Well it happened again............

D

Dan_D

Extremely [H]
Joined
Feb 9, 2002
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I won't bother re-hashing the complete history I've had with these things and the total sum of my experiences with all the various 680i SLI chipset based motherboards I've used and replaced due to failure but I thought it interesting to note that my last 680i SLI chipset based motherboard, my EVGA 680i SLI which had been running since Febuary 2007 with a dual core [email protected] died today.

I've had basically two types of 680i SLI motherboards. The type that work well for a time (usually 1 to 3 months) and the type that were DOA and never worked in the first place. The board I am reporting on is the type that worked for several months and finally started to give out. Many of the boards I've had that died this way all showed the same signs of trouble before eventually reaching complete failure. The first sign of trouble I've always first experienced is general instability. Once I start to see that I'll check the MCH temperatures and in every case I've noticed that instead of the usual temperature range of 40c-55c I'll see readings of 65c-85c. :eek: USB problems usually start showing up and in a couple of cases I had issues with the board no longer wanting to run the memory modules in dual-channel mode. This board had the general instability issue with extreme temperature increases to the north bridge and finally the USB problems. Re-application of the thermal material and even water cooling the MCH has never helped return the MCH to a normal temperature operating range. Watercooling and other cooling methods may actually provide additional longevity for the motherboard but it certainly has never helped me once the board has reached this state of decay.

This board actually failed a little differently in that this one had everything hit all in one day. Today is the day it started showing general instability and after a BSOD the USB ports didn't work after restart. Hooking up a PS/2 keyboard I went into the BIOS and sure enought he MCH temperature was reading about 80c. I knew the board was screwed. After shutting it down I could even smell burning electronics. I am not sure what specifically died but I am hopefully going to see something on the board that's burnt when I pull it from the system. In any case if I find something on that front I'll post pics.

This was the longest running 680i SLI board I've ever owned. I actually could have replaced it anytime as that system never ran SLI. I didn't because I wanted to see how long the board would last. The answer: 1 year and 4 months. Tonight I'm off to get some DDR3 memory and I'll be replacing the board with the Intel DX48BT2 motherboard. I am not sure how it overclocks and frankly I don't care. Its' my girlfriends machine and I don't do much with it. She plays games on it mostly but usually uses her laptop for everything else. (E-Mail, paying bills, banking etc....)

Just sharing my experiences. :cool:

In case anyone wants to know here are the system specifications:

Case: Coolermaster Cosmos
PSU: Corsair HX520
Motherboard: EVGA 680i SLI (122-CK-NF68-A1) BIOS P28
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 w/Thermaltake Big Typhoon (non-VX)
RAM: 2x1GB OCZ Flex XLC PC2-9200 (DDR2 1150MHz)
Video Card: BFG 8800GTX OC 768MB
Audio: Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Music
HDD: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000rpm (8MB cache)
Optical: 20x Samsung DVD-R/RW
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32bit) SP2
 
thats what you get for being the girl friend of a motherboard editor... X48 for your I-have-no-idea-whats-in-it box.
 
I have some of the dead 680i SLI motherboards hanging on the wall. I'd have kept all of them for that purpose but most of them were exchanged with the retailer and replaced with new ones. So at present I have only two or three 680i SLI reference boards and one ASUS Striker Extreme.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
thats what you get for being the girl friend of a motherboard editor... X48 for your I-have-no-idea-whats-in-it box.
Click to expand...

She has it good when it comes to stuff like that and she is aware of that fact. She gets a better computer than anyone she knows and it gets updated regularly. She also gets all of her problems fixed in a timely manner and for free. She'll be getting a 9800GX2 when the new cards come out and I replace mine.

She also knows if she leaves she can't take the machine with her.
 
I had a XFX 680i board that was messed up out of the box. I RMA'd it and in the process, bought a 750 FTW (that works flawlessly mind you). I got my new 680i and left it brand new in box. Sold it to my cousin and installed it in his system with other new components (including samsung f1 750gb). Even with disabling NCQ the fucking thing don't run right. He's reinstalled vista x64 about 5 times now. It runs fine for a day or two then will do stuff like not finish loading into windows, just sits with mouse and black screen. Also, have issues updating with windows update, will blue screen after driver updates etc.
 
bigdogchris said:
I had a XFX 680i board that was messed up out of the box. I RMA'd it and in the process, bought a 750 FTW (that works flawlessly mind you). I got my new 680i and left it brand new in box. Sold it to my cousin and installed it in his system with other new components (including samsung f1 750gb). Even with disabling NCQ the fucking thing don't run right. He's reinstalled vista x64 about 5 times now. It runs fine for a day or two then will do stuff like not finish loading into windows, just sits with mouse and black screen. Also, have issues updating with windows update, will blue screen after driver updates etc.
Click to expand...

He needs to check that MCH temperature in the BIOS. If it reads 60c or higher when idle then its' most likely a hosed board.
 
Dan_D said:
The answer: 2 years and 4 months. Tonight I'm off to get some DDR3 memory and I'll be replacing the board with the Intel DX48BT2 motherboard. I am not sure how it overclocks and frankly I don't care. Its' my girlfriends machine and I don't do much with it.
Click to expand...

How bizarre. My fiance and I just pieced together a build with an x48bt2 as the centerpiece.

X3350
BT2
4GB Gskill 1333
3870x2
PCP&P 610W
Samsung 750 F1
Samsung T220 display (which is honestly awesome. Makes my 204B :( )

She'll be using it for everything, and I'll be teaching her to OC on it.

Runs like a dream @ stock though.

Apologies on the 680i though.

I hated my XFX 680i LT and sold it immediately. Never showed signs of issues, but I really just hated the board, the bios, the layout. ugh. POS IMO. I think I sold it for $65-70
 
Predictable. However the thing that surprises me the most about this 680i failure is that it occurred with a dual core, most 680i's fail with quad core proc's from my experience.
 
TheInternet1980 said:
How bizarre. My fiance and I just pieced together a build with an x48bt2 as the centerpiece.

X3350
BT2
4GB Gskill 1333
3870x2
PCP&P 610W
Samsung 750 F1
Samsung T220 display (which is honestly awesome. Makes my 204B :( )

She'll be using it for everything, and I'll be teaching her to OC on it.

Runs like a dream @ stock though.

Apologies on the 680i though.

I hated my XFX 680i LT and sold it immediately. Never showed signs of issues, but I really just hated the board, the bios, the layout. ugh. POS IMO. I think I sold it for $65-70
Click to expand...

Sorry I had a typo there. It was 1 year and 4 months the board lived. Not two years.
 
drpeppir said:
Predictable. However the thing that surprises me the most about this 680i failure is that it occurred with a dual core, most 680i's fail with quad core proc's from my experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's been my experience as well. However a friend of mine has the exact same thing happening with his. His 680i SLI has been failing for some time. It has stability issues and the USB problems as well as the temperature issue. However he's had his in that condition for a couple of months and he's riding it out. I keep telling him he needs to swap it before it takes out his RAM but he's not listening.
 
Dan_D said:
Yeah that's been my experience as well. However a friend of mine has the exact same thing happening with his. His 680i SLI has been failing for some time. It has stability issues and the USB problems as well as the temperature issue. However he's had his in that condition for a couple of months and he's riding it out. I keep telling him he needs to swap it before it takes out his RAM but he's not listening.
Click to expand...

Yea I can confirm the USB problems on my old 680i, any USB transfer would result in a random reboot, I don't get why nVidia continues to make motherboards or market them much less defend themelves from intel licensing SLi.

I think they should make customers happy and license SLi to intel otherwise customers will just go to ATi for their multi GPU solutions (all 10 of them hehe)... no really though-- even if there is up to a 20% decrease in performance I would still go for the intel/ATi multi GPU solution just for the stability and ditch nvidia other than for single gpu... but either way its intel mobos and intel cpus at least for the next year or 2.

It least that's the way I see it.
 
drpeppir said:
Yea I can confirm the USB problems on my old 680i, any USB transfer would result in a random reboot, I don't get why nVidia continues to make motherboards or market them much less defend themelves from intel licensing SLi.

I think they should make customers happy and license SLi to intel otherwise customers will just go to ATi for their multi GPU solutions (all 10 of them hehe)... no really though-- even if there is up to a 20% decrease in performance I would still go for the intel/ATi multi GPU solution just for the stability and ditch nvidia other than for single gpu... but either way its intel mobos and intel cpus at least for the next year or 2.

It least that's the way I see it.
Click to expand...

I'm a huge fan of Intel chipsets in general.
 
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