650i vs. 680i? which is better?

[CUJO]

Looking to upgrade my computer but was wondering if the difference between a 650i vs. a 680i is worth the 10 bucks for the motherboard. Was getting either a MSI or Asus, but leaning towards the 650i MSI board because I've had one for so long and have had good luck with them.

[Biohazard]

You will do good in staying with MSI or ASUS tho, for gaming ASUS is the way to go. MSI in my opinion isn't very popular and their boards are some what "weak". Go ASUS.

ASUS is the way to go because Intel's boards are now screwed or atleast I think they are. AMD's purchase of a video card company "ATI" was the strangest thing a CPU company would do. Note that AMD and Intel are rivals....so would you install an ATI card on an Intel board? I was really dissapointed when this happened and have since then turned away from Intel because I know AMD will attempt something stupid.

Yeah man, go ASUS, more power, more features, more overclocking....tho I don't do overclocking!

[djt]

Intel's boards are now screwed or atleast I think they are.
...so would you install an ATI card on an Intel board? I was really dissapointed when this happened and have since then turned away from Intel because I know AMD will attempt something stupid.

Can you elaborate on this? Where did you get this information from? Where do think Asus get’s the chipsets for their motherboards from?

Start doing some research on Intel’s and Nvidia’s chipsets and let us know what you come up with. You can start here -

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...splay.php?f=59



ASUS Striker II Formula (Nvidia 780i SLI chipset)
Core 2 Extreme QX9650
OCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) (PC2 6400/C-4)
Evga 8800 Ultra “Superclocked”
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (74GB) (RAID 0): Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP1 RC
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (74GB) (RAID 0): Windows XP Pro/SP3 RC
SilverStone 1000Watt OP
SilverStone TJ-09B

Asus Maximus Formula (Intel X38 chipset)
Core 2 Extreme X6800
Corsair XMS2 Dominator 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400/C-4)
VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 512MB
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (150GB) (RAID 0): Windows XP Pro/SP3
PC Power and Cooling 1000Watt SR
LIAN LI PC-A70B

[noell]

CUJO - basically, compared to 650 based mobos, those based on the 680 generally have more BIOS settings for improved flexibility when over-clocking, have a few more features and can run two PCI Express cards each at X16 (compared to two at X8 for 650 based mobos). Here's an article that compares the 680 to two versions of the 650 (in particular, page 3 has a useful comparison table):
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/...ter/index.html

FWIW - I wouldn't hesitate using an MSI motherboard. Over the years I've had two or three for my own use plus I've built several systems for others using MSI products and they've all performed excellently and I've never had a failure.

And for "Biohazard", I'm not so sure the AMD/ATI merger is such a bad thing. Could be they are simply positioning themselves to better take advantage of the possible future integration of the GPU and the CPU. You can find lots of talk on the web about this by Googling "GPU/CPU integration"


.....Noell

[Biohazard]

Hey djt, slow down there buddy...my stated "or at least I think they are." Meaning I was unsure, just speculating =) And yes I know ASUS gets their chipsets from Intel, the view in my previous post just states that AMD might try something stupid with implementations that use their graphics cards on Intel boards.

[djt]

the view in my previous post just states that AMD might try something stupid with implementations that use their graphics cards on Intel boards.

Well I have to admit that I am a little surprised at the ongoing ATI/AMD Cross Fire support with Intel chipsets. Every ATI GPU setup that I have built in the last two years with Intel Core 2 CPU’s has used an Intel chipset. They have all run great (with the exception of some ATI driver issues).

Right now I’m using an Intel X38 based motherboard with the ATI 3870 without any problems. I might even give Cross Fire another try here shortly to see how things have improved.

[rlashier]

The 680i mainboard is clearly superior to the 650i -- more advanced features, support for SLI, and a more robust BIOS for overclocking. Be advised though that if you are interested in upgrading to any of the quad core 45nm processors, the 680i will not support these. There is a newly released 780i board that can handle the new Intel quad core processors. The 680i can handle any of the current 65 nm Dual core processors, and with the recent BIOS update, can also accept a newer Dual Core 45 nm processor (Wolfdale).

Just some more info on the future upgrade path for this board.

Rich