
Two months later we get a plain Jane 680i in the post and I don't check the box til I come to review it :(:(
Anywaaaay, at least this lets you know the differences aren't that much across the entire range and the whole difference is in the packaging. It's still good to know there isn't much to know, right? :)
Good review guys ;)
Sam
Second the motion... A good review, though, even if it's basically the same hardware the third (?) time around.
Out of curiosity, are the rounded IDE cables the same as the ones from the EVGA package? They look round, but on the inside, it's just the ribbon cable that's been sliced into strips, so it doesn't bend worth beans?
Dan: 2nd ;) I can't remember the EVGA package but I've just checked and it's a properly rounded (and very colourful internally!) IDE cable.
That said, I do want to upgrade our graphics cards for mobo reviews at some point because, yes, the 7900 and X1900-series cards are getting a bit long in the tooth now.
Yea.. I'm just being selfish.. heh :D
I suppose... but who doesn't love stupidly high numbers!? :D
Who does the mobile graphics reviews? I've yet to see any review for the new 8xxx and 2xxx series cards from Bit-tech. And other sites just don't compare with that bitty-techy quality ;)
great :D
Very nice board, really like it, however mine didnt come with any nuts/bolts/whatever and didnt have any motherboard stand offs.
Also missing a drivers cd.....
Moving on, only real problem is that it will not work with my xfi extreme gamer, blue sceen's, locks up.....
can anyone shed any light on this, or is this an issue with any other 680i's ?
Cheers
I also bought this as I thought it matched with the XFX 8800gts 320mb XXX i purchased
Mine didnt have a drivers cd either :(
(No nuts and bolts either but i wasnt expecting ne, shud I have been? (plenty came with my case neway))
I have a creative x-fi extreme gamer and works perfectly fine installed the drivers after loading windows and that was it. Im assuming youve checked your xfi extreme gamer was fine on another system?
probably because the standoffs depends on the case, and the nuts depend on the standoffs, so it makes more sense to put the nuts/bolts with the case and just give you a motherboard
You should have had a driver CD in the envelope thing though.
I was getting blue screens with the xfi, with the drivers off the cd, i havnt tried newer drivers with the card yet, maybe i will in the next few days.
Is there anywhere i can request a driver cd or anything, because i couldnt find specfic drivers for that exact board on the xfx site..
cheers
Best thing to do is just download them from the nvidia site.
It would appear that the issue must be my PSU. It is interesting, however, that the PSU is seemingly distributing power to everything else without any problems. I've taken the 4-pin molex that is powering the case fan and plugged it into the optical drive, and that didn't work. I've tried numerous different configurations. Is it possible that the PSU is supplying power through the 4-pin molex connectors, just not enough to power an optical drive? It seems unlikely, but that's all that comes to mind.
I don't doubt that one, or even two, of the drives has kicked the dust, but five? It would be very strange indeed if five previously working drives suddenly stopped (of course, I'm trying them one at a time). I will add this though: After plugging in one of the drives and powering on the system, it made a "popping" sound and immediately starting to smoke. Another drive, I plugged in, and, after powering on, the system immediately powered back off. That drive didn't visibly smoke but clearly had the smell of a drive that had just met its end. I unplugged it, reset the switch on the PSU, and everything powered back on right away without any issue. Maybe whatever caused one or both of the drives to die also possessed my PSU.. I'm not so sure. I think I may have to return the PSU, and perhaps get a better one.
System Specs:
XFX nForce 680i SLI MoBo
Intel Quad Core Kentsfield 2.4Ghz Q6600 CPU
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB PCIe
OCZ Platinum Rev 2 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800Mhz
Ultra 600w X-Finity Power Supply
Seagate 500GB SATA HDD