680i = crap ?

Dan_D said:

That business with the DIMM slots isn't normal. Your board is hardly working correctly.

Click to expand...

Don't know. But it started after I flashed to bios 1301 so maybe it's something bios related. I have no other issues (yet).

Also don't get your hopes up on 45nm CPUs working worth a damn on any 680i SLI board.

Click to expand...

We'll see pretty soon because Asus is close to releasing a bios update for the SE for 45nm cpu's.

I have noticed that my memory is being overvolted by 0.06V so I'm not running it on Auto but on 2.15V.

Dan_D said:

I can't agree with that. Those people that don't know jack about BIOS' should go and have the machine purchased. The Striker is also a viable option for OEM use. Remember enthusiasts like ourselves are in the miniority.

Click to expand...

yeah, I thought you might have something to say on this one, Dan_D! your personal track record with 680i has been quite lengthy, IIRC. and as to your comment....but, but, but...there's so many of us!? Besides, people that buy built boxes and have them go *NUKE* make me giggle anyways.

sabregen said:

yeah, I thought you might have something to say on this one, Dan_D! your personal track record with 680i has been quite lengthy, IIRC. and as to your comment....but, but, but...there's so many of us!? Besides, people that buy built boxes and have them go *NUKE* make me giggle anyways.

Click to expand...

Yeah I have had very mixed results with 680i SLI boards. Hell my current system BSOD'd this morning while I was on the can for no apparent reason. I'm really getting sick of this crap. I've got another 680i SLI board on hand, but I'm getting tired of swapping these stupid things around.

I just hope that either NVIDIA or ATI releases a card that is considerably faster than two of the 8800GTX's in SLI, so I can grab an Intel chipset based board and leave well enough alone, or I'm going to wait and see how the 780i and 790i boards are. I know the 780i SLI is essentially going to be the same chipset, but lets home the board designs improve. I like SLI and I've had few problems with it since the Geforce 6 series came out but the issues I've had with 680i SLI chipset based boards has really put me off when it comes to running an SLI setup.

It's the people who go into a computer store and say " I want the latest best rig I can get."

Lots of users that own really high end rigs have no clue.And they don't care.They just wanted that kickass rig.........

Percentages of enthusiasts aside , the comment still stands.

Look at the average tech in any major computer store.The guy builds 20 rigs a day and flings em out the door.......do you really think that tech is actually setting vdimm manually on those boards.......with the umpteen different varieties of ram.....

no, he isnt

he's making sure the damn thing boots and getting onto the next build.

-------------------------

I agree Dan....I'm getting sick of taking this rig apart allatime.....

---------------------------

BrainEater said:

It's the people who go into a computer store and say " I want the latest best rig I can get."

Lots of users that own really high end rigs have no clue.And they don't care.They just wanted that kickass rig.........

Percentages of enthusiasts aside , the comment still stands.

Look at the average tech in any major computer store.The guy builds 20 rigs a day and flings em out the door.......do you really think that tech is actually setting vdimm manually on those boards.......with the umpteen different varieties of ram.....

no, he isnt

he's making sure the damn thing boots and getting onto the next build.

-------------------------

I agree Dan....I'm getting sick of taking this rig apart allatime.....

---------------------------

Click to expand...

I agree with your points, but these boards are used in OEM builds as well. My point is that I don't agree that people need to know a lot about computers and be an enthusiast to own high end computers. I think that if someone wants to be able to play games at the highest settings and they don't want to know jack about the box, that's fine. That's what system builders are for. Those people just need to prepare to pay premiums for thier hobby even more so than you or I would have to.

Dan_D said:

I agree with your points, but these boards are used in OEM builds as well. My point is that I don't agree that people need to know a lot about computers and be an enthusiast to own high end computers. I think that if someone wants to be able to play games at the highest settings and they don't want to know jack about the box, that's fine. That's what system builders are for. Those people just need to prepare to pay premiums for thier hobby even more so than you or I would have to.

Click to expand...

I guess there are some out there like that, but I would expect more and more people to just go buy an XBOX 360 than know nothing about a computer but still be willing to drop 3k on it.

Citizen86 said:

I guess there are some out there like that, but I would expect more and more people to just go buy an XBOX 360 than know nothing about a computer but still be willing to drop 3k on it.

Click to expand...

I imagine that the bulk of gamers do that. Hence why consoles are so popular compared to PC gaming machines. In any case I've met more than one individual that will walk into a computer store and ask for the best gaming system money can buy.

Dan... i've read your posts and all are very good.. but i have to agree with Braineater simply on the basis of knowing him personally for nearly 10 years now. He is the inventor of our group and probably the most dedicated person i know when it comes to researching data or trouble shooting problems.

To say that most enthusiasts know about voltages etc etc etc... or using the bios to change voltage settings is bullox. I personally know a half dozen people who have smokin rigs and wouldn't have a clue about the particular problem Brain is having. In fact i should contact another friend with the same board and let him know asap.. unless he might suffer the same problem.

Brain is also absolutely correct in stating that there is something obviously wrong with the Mobo if it's not detecting and running the correct ram volts. I've never seen a board in the last 10 years do something like that... especially a $400CND mobo. If many people are having the same problems then perhaps it is a flaw in the 680i chipset.

Please don't get me wrong i'm not slandering you or putting down your opinion... i simply disagree with anyone here that thinks everyone with a high end system has a bloody clue about ram volts... It's simply not true. Theres a whole heap of us that want high end rigs to run the latest games without lag and all the candy the machine can give... most of which don't have a clue about over clocking or advanced bios settings.... most of us could care less or don't have the time to bother.

I think you are agreeing with Dan... I was the one who said that people with these boards should know not to set volts to auto.

clshades said:

Dan... i've read your posts and all are very good.. but i have to agree with Braineater simply on the basis of knowing him personally for nearly 10 years now. He is the inventor of our group and probably the most dedicated person i know when it comes to researching data or trouble shooting problems.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure where you are going with this, or what you are agreeing with him about.

clshades said:

To say that most enthusiasts know about voltages etc etc etc... or using the bios to change voltage settings is bullox. I personally know a half dozen people who have smokin rigs and wouldn't have a clue about the particular problem Brain is having. In fact i should contact another friend with the same board and let him know asap.. unless he might suffer the same problem.

Click to expand...

I didn't say that most enthusiasts know about voltages or using the BIOS to do anything.

clshades said:

Brain is also absolutely correct in stating that there is something obviously wrong with the Mobo if it's not detecting and running the correct ram volts. I've never seen a board in the last 10 years do something like that... especially a $400CND mobo. If many people are having the same problems then perhaps it is a flaw in the 680i chipset.

Click to expand...

There might be something wrong with the board or their might be something wrong with the RAM itself. Auto settings should work, but alas on 680i SLI chipset based motherboards, one would be fool-hardy to believe that to be the case 100% of the time. I've worked with nearly all of the 680i SLI boards on the market today and they all have issues. The automatic settings on many P965 Express, P35, and X38 chipset based boards work fine. You might be surprised just how many motherboards I can overclock to around 550MHz FSB with most settings left on "AUTO".

clshades said:

Please don't get me wrong i'm not slandering you or putting down your opinion... i simply disagree with anyone here that thinks everyone with a high end system has a bloody clue about ram volts... It's simply not true. Theres a whole heap of us that want high end rigs to run the latest games without lag and all the candy the machine can give... most of which don't have a clue about over clocking or advanced bios settings.... most of us could care less or don't have the time to bother.

Click to expand...

Again I never said everyone with a high end systems knows anything about BIOS settings, voltages or even hardware in general. In fact I stated quite clearly that there are many people who simply run out to their local Best Buy or go online and order the biggest baddest complete system they can find and pay huge premiums to do so.

And damnit, the correct phrase is "couldn't care less".

Heh.......Thanks for the support Hades.......

Really though , who knows about the issues or does not know is semantics......it's really moot.

The issue is that there is in fact a problem , and it appears it's due to a poorly designed chipset.

-----------------

I'd really like ASUS to RMA this striker and give me something else , but I know that won't happen.

Whatever tho.......I have infinite warantee on this ram.....I'll just replace it weekly at kingstons expense till the mobo dies or I buy a new one. =/

I know it's not fair to kingston, or mushkin ,or any of the other memory companies that are getting hosed because of this , but why should I get screwed ? I'll let the ram companies sue nvidia.......

/me hums beck

"six sticks of ram and a motherboard...
Where it's at"

------------

Hahahaha.....might as well make jokes cause it's laugh or cry at this point....heh

Currently , my asus striker seems to be completely dead.G.F.R.
Stick 4 of ram died at 12:30 pm today.....so that one lasted 8 days.

Sticks 5 and 6 lasted 6 mins.

Then it died.

-----------------------

The mobo's going in for rma tomorrow.

I am undecided whether or not I'm going to actually use the striker I get back.

I'm really irritated right now and well , i've had a few beer , so I'm not in the right frame of mind to deal with this, so it'll wait.

----------------------

I do have 1 question for the striker owners here.

I noticed today that after soft shutdown (ie the system is off but psu is still on) , when I hit the power supply off switch , the led's and lcd poster blink twice before they go on and drain the psu caps.....is it possible the psu is sending an uncontrolled surge at this point ?

It's a silverstone strider 750w psu.

thank god im not the only one

yesterday I got bsod'ed so bad that I now have to reinstall windows

my ram is not overclocked at all , so I dont understand why I got the data corruption
the only thing Ive done is to raise the CPU multi from x10 to x11, its been working great until now

there have been a couple of nasty things that I have overlooked , these issues popped up since day 1 but since everything was working fine I let them past trough

1. system voltages
this one is very weird

if vcore is set to auto and the system is working under normal clocks , the vcore is then set to 1.20

if I leave clock settings alone and set the vcore manually to 1.3 , the vcore is then set
to 1.28

if I leave vcore settings auto and raise the multiplier to x11 from x10 the vcore sets to 1.33

so basically Im not able to set up my vcore the way I want to , and now im paying the prize of it

ah and the way the mobo manages my ram is pretty nasty to

auto-voltages for my ddr2 = 1.85 !
auto timings = 2-3-4-12 1T where my ram is specified to work at 5-5-5-15 2T

the only thing left for me to do is to buy a replacement mobo next month

question is which one is the most stable? I dont want to go nforce ever again , so I would like to hear your suggestions

peace

BrainEater said:

/me hums beck
I do have 1 question for the striker owners here.

I noticed today that after soft shutdown (ie the system is off but psu is still on) , when I hit the power supply off switch , the led's and lcd poster blink twice before they go on and drain the psu caps.....is it possible the psu is sending an uncontrolled surge at this point ?

It's a silverstone strider 750w psu.

Click to expand...

I have the same motherboard and psu and what you're describing doesn't seem to happen here.

If I plan on making a new computer (two 8800GTs and an E6850 most likely) within the next 2 to 3 months, would waiting for a 780i motherboard be a decent idea?

Because after reading this thread, it sounds like buying a 680i could damage your memory without you attempting to overclock (which I don't plan on doing).

I would wait unless you want to be frustrated. I'm on my second evga 680i MB, and yesterday after coming back from a business trip I tried turning on my machine and got the lovely C1 errors and no posting. This was the same thing that happened to me in the beginning of the year. I tried each stick of ram in all 4 slots together and by themselves and still got the C1 error. Went and bought a cheap stick of 5300 and got it to POST just fine. Now I put my old ram back in slots 1 and 3 it is working fine again (for now). Who knows for how long though, the first time around my computer eventually wouldn't post with any RAM and I didn't an RMA and got the T1 version of the board and it has been working until yesterday without issue. Now it's the same issue as the first board that died and I RMA'd.

Honestly, it's quite frustrating....

That is pretty sad. I don't keep up with hardware news anymore but judging purely from this thread it sounds like that type of motherboard has a really bad failure rate. Why haven't they fixed it, instead of just releasing a new type like the 780i?

I guess I will wait, I have the time.

how many ppl remove the nb heatsink and prep with AS5 or similar? and do the same for the mosfet sinks? the default application on a stock board leaves ALOT to be desired.

i really think the 680i boards aren't so bad but the NB gets extremely hot and needs special attention, for ppl with bad airflow and no alteration to the stock cooling i think this is why so many boards are dying with C1 errors ....dead northbridges. and paying more attention to the mosfets is nothing but beneficial either.

be interested to find out how many boards dye after having a water block slapped onto the NB.

this is my second evga 680i A1 and my first SLI rig on it.

I had nothing but good experiences with both and I am not having any BSOD issues at all with either of the mobos in either xp x86 or vista 64

settings are 400x9 4-4-4-12 1600fsb 2.1v on ram, 1.3625 on cpu all else set to auto, NB goes to 1.4v and PCI-E to 1.4 also. orthos stable !

My NB is around 55c loaded out, I didnt re-TIM anything out of pure laziness... all other bios settings are default .....

I don't think the 680i is crap, really. A lot of the problems described here with RAM biting the bullet doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the 680i per se, maybe more to do with voltages. I've had RAM outages on my P965 board too.

I built a 680i based rig for a relative with 4GB RAM, a 8800U and MSI 680i P6N Diamond. Its a great rig, built with all premium components, but the 680i wouldn't O/C the quad core too well (200mhz max). This is a well documented issue, but whereas the Nvidia 680i reference based boards (the EVGAs, etc.) got BIOS updates that helped, the MSI board still hasn't. I was aware of this issue in advance, and since the rig owner didn't want an overclock I don't care too much (of course I had to try overclocking just to see how the 680i ran.)

Overall I was very impressed with the quality and features of the board (on board X-Fi sound, heatpiped cooling for the NB/SB, digital caps, decent power regulation etc.), BIOS features and overall performance at very slightly over stock settings. It also has tons of expansion room (number of 8x/16x PCIe slots), is SLI capable and ran very stable in my testing even with 4GB RAM overclocked (I had it for a month.) This is what the owner wanted, more than 'overclocking'.

Still I wouldn't buy it for myself because of the quad core o/c issues. I hope the 780i is being delayed to address these sorts of issues, and has really solid 45nm CPU support. Other than that, I don't see what else Nvidia needs to add to the mix. People are up in arms about 780i being too similar to the 680i, but really what is the 680i lacking, other than CPU support?

mouawad said:

how many ppl remove the nb heatsink and prep with AS5 or similar? and do the same for the mosfet sinks? the default application on a stock board leaves ALOT to be desired.

i really think the 680i boards aren't so bad but the NB gets extremely hot and needs special attention, for ppl with bad airflow and no alteration to the stock cooling i think this is why so many boards are dying with C1 errors ....dead northbridges. and paying more attention to the mosfets is nothing but beneficial either.

be interested to find out how many boards dye after having a water block slapped onto the NB.

Click to expand...

I would NOT recommend Arctic Silver 5 on your NB chip. Arctic Silver Ceramique or MX-1 paste would be the suggested thermal solutions. I have MX-1 on my NB and SB (watercooling my chipsets). I have used Ceramique and it worked just as good within 1c. Both thermal pastes are completely non-conducive. I can't mention this enough about cooling the chipsets.... 1 or 2 decent cfm 120mm fans will provide you with more than adequate cooling.. Even some of the aftermarket chipset coolers are just fine.. Lets not forget about water cooling options as well (if you are into that sort of thing like me)..





I have only a few limited resources availible to me but it's not hard to fabricate some brackets or mod an intake 120mm hole in the side of your case, to keep fresh air blowing on your chipsets. I fab'd a neat little bracket that holds (2) 120mm brackets that keep a lot of air blowing on my CPU area, PWM area and RAM. Those area's are just as important to keep cool.. A little imagination can go a long way..

LOL very correct, i wouldn't recommend anything conductive on the NB/SB either ...unless it had a IHS like some boards.

slip of the tongue

I went through 6 RMA's with OCZ for an Evga 680i frying RAM.
Then I got an Abit IP35Pro. By this time I had 8GB of RAM laying around and really wanted it to work. I couldn't get it to run in the Abit board so I tried some patriot RAM and now I Have had 8GB or RAM Humming happily along in my P35 board for months with no issue.
Not a big fan of the 680i chipset myself...Thank god I'm not trying to run SLI.

Welp , I got my mobo back from the tech again....

After putting in set 4 of ram , he decided to reflash the bios (been a couple revisions since I last did it.)
I've run it through it's paces and it seems ok...../me crosses fingers

Interestingly , the onboard led's are not blinking anymore before the psu drains.(so far)

I'm definitely curious as to what could cause a seemingly stable bios to up and quit ....(assuming that was the problem.)

-------------------------------------


I got some information from the tech about the rma rate on strikers.He tells me they have about a 6% failure rate inside 10 months......

Now , I'm no expert on computer systems reliability , but 6% seems awfully damn high.

CopyThat said:

I went through 6 RMA's with OCZ for an Evga 680i frying RAM.
Then I got an Abit IP35Pro. By this time I had 8GB of RAM laying around and really wanted it to work. I couldn't get it to run in the Abit board so I tried some patriot RAM and now I Have had 8GB or RAM Humming happily along in my P35 board for months with no issue.
Not a big fan of the 680i chipset myself...Thank god I'm not trying to run SLI.

Click to expand...

6 RMA's!!!! what kind of volts were you putting through the ram?

the 680i overvolts pretty badly, if you're putting 2.2/2.3 in bios i could understand why so many sticks were dying. if you weren't putting that much in then i guess you had a real shit board

I have been reading into this quite a bit (because I also have the same motherboard) on the EVGA forums. After reading a lot of threads, I have seen a pattern. It seems that having RAM clocked at fairly high speeds, like 1066mhz+ and voltages near 2.1-2.3 seem to be the ones most commonly plagued by this issue. I am really glad I got some standard DDR800 ram that recommends 1.8-2.0 volts. So I set it to 1.85v and will also be reapplying Ceramique to the mosfets and NB/SB. I have a question, though. I see people reapplying paste to the north bridge, do they also reapply to the south bridge? On the EVGA board, the NB and SB are connected with a heatpipe so I have to take off both at the same time. Should I go ahead and apply the Ceramique to both the north and south bridge?

Ihaveworms said:

I have been reading into this quite a bit (because I also have the same motherboard) on the EVGA forums. After reading a lot of threads, I have seen a pattern. It seems that having RAM clocked at fairly high speeds, like 1066mhz+ and voltages near 2.1-2.3 seem to be the ones most commonly plagued by this issue. I am really glad I got some standard DDR800 ram that recommends 1.8-2.0 volts. So I set it to 1.85v and will also be reapplying Ceramique to the mosfets and NB/SB. I have a question, though. I see people reapplying paste to the north bridge, do they also reapply to the south bridge? On the EVGA board, the NB and SB are connected with a heatpipe so I have to take off both at the same time. Should I go ahead and apply the Ceramique to both the north and south bridge?

Click to expand...

You should do both. You'll mess up the stock paste job for both chips regardless. Additionally reapplying the thermal paste helps very little in my experience with these boards.

Out of the multitude of them I've owned I've found that some run hotter than others. The only reason I can find to account for this is likely due to bad voltage regulation. In my system under the same conditions some of these boards are constantly running 10-15 degrees C warmer than others. Reapplying thermal paste has never yielded more than a 3C change in thermal readings. You have to understand that the difference between good thermal paste and cheap thermal paste usually only amounts to 1 or 2C. The only real way to make a difference cooling these chipsets is with a better cooling solution.

ok so right now I am thinking of going SLI or not, you can see my current specs in my sig. I was wondering is it going to be a bad idea or not for me to do this, I plan on keeping my p5k as a backup board anyhow. I have been playing with the p5n32-e sli board and was wondering should I just return it and go back to my old setup or not??

Since that it's now more or less official that 680i will never ever support 45nm quadcores I have to agree on the subject of this thread: my 680i=crap

BrainEater said:

2 days ago my rig decided to not boot.

Intel e6600
Asus Striker Extreme
Muskin redline pc8000
etc

After a reboot , Bios beeps indicated memory error.
I took the machine apart , reseated ram etc , finally it decided to work.

It worked for 3 more days.

Then same error.....I had to remove 1 stick of ram to get it to boot.
Windows lasted for 10 mins , then it bluescreened "unmountable boot volume"

It then went to not posting and giving memory error.(again with the only remaining stick)

At the point I decided to take it to the place I bought the parts from for warantee info , it wasnt even beeping bios codes anymore.

----------------

From what I'm currently seeing as far as '680i chipset failure' posts on the web, this chipset is utter garbage.....

Click to expand...

Were you overclocking?

Keep reading.

---------------

No overclock , stock everything.2 of the sets of ram died while mobo was running defaults.

A new motherboard would be the way to go..

I just want to chime in here with all of the guys running 6400 gloating to us about how they're "stable".

Now, I consider myself an nVidia fanboy. I'm 20 years old and I built my PC at age 12. It was a Slot A P2 400 MHz PC133 SDRAM rig.
My video card? The GeForce 256. I alotted that much of my budget to my video card and man did I never look back. I was in heaven, frames-a-plenty and frags-a-plenty.
Fast forward through my builds as a kid (MY parents always funded my hobby to build and game amongst other things since they figured it was better than being a console n00b) and I've _only_ bought nVidia cards. I went from the 256 Geforce to the Ti4400 GeForce 4 to the GeForce FX5900 Ultra Gainward Ultra sample (Yes, I paid 1k for a Video card that performed a little less than a 600 dollar ATI 9800). Needless to say I am a true nVidiot... and proud of it--until this.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for competition but I think for once I'm going to lay my hatchet down and ask nVidia just WTF are they doing? Has their greed have any boundaries? Ever since they've gotten positive reviews with the nForce 1/2 boards I feel they thought their stake in the motherboard market was permanent. What bothers me is how eVGA is their little fiddle and just twiddles their thumbs while our boards consistently die. How much money and reputation is nVidia willing to lose? They're even losing overclocking support from Intel (They said they will lock multipliers on ANY extreme processor on an NForce board) which is just showing how stubborn and stupid they really are. What I don't get is why they're being such babies about licensing SLi to the best PCB manufacturers in the world, seriously?

I waited for my Striker early early this year to pay 425 CAD with it. I bought insta-swap warranty due to the rumors but I ignored them. These POS boards cannot run 1066 or any ram above 800 MHz for too long otherwise the long trail of driver crashes (stopped responding) and BSODs ensue.

nVidia hasn't lost my loyalty as of yet, and they won't if they fix the issue in nForce 780i boards. For their sake I hope they will, nVidia has given us years of great gaming and technology but instead of taking the high road I really suggest they fix our problems. It honestly hurts me to see myself even wanting to buy an X38 board when I have 2 8800 GTXs in SLi (I wish that hack worked for 8 series, anyone know if it does?) due to this. I haven't had my computer at home for very long at all.

Usually JEDEC Speed ram won't give you problems, anything over that will start the ruckus knowing as the 680i circus and the eVGA board swamp/bombing.

Fix this problem nVidia, ignorance isn' bliss.

roflcopter said:

Since that it's now more or less official that 680i will never ever support 45nm quadcores I have to agree on the subject of this thread: my 680i=crap

Click to expand...

I could agree, my evga is so far holding up well... hoping the 780i chipset is alot better and the issues fixed.

680i is a really ugly chipset, just the abillities it boasts when it can manage them are really tempting.

That massive NB cooling, believe it or not, is too small.

mccartney said:

I just want to chime in here with all of the guys running 6400 gloating to us about how they're "stable".

Now, I consider myself an nVidia fanboy. I'm 20 years old and I built my PC at age 12. It was a Slot A P2 400 MHz PC133 SDRAM rig.
My video card? The GeForce 256. I alotted that much of my budget to my video card and man did I never look back. I was in heaven, frames-a-plenty and frags-a-plenty.
Fast forward through my builds as a kid (MY parents always funded my hobby to build and game amongst other things since they figured it was better than being a console n00b) and I've _only_ bought nVidia cards. I went from the 256 Geforce to the Ti4400 GeForce 4 to the GeForce FX5900 Ultra Gainward Ultra sample (Yes, I paid 1k for a Video card that performed a little less than a 600 dollar ATI 9800). Needless to say I am a true nVidiot... and proud of it--until this.

Click to expand...

I gotta say kudos for admitting your an idiot... and yes you paid $1000 for a video card that was beateg by ATIs R360 at a much cheaper price point.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for competition but I think for once I'm going to lay my hatchet down and ask nVidia just WTF are they doing? Has their greed have any boundaries? Ever since they've gotten positive reviews with the nForce 1/2 boards I feel they thought their stake in the motherboard market was permanent. What bothers me is how eVGA is their little fiddle and just twiddles their thumbs while our boards consistently die. How much money and reputation is nVidia willing to lose? They're even losing overclocking support from Intel (They said they will lock multipliers on ANY extreme processor on an NForce board) which is just showing how stubborn and stupid they really are. What I don't get is why they're being such babies about licensing SLi to the best PCB manufacturers in the world, seriously?

Click to expand...

First off Intel's bluffing. Next off that statement has far more to do with Intel's greed then Nvidia's greed (although, admittedly, both companies are in the business to make money)

I waited for my Striker early early this year to pay 425 CAD with it. I bought insta-swap warranty due to the rumors but I ignored them. These POS boards cannot run 1066 or any ram above 800 MHz for too long otherwise the long trail of driver crashes (stopped responding) and BSODs ensue.

nVidia hasn't lost my loyalty as of yet, and they won't if they fix the issue in nForce 780i boards. For their sake I hope they will, nVidia has given us years of great gaming and technology but instead of taking the high road I really suggest they fix our problems. It honestly hurts me to see myself even wanting to buy an X38 board when I have 2 8800 GTXs in SLi (I wish that hack worked for 8 series, anyone know if it does?) due to this. I haven't had my computer at home for very long at all.

Usually JEDEC Speed ram won't give you problems, anything over that will start the ruckus knowing as the 680i circus and the eVGA board swamp/bombing.

Fix this problem nVidia, ignorance isn' bliss.

Click to expand...

I'm begining to come to the conclusion that 680i expects a particularly clean 3.3V. Seems to me poor 3.3. Voltage Regulation could be the only thing killing ram in such high quantities.

I bought my 680i board months ago and have had nothing but good experiences with it. I'm afraid to pick up my 2nd 2gb kit for fear I will start to have unhappy memories with it.

Gee, I dont know......just run pc6400......why waste your time and money trying to be some dumbass speed demon..........
Ive had my board for 1 solid year and its gone from dual to quad core, plays every game I can throw at it, and has been stable as a rock.......all with little meesley pc 6400 Corsair XMS Ram that cost about 50 bucks a piece...... I have to watch my pennies because nobody pays for my stuff but me.

magoo said:

Gee, I dont know......just run pc6400......why waste your time and money trying to be some dumbass speed demon..........
Ive had my board for 1 solid year and its gone from dual to quad core, plays every game I can throw at it, and has been stable as a rock.......all with little meesley pc 6400 Corsair XMS Ram that cost about 50 bucks a piece...... I have to watch my pennies because nobody pays for my stuff but me.

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overclocking is my hobbie Some people collect stamps, some build ships in bottels, I do something useful, void warranties and gets more FPSses.

And my DDR2 1066 2gig kit cost me ~$140 cad when the cad-US dollar was 0.9-1

Well my 680i has decided to stop working with my 6400 Ballistix Tracers completely with the C1 error. Put in some Patriot 6400 and it will boot just fine. So I'm not sure if the memory controller is just acting flaky or if it has eaten up my ram as others have complained. Being the paranoid type I wasn't OCing, and I had my ram undervolted to 1.8 because of the dead RAM thread on the evga boards.

I guess we'll see how long it will play nice with the Patriot ram.

BrainEater,

Kind of have to call you out on something. You mentioned you have plenty of airflow. I'd have to disagree. From your pictures I count about 6-7 hard drives packed in that case. Also, from what I can see, you've got two 80mm fans up front and if I'm correct probably a 120mm in the rear...maybe even an 80mm (that's a Lian Li, correct?). If that's the case the airflow would be a problem. Even if air managed to get around/through the hard drives it'd be pretty warm once it got to the motherboard area. And a single 120mm, unless it moved and enormous amount of air, wouldn't be able to exhaust the heat enough. An 80mm would be worse. I suggest picking up a new case with better cooling (a favorite of the forum, the CM 690, would work well).

Now, I'm not saying this caused your issue, but with all of the other posters pointing out the importance of cooling the 680i I would imagine the lack of cooling didn't help.