Legit Reviews

So I own an E6700 with a Bad Axe 2 mobo, and I just built my dad a PC with an E6700 and an EVGA 680i mobo.

My conclusion: The BadAxe2 pales in overclocking comparison to the 680i.

Does anyone disagree with this? If so why?

Not really surprising. The Bad Axe 2 is built with rock solid stability in mind with overclocking as an afterthought (it's Intel's second ever motherboard that allows you to overclock).
The 680i board is built to overclock but doesn't have the reliability of the Intel boards. It also doesn't perform as well as the Intel board without some major tweaking.

The BX2 is perfect for Extreme Edition processors with unlocked multipliers. It has much better voltage control, and a memory controller that you don't have to play with for a fast system.

Personally I prefer the BX2 over the 680i but running a 30" monitor is much more enjoyable with 8800's than X1950's right now.

Personally I have to agree with Bwall on most points.

Were I shooting for the top overclock, highest benchmarks, braggin' rights (and there's nothing wrong with that at all) etc. the 680 would be in my box.

That said I have a nice stable overclock @ 3.2g on my E6600 with little effort (other than the beastly install for the big typhoon ). The BX2 was my most painless MB install and most trouble free O/C since the Celeron 300a days.

I think as the 680i matures it will only get better but I am glad I didn't get one when I was going to (Xmas) as I like stable and trouble free and hate messing with RMA's and in-depth tweaking, I just want to put it together and have it work and any overclock I get will just be gravy on the 'taters...

Everyone's pretty much hit the nail on the head. My roommate's BadAxe2 is one of the most stable OC'ers I've seen and it retains most of the additional functionality (S3&S1 suspend options).

The 680i is actually easier to overclock. The Asus one my brother uses took his E6400 to 3.5Ghz pretty easily. I don't recall seeing him mess much with memory timings and strap and slew rate controls.

One word says it all for me.....STABLE. I too looked at eVGA 680i (especially after Maximum PC raved about it) but was turned off by all the issues on the eVGA website forums.
I've overclocked my D975XBX2 very slightly (just to see what it would do) and been quite pleased with the results.
I may get a 680i later down the line once all the bugs are worked out, but I only have one machine running at home (besides the kids) and I need stability.

I can hit 3.73GHz on the QX6700 with stability on both the 680I and the 975X... I can post and get screenshots at 4GHz on the 680I SLI, but it's not stable... From all my personal use of overclocking I get the same results on both boards, but I can get higher without stability on the 680I.

Apoptosis wrote:I can hit 3.73GHz on the QX6700 with stability on both the 680I and the 975X... I can post and get screenshots at 4GHz on the 680I SLI, but it's not stable... From all my personal use of overclocking I get the same results on both boards, but I can get higher without stability on the 680I.

That says a great deal, in a few words....

Apoptosis wrote:I can hit 3.73GHz on the QX6700 with stability on both the 680I and the 975X... I can post and get screenshots at 4GHz on the 680I SLI, but it's not stable... From all my personal use of overclocking I get the same results on both boards, but I can get higher without stability on the 680I.

can you post the hardware, bios, and settings you use to achieve this overclock?

hexeis wrote:can you post the hardware, bios, and settings you use to achieve this overclock?

No doubt! I'm still trying to get a bootable Vista 64 overlock above 3.6 on my x6800.

rocktrout wrote:

hexeis wrote:can you post the hardware, bios, and settings you use to achieve this overclock?

No doubt! I'm still trying to get a bootable Vista 64 overlock above 3.6 on my x6800.

any of a dozen memory kits --- Corsair 6400C3, 8888, 9136, 10000, Kingston 9600, 9200, OCZ 9200, 8800 Gold and so on...
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water cooler
PC Power & Cooling 1KW PSU (Couldn't do it on the 850W Silverstone Zeus, but others like the Thermaltake Toughpower 850W and Corsair 620HX work fine)
any video card -- 7900GTX and 8800GTX is mainly what i've been using as of late.
Been running BIOS P23 on the 680i and pretty much any of the Intel BIOS versions...

Set the FSB to 266MHz and crank up the multiplier to 15...

ok ok ok ok I feel left in the dark. I made it clear that i have no experience with OCing and was looking for a good relaible mobo to build my rig soon, and now i hear issues with stability for the board (680i) i was planning on buying??

someone please enlighten me!!!

stopthekilling77 wrote:ok ok ok ok I feel left in the dark. I made it clear that i have no experience with OCing and was looking for a good relaible mobo to build my rig soon, and now i hear issues with stability for the board (680i) i was planning on buying??

someone please enlighten me!!!

The general consensus seems to be (and this is just my opinion from my reading of various posts):

1. The 680i was plagued by some serious issues upon release and still isn't the most stable chipset around, however for 6300/6400 level chips is a monster overclocker due to the ability to run at higher FSB (sacrificing stability though). Great if you need SLI at 2x 16 lanes and a bit costly.

2. The 650i is is the budget version of the 680i (2x 8 lanes etc) but has more stability and overclocks very well to boot but is still an Nvidia SLI board.

3. The 965 chipset, like the NV chipset boards, can provide high FSB speeds but suffers from the JMicron IDE issues for PATA, is pretty stable otherwise but was designed with neither SLI or Crossfire in mind (even the boards that implement Crossfire do so in an x16+x4 mode which is a waste of $$ for the minimal performance gain IMHO) but for 6300/6400 class cpus especially are a very viable solution for the money.

4. RD600 was a long time coming, and disappointing upon arrival performance wise, however, if you are Crossfire geared (I kinda' like ATI myself) or like to tweak a lot, can be a cool board. I was waiting for this chipset after hearing the issues on the initial release of 680i.

5. That leaves the venerable 975x chipset boards that, while "long in the tooth" are still stable as the proverbial rock and can overclock quite well. These are the likes of the ASUS P-5Wxxx, the DFI Infinity, and the Bad Axe/Bad Axe 2. The 975x is, clock for clock faster than all of the above but does have it's own issues.

so i'd be okay going with the 680i if i'm only going to dabble in my overclocking? okay thats a lot off my shoulders, cause i did a crapload of research on the parts i chose to buy and i didnt ever cross anything but one or two mildly negative reviews on the 680i board.

i don't plan on trying to become a OCing king or anything so i should be okay right? any issues with the board when slightly overclocked?

Apoptosis wrote:

rocktrout wrote:

hexeis wrote:can you post the hardware, bios, and settings you use to achieve this overclock?

No doubt! I'm still trying to get a bootable Vista 64 overlock above 3.6 on my x6800.

any of a dozen memory kits --- Corsair 6400C3, 8888, 9136, 10000, Kingston 9600, 9200, OCZ 9200, 8800 Gold and so on...
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water cooler
PC Power & Cooling 1KW PSU (Couldn't do it on the 850W Silverstone Zeus, but others like the Thermaltake Toughpower 850W and Corsair 620HX work fine)
any video card -- 7900GTX and 8800GTX is mainly what i've been using as of late.
Been running BIOS P23 on the 680i and pretty much any of the Intel BIOS versions...

Set the FSB to 266MHz and crank up the multiplier to 15...

ahhh so you're using 680i!?

I was looking for BadAxe2 skills.

Apoptosis wrote:

rocktrout wrote:

hexeis wrote:can you post the hardware, bios, and settings you use to achieve this overclock?

No doubt! I'm still trying to get a bootable Vista 64 overlock above 3.6 on my x6800.

any of a dozen memory kits --- Corsair 6400C3, 8888, 9136, 10000, Kingston 9600, 9200, OCZ 9200, 8800 Gold and so on...
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water cooler
PC Power & Cooling 1KW PSU (Couldn't do it on the 850W Silverstone Zeus, but others like the Thermaltake Toughpower 850W and Corsair 620HX work fine)
any video card -- 7900GTX and 8800GTX is mainly what i've been using as of late.
Been running BIOS P23 on the 680i and pretty much any of the Intel BIOS versions...

Set the FSB to 266MHz and crank up the multiplier to 15...

Well Im not an OC prof. so i want to ask how can you put a multiplier that is even higher that the cpu supports even if the cpu multiplier is unlocked? and is this only because using 680i or can it be made on 975x too?

Apoptosis wrote:any of a dozen memory kits --- Corsair 6400C3, 8888, 9136, 10000, Kingston 9600, 9200, OCZ 9200, 8800 Gold and so on...
Corsair Nautilus 500 Water cooler
PC Power & Cooling 1KW PSU (Couldn't do it on the 850W Silverstone Zeus, but others like the Thermaltake Toughpower 850W and Corsair 620HX work fine)
any video card -- 7900GTX and 8800GTX is mainly what i've been using as of late.
Been running BIOS P23 on the 680i and pretty much any of the Intel BIOS versions...

Set the FSB to 266MHz and crank up the multiplier to 15...

Thanks for the info. I'm running Crucial Ballistix at 4-4-4-12, 2.2V and no luck. Any other voltage changes perhaps? I'm using a BX2 mobo.

stopthekilling77 wrote:so i'd be okay going with the 680i if i'm only going to dabble in my overclocking?

Yes.