Hey guys, Looking for Opinions too!!

What's up guys.

I've spent 99.9% of my time on these boards in the extreme cooling section talking to several very nice and courtious users. I love these boards, and the posters are friendly, helpful, and there is SOOOO much knowledge here!


My question is much like flyboys thread where he's asking advice on mobos.


My current setup:

Mobo: eVga 680i
CPU: XEON 3070 2.66GHz @ 3.75GHz vCore of 1.525v - FSB @ 1500MHz x10
Cooler: CoolIT Freezone - Idle 30c-ish, Load 55c to 60c-ish
GPU: eVga 8800GTX referance, pulled BIOS and edited it to run at ACS3 speeds
RAM: 2x1gig Cossair XMS2 Dominators 800MHz @ stock speeds
HDD: WD 160 sata 3
DVD: Samsung sata
PSU: Apevia 600w
Case: NZXT Apollo w/ additional modded on 120mm side panel fan
NB Cooler: CoolerMaster BlueIce
SB Cooler: Thermalright HR-05-SLi w/ 70mm aluminum cased fan
LCD: Two Samsung SyncMaster 225bw @ 1680x1050
OS: Win XP Pro 32-Bit

New case comming tomorrow, CoolerMaster 830 stacker.
New PSU comming next week, Silverstone Strider ST85F 850w.
New NB Cooler comming next week, Noctua NC-U6 w/ 70mm aluminum cased fan.

Future (when tax return comes in):
Making a water chiller with an AC window unit, EK waterblock on 8800GTX, NB waterblock, no more Freezone, WD Raptor 150gig, G.Skill F2-8000PHU2-2GBZX, Intel Quad Core QX6700. Vista 64-Bit, either Ultimate or Home Professional, just waiting on better driver support.




That being stated, I don't plan on another 8800GTX... as it ****es me off to pay full top dollar price for "slight" preformance gains... so SLi I could careless about.

I don't like my eVga 680i board. I've done a lot of research, if jivetrky, greenmaji or mcloed would tell ya, I like to do my research... and it seems that no matter who makes the board or what kind of modifcations they do to it (solid state caps like abit and gigabyte, or crazy heatpipe cooling like the asus), the problems follow the 680i chipset to all the boards.

I am impatient as to why I don't want to wait for the 680i supposeded "updates", but more so I just don't like the fact that I spent top dollar on a motherboard and I get to troubleshoot it on a daily basis just so I can play BF2142.

I want to go back to my loved Intel Chipsets. = )

I'd like to hear opinions on which boards you guys like and why. I like to OC, I'm not running SLi, though I current don't have one I do plan to get a Quad Core very soon

What would you guys recomend, so I can do some research on it? I've always liked the Abit boards I've had in the past, but I've never OC'd with them or pushed them hard, but I'm open to really any maker.



Thanks in advanced!!!!

well you dont seem to run a very high oc so based on that the boards from top would go like this

AW9D-max (975x w/ich7r)
AW9D (975x w/ich7)
AB9-PRO (965 w/ich8r)
AB9 (965 w/ich8)

i would suggest the quad gt but imo the aw9d-max packs more of a punch $$-performance.

not sure if it would be a deal breaker but the 965's with ich8's do not natively support IDE, IDE is support by the Jmicron controller. ich7 does natively support ide but lacks the extra sata that ich8 has.

Thank you!

The AW9D does support a Quad-Core then?

I currently can't OC my CPU any higher, I hit a FSB wall at 1650ish and I can't keep 4GHz cool enough to stay stable... future, with better RAM and Cooling though!

And I don't use IDE devices, I disable that stuff on my 680i.

Ok, I'm dumb. I did read that but I apperently didn't read it to the bottom when I saw the list of CPU's, I stopped there.

Evilsizer said:

well you dont seem to run a very high oc so based on that the boards from top would go like this

AW9D-max (975x w/ich7r)
AW9D (975x w/ich7)
AB9-PRO (965 w/ich8r)
AB9 (965 w/ich8)

i would suggest the quad gt but imo the aw9d-max packs more of a punch $$-performance.

Click to expand...

I would say one of the AW9D's or the AB9 Quadt over the AB9 or AB9-Pro. Seems alot are getting rather high FSB's with the QuadGT. It also seems to have a working 1066strap as well.

So even though the QuadGT is on a mid-range chipset, it seems to be working better then the higher end chipsets of the AW9D's?

Here is a review from Anandtech on it. Nice little mini review at XS

Ok, those reviews look like I'm going to investigating the AW9D instead of the QuadGT.

Thank you!

CM Stacker 830 came today... box had definatly been opened before and re-tapped... pieces missing (namely the four fan tray door)... bent motherboard tray (not the part of the tray the mobo sits on but the back panel part, so I can't close the damn thing)... Performance-PC claming UPS did it, I guess they could have though I don't see how they would have bent the MOBO tray without damaging the case itself. So they won't do anything till UPS picks up the Case, evualtes if they did it or not, then responds to Performance-PC... then Performance-PC gets to wait for them to dish out money, then they'll ship me a new one.

That sucks about your case. The Abit forum have a thread going on this board regarding Alpha and Beta bios its a bit long 23 pages so far but some great info on how this board behaves. Heres the thread http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=117944

Thank you Vento1, I will read that soon as I'm off work.

Update on the case and Performance-PCs, thought they weren't yesterday, today they were EXTREMELY HELPFUL! Bascilly did everything they could to get me a new case and let them hash it out with UPS without my invlovment... so that has a happy ending.

Yea Performance-PCs is a great place to shop. I've ordered from there many times. One time I ordered a 92mm fan and they sent me a 120mm. Well I e-mailed them and that day they sent a replacement for me. They even paid to have the 120mm fan shipped back to them.

I think he ment to post this here

http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4916653&postcount=7

Gautam recomends the BadAxe2.. there both at microcenter right now for $178
Can't louse on that deal wichever one you pick though

greenmaji said:

I think he ment to post this here

http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4916653&postcount=7

Gautam recomends the BadAxe2.. there both at microcenter right now for $178
Can't louse on that deal wichever one you pick though

Click to expand...

LOL are you stalking him?

LOL, how in the world did I do that?!?!

I must have had a few tabs opened reading several threads at the sametime and posted my reply in the wrong thread.

Ok, I'm an official idiot... lol

Yeah, the post is:
I think the AW9D-Max is going to be my choice... thanks guys!

Evilsizer said:

LOL are you stalking him?

Click to expand...

No, he just knows all and sees all!

Quick question.

Does anyone know what the heat difference are between the AWD9-MAX and the 680i chipsets?

680i is a hotter running chipset vs the 975... how much difference its hard to say. there are no numbers as to how much wattage they can put out.