atomicsewer

I'm looking for a reputable online dealer to get a 680i motherboard. I'm restricted to the 680i because my processor is a Pentium D. I see newegg has deactivated the item. Any leads? Thanks.

ljason8eg

A Pentium D will work in the 7 series Nvidia chipsets as well. You don't need a 680i. That board had a ton of problems anyway.

The real question is...do you even need an Nvidia chipset? If you're not running SLI, you don't need one.

__________________

procpuarie

Newegg, NCIX, ect.

__________________

atomicsewer

ljason, thanks for the heads up. It looks like you've really given me something to think about. I'm leaning towards the 750i. Just curious to your opinion on that. I want to use SLI for two 9600 GT OC cards from Chaintech. It's my first foray into SLI, so I'm crossing my fingers.

Greensystemsgo

what problems were their with the 680i? ive used three all with c2q's, all overclocked to atleast 3.0ghz.

@OP get a 7xx if you can afford it, only plus is true tri sli.

but be warned a pent D will prob bottleneck.

ljason8eg

I went through 4 680i's in a little over a year. Talk to others on the forum and they had many problems as well. It wasn't the most reliable chipset and it's also slower clock for clock than S775 intel chipsets and it runs hot. Enough said.

The 750i is not true Tri SLI. Only 780i/790i.

I do agree though that the Pentium D will probably bottleneck those cards a bit, depending on resolution.

__________________

bk7794

I think you should go ati if your willing to spend a bit less. You can get an intel chipset and so on and so forth. IT will probably be cheaper too. Around 130 or 115 after MIR. The gigabyte UD3P but other then that if you want sli you might have to overclock the pentium D to get rid of the bottle neck

__________________

E5200

Q9550
1Ghz overclock club

atomicsewer

Green and ljason,
My understanding (albeit meager) is that the bottleneck happens on lower resolutions. If the resolutions are higher, then that work is offloaded to the video cards. Can you guys confirm or help erase my misunderstanding with that? Would I be fine going with the Core 2 Duo if that were the case? I don't really think I need to Core 2 Quad, as I don't have the massively intensive FPS that are out there. Thoughts? Suggestions?

ljason8eg

A Core 2 Duo would be fine. Massive upgrade from your Pentium D to say the least. You are correct though. Most bottlenecking happens at lower resolutions, but some games are more CPU bound than others.

__________________

Locool676

A Pentium D is still a crap chip and will not keep up with a SLI setup.
If you have the extra money, grab a low end E series (5200 or 7200).
The difference will be amazing.