3 replies to this topic

[Il_napoletano]

Hi
An asus p5n32-e sli has come on the market for a good price.
has anybody had any experience with this board?
is it any good? it would probably be replacing my p35-ds3r
i would appreciate any input

thanks

[WARDOZERX]

Don't do it. Just say no to 680i. Unless the board had the chipset reTIM'd in week one of it's life and chipset temps and voltages were always kept in the green which means the owner monitored them and can prove it you're likely looking at a board at the end of it's ropes.

If you are thinking about it ask for pic's of the chipset with the heatsink removed first without the chipset being cleaned, look to see if the factory grey or pink crap is still there, if so pass on the board. If not, ask for a high resolution pic with the thermal paste cleaned off and look for marbeling on the die itself and discoloration on the PCB of the chipset ( it should still be green and not greenish borwn ). If either of the 2 are present, pass on the board. If not then ask for a pick of the backside of the board and look for discoloration on the backside of the PCB where the chipset is, if there is any then once again, pass on the board but if not. Hey, it's your money.

Another thing to note is to ask for proof of all 4 memory slots being fully functional. This can be done by asking for a picture of the system completing memtest with each set of memory slots occupied so you should ask for 2 pictures with the board and monitor in view showing that the system can complete a run of memtest with slots 0 and 2 occupied then again with slots 1 and 3 occupied. Many early 680i board had problems with memory slots failing.

Also, if the seller is unwilling to go thru the hassle of taking the above pic's, pass on the board unless it's free. With hardware that has the horrible history that the 650i and 680i chipsets has, you need to make absolute sure the hardware you are looking at has had all preventative measures to prolong it's life taken early in it's life.

The above applies to all Nvidia 6xx and 7xx chipsets due to heat related failures which account for almost all failures of boards with these chipsets.

It would be nice if a 680i board didn't require this much inquiry but this late in the game it's recommended you avoid them altogether but if you are serious about purchasing a 680i board you need to ask these questions and require the above proof of the boards current condition.

Lastly, a "good price" for a 680i board would be $20 - $30 shipped tops and even then I don't know about using "good" anywhere in the description of any aspect of buying a 680i board now.

Personally, I'd much rather have a P5B-E with a 965 chipset over any 680i board. My old P5B-E was able to push a C0 E8400 to 4.5ghz with 4gb of OCZ Flex DDR2-1200. I know 965 board are dirt cheap nowadays and while they don't support Sli, neither does your current bboard and the 965 chipset was far more reliable than the 680i's ever were.

If you are on a budget then look for DFI 965 dark boards, Asus P5B's and similar 965 boards that support your CPU. They OC better tan 680i's, they are more reliable and they can be had very cheap. You can even find some P43 boards in the budget price range though you'll be giving up raid but if you don't use raid thats a good option as well.

Edited by WARDOZERX, 12 April 2012 - 09:11 AM.

[Il_napoletano]

thanks for the walkthrough .....even if it's a bit after the fact

anyway I let it pass...because he was asking a little too much...

edit: I don't really need SLI...it was just more for an option in the future...

Does anyone know if some atx mobo that supports DDR3 socket 775? it doesn't have to be sli...and if possible sata III

Edited by Il_napoletano, 12 April 2012 - 09:25 AM.

[WARDOZERX]

For SATA 3 on 775 your only option is a Pci-e x1 card as none of the 775 chipsets support native USB 3 or SATA III.

Very few P45, X48 and X38 boards support DDR3. The 790i boards are the only ones I'm aware of that support DDR3 natively.

Edited by WARDOZERX, 13 April 2012 - 10:43 AM.