nForce 680i or 965?

[No.72]

I am going to order my motherboard, RAM and processor in early January. The RAM and processor have already been disided upon. I am unsure now whether to buy a s755 nForce 680i or the 965 version, and if I did buy a 965 board it would be the gigabyte dq6 . I really want to know if the 680i board is not yet ready to be having a look at, as it has just been made available. I know that the 965 board's do not support multi gpu
(two x16)and that they are also better overclockers than anything else. T he money really doesn't matter as long as it's not over £210! , and yes I will be overclocking

[danroyle]

short term the 680i is looking a little buggy but each bios they bring out seems to sort something

performance wise the signs are good for the 680i i have a 965 board the abit ab9 which i am very happy with but it does only have one pci-e slot which is a downside

personally i would have a little faith in the 680i anf buy one as they have great potential and have sli which is always a bonus for second card at later date if it starts to get slow

so imo go for the 680i once they have got rid of the bugs will be a hell of a board and the rumours about are that the board prices will drop quite alot by february on teh 680i boards too

the original plan was to run them at high prices for 3 months to recoup development costs and then by february board like the striker extreme should drop from £250 to about £180 with the evga going down to about £140 from £180

[No.72]

Ok cheers!, that sounds pritty sweet . I have herd that gigabyte are bringing out a 680i dq6 nForce which should be a super board. It looks like nForce is the way to go at the moment.

[Clunk]

What screen do you have? Unless it is a 25xx X 16xx monster, then SLI is pointless, in which case, so is 680i, factor in the silly prices of the 680i boards and the fact that they are full of bugs and dont overclock that well for the money, and its a no brainer. Get a P5B deluxe wifi and spend the extra on a decent single card, or some watercooling or something

[No.72]

Well I have had a 7600gt for about 4 months which is fine for the moment, up until February time . I think water cooling is a bit out of my league, and having a 680i would be nice just knowing that I have everything on a mobo. Surely if you want the best you buy the best, and the 680i is the top of the range. Plus I am getting a E6600 and 2 gig's of 800 mhz RAM
so there is not much improvement to be made there for the saving of £80 from the mobo. I have already bought the psu, case and hard drives. thank you for you suggestions.

edit: screen at 1680x1050

[Clunk]

Any decent current card will run games at 1680x1050 without needing a second card for SLI. Trust me, SLI really is pointless unless you have a massive screen with a massive resolution.

965 = perfect for you, great overclocking, rock solid performance, stable bios, plenty of features, pretty good prices now.

680i = Stupidly overpriced, buggy, not particularly good overclocking (yet?), but it will do SLI, which you dont need / arent going to use until you get a bigger monitor!

just my opinion

[No.72]

Damm it you right! I just like the idea of having the best, is all I might be able to get my dad to buy a 30 inch dell for our next main tv.

Do you know if the 30 inch dell has any scart sockets and does it work with sky hd??
I know it's of the idea but it just crept into my head.

[Yellowbeard]

FWIW, Crossfire support has been added to the ASUS P5B boards (not sure of other brands). However, Crossfire is still not that great and you are right back to the single card vs dual card argument anyway.

[No.72]

Forgetting the multi gpu argument . Am I correct in saying that the 680i can support a fsb of 1333 mhz, but the 965 board
1066 mhz so there is an advantage there. The overclocking potential of the 680i must improve to be close to or better than the 965 (once the bugs are sorted).

[Yellowbeard]

From what I am hearing "behind the scenese" the 680i will OC both the CPU and memory better than the 965. There are still a few bios issues as with any new chipset but these are being sorted quickly. It has been the same with the 965 based MOBOs.