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. 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.
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
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. 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.
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