hunter_green32
Distinguished
- Apr 9, 2007
- 84
- 0
- 18,630
First, forget looks man. The prettiest mainboards thru the window often have the shoddier construction. Asus, these last few of years, is a perfect example of this. To me, Asus has a case of 'she was pretty last year'.
With regard to the 680i: There are ten, perhaps eleven board partners I am aware of. Five of them are producing the actual nVidia Designed reference board, so from a feature point of view, they are all identical, down to the very last circuit. The only difference is potentially the quality of actual components and construction, as their suppliers for most parts will all be different. If you buy a reference board, the idea is to get the best quality construction, since the boards themselves are identical to an end user. The reference boards are built by eVGA, BFG, XFX, ECS and Biostar. Look at warranties, look at each board's quality claims.
The other five board partners are developing their own designs around the 680i core logic... there are some interesting solutions out there that have a controller chip or two sprinkled around, so they are not identical in terms of features, board layout, etc. The companies doing this are ASUS, DFI, MSI, Gigabyte and ABIT. Most 680i non-reference boards have been announced, but are not available yet. All claim to be shipping large numbers to non-OEM distributors by Q3 2007. The Asus boards are available today, as are the ABIT boards, I believe... Im not sure the others are shipping yet, and I know the DFI Lanparty version definately isnt.
Foxconn also has a 680i board, but I never heard of them being a board partner at all when the 680i was announced, so its likely a last minute reference board deal with Foxconn.
An Asus striker is a board being advertised and sold to gaming enthusiasts, and Asus produces an identical board in the P5N32-E SLI for a whole lot less. Look at photos of both boards, they are the same beast. Perhaps there is a tiny difference here and there, but nothing remotely close to being worth that premium.
I also tend to favor the Gigabyte solution, in this case. MSI, not usually a contender in the enthusiast market, also seems to have a nice 680i board. DFI makes some boards I like, but the support is awful, so I dont tend to build them for my friends. Ive never owned a mainboard from the reference board list, so Im not in a position to recomend there. I remember you mentioned an eVGA 500+ frontside overclock... This means, in theory, all reference boards, given proper cooling, should do that just fine. In theory lol.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Scott
With regard to the 680i: There are ten, perhaps eleven board partners I am aware of. Five of them are producing the actual nVidia Designed reference board, so from a feature point of view, they are all identical, down to the very last circuit. The only difference is potentially the quality of actual components and construction, as their suppliers for most parts will all be different. If you buy a reference board, the idea is to get the best quality construction, since the boards themselves are identical to an end user. The reference boards are built by eVGA, BFG, XFX, ECS and Biostar. Look at warranties, look at each board's quality claims.
The other five board partners are developing their own designs around the 680i core logic... there are some interesting solutions out there that have a controller chip or two sprinkled around, so they are not identical in terms of features, board layout, etc. The companies doing this are ASUS, DFI, MSI, Gigabyte and ABIT. Most 680i non-reference boards have been announced, but are not available yet. All claim to be shipping large numbers to non-OEM distributors by Q3 2007. The Asus boards are available today, as are the ABIT boards, I believe... Im not sure the others are shipping yet, and I know the DFI Lanparty version definately isnt.
Foxconn also has a 680i board, but I never heard of them being a board partner at all when the 680i was announced, so its likely a last minute reference board deal with Foxconn.
An Asus striker is a board being advertised and sold to gaming enthusiasts, and Asus produces an identical board in the P5N32-E SLI for a whole lot less. Look at photos of both boards, they are the same beast. Perhaps there is a tiny difference here and there, but nothing remotely close to being worth that premium.
I also tend to favor the Gigabyte solution, in this case. MSI, not usually a contender in the enthusiast market, also seems to have a nice 680i board. DFI makes some boards I like, but the support is awful, so I dont tend to build them for my friends. Ive never owned a mainboard from the reference board list, so Im not in a position to recomend there. I remember you mentioned an eVGA 500+ frontside overclock... This means, in theory, all reference boards, given proper cooling, should do that just fine. In theory lol.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Scott
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