680i motherboards, Vista and 64-bit

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sethk

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May 3, 2005
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I'd like to run two graphics cards in SLI in the future. I know some of you will tell me its not worth it, etc., but for now I'd like to keep the possibility open. Because of this, and because of the larger number of PCIe lanes compared to a P35 board, I'm considering a 680i board.

My question is whether the 680i chipset is capable of running a quad core chip in 64 bit Vista stably. Does it have adequate driver support?

I don't plan of adding in much right now - graphics card, sound card (or maybe on-board sound), and that's it. In the future I may add in an LSI RAID 5 PCIe SATA/SAS card.

Rather than a discussion about whether its a good idea to run 64-bit Vista, I'd just like to know if people have had any experience building 680i systems with a) Q6600 or other quad core chips and b) 64 bit Vista.

Thanks!
 
cpu's don't require software drivers... the question is if your mobo supports quad core, which 680i boards do. I would be far more worried about your raid and sound cards, everything else is likely to work without a hitch.
 
Thanks for the response I apologize if I wasn't clear - my two questions were:

1) Does the 680i support the quad core processors well and

2) Are Nvidias motherboard / chipset / PCI/PCIe / onboard SATA / USB 2.0 / etc etc. 64 bit Vista drivers decent? i.e. are their platform drivers good, stable and workable in 64 bit Vista. I know I could have issues with sound cards and add-in RAID cards, but that would be the same whether I bought a P35 board or a 680i board. I will follow up on that score separately. I just want to know if the 680i is a stable platform for 64 bit drivers regardless of add-in cards.
 
Yes and yes. I have a 6850 @ 3.6ghz on a 680i w/4GB and Vista64. One of my coworkers has a Q6600 @ 3.3ghz on a 680i w/4GB and Vista64. Both systems are stable, with all hardware supported. Performance is excellent.
 
Hey yakz part deux, does your coworker run air or water cooling? What memory are they running? I'm looking at getting the same setup and would like to run about the same overclock.
 
knupxfon said:
I run the system in my sig with Vista x64 with no problems at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks, knupxfon - I was planning on getting a P6N Diamond and running 4GB RAM, so this sounds pretty good. All in all, good news, since I wasn't too keen on the P35 with its limited PCIe lanes. With the 680i I could be running SLI *and* a 4x PCIe RAID card.
 
sethk said:
Thanks, knupxfon - I was planning on getting a P6N Diamond and running 4GB RAM, so this sounds pretty good. All in all, good news, since I wasn't too keen on the P35 with its limited PCIe lanes. With the 680i I could be running SLI *and* a 4x PCIe RAID card.
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I like this motherboard a lot better than the Evga 680i i had before. It's a lot more stable in Vista x32 and x64 with SLI.
 
Vista X64 with 4 dimms on EVGA 680i working like a charm here . . . .
 
beelzibub said:
Hey yakz part deux, does your coworker run air or water cooling? What memory are they running? I'm looking at getting the same setup and would like to run about the same overclock.
Click to expand...

Air (Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme), and the Patriot 5-5-5-12 in a 2x2GB configuration.
 
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