Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6 - A Mother Of A Motherboard 291
MojoKid writes "Motherboards manufacturers seem to get more exotic in their designs, with each new chipset release. HotHardware has an evaluation posted looking at the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6; a product that seemingly out does every other current desktop motherboard in a number of key areas. The board features four Gigabit LAN controllers, 10 SATA ports, a 12-phase power array, 100% solid-state capacitors, and a unique wrap-around, passive, cooling apparatus that cools both the top and underside of the chipset and CPU socket area. And because the board is based on NVIDIA's nForce 680i SLI chipset, it also has three full-length PCI Express x16 slots for multi-GPU support. It's a good overclocker and performed well throughout the benchmarks."
But... (Score:5, Funny)
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2 PCI Express x16 slots
1 PCI Express x8 slot
1 PCI Express x1 slot
3 PCI slots
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Doh! (Score:2)
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No, the summary and article were both correct. It's just that PCIe is more complicated because the "xN" nomenclature can refer to the electrical and physical properties separately.
In other words, the slot in question is physically x16 (i.e., an x16 card will fit) but electrically x8 (i.e., a card in that slot would only get x8 bandwidth).
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Worthless!
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Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
It goes PAST eleven.
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No. Blendtec doesn't make a big enough blender to fit it in. Instead, the proper question to ask is "Will it chip [google.com]?"
What is a power array? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What is a power array? (Score:5, Informative)
The onboard power regulator is the part of the motherboard which converts the standard 3.3v to the exact voltages the CPU, RAM, etc require. The theory goes that the more phases, the cooler running, more efficient and more reliable the motherboard will be (but it's mostly about e-penis, rather than any genuine advantage).
Hey! (Score:5, Funny)
No need to turn this in to a Microsoft flame war! ^.^
Good bye, sweet Karma....
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I'm assuming they mean something else. Or, more likely, its bullshit like audiophile cables designed to minimize the skin effect, cable burn in devices or power factor correction stuff for your house.
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Note: I've done multi-phase power work, but it has been a while.
Re:What is a power array? (Score:5, Informative)
In order to switch more power, you can put a whole bunch of MOSFETs in parallel, or use a really big one, but then you're switching a huge amount of current all at once through your poor little inductor and capacitor, each of which also have ripple current ratings you should not exceed.
So, instead, you get a switcher IC capable of controlling multiple phases (for instance the 4-phase L6714 from ST Micro if you're interested in powering an AMD64 processor) and 4 different MOSFETs, and each time the load capacitor must be recharged (again, every 1-5 microseconds), the IC will switch on one MOSFET after the other in sequence, resulting in a more steady load voltage, and a lower ripple current on the inductors and capacitors. This has multiple advantages for voltage quality, heat dissipation, and component life.
The fact that it's subject to silly marketing does not mean they'd be stupid enough to buy 12 MOSFETs and expensive power controllers if they didn't need to for technical reasons.
Re:What is a power array? (Score:5, Informative)
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--you'll have to excuse me. I have to go wait for someone...in the test chamber.
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It's next to the deflector dish and is usually the 2nd thing to be re-aligned when trying to solve some complex, physically impossible, life threatening problem.
"In four hours the ship blows up" -- Scotty (The Savage Curtain)
Re:What is a power array? (Score:5, Funny)
Quad-Triple Phase power (Score:4, Informative)
Plz. ignore that nutcase below that refers to Wikipedia on 3-phase power, that's about something totally different. I suspect many /.'ers will have some understanding of electronics, but maybe less detailed than I assume. So I'll give it a go in layman's terms:
What you're looking at is a DC step-down switching regulator circuit (look that up if you want). On most mobo's, it converts 12V to around 1,5V, at many, many Amperes (fist rule: power = voltage x amps).
In it's most basic form, it consists of a coil, a (fast) switch, and a diode. The coil(s) are the thick copperwire/ceramic thingies on the board. As a switch, electronic versions known as power MOSFETs (usually black, square plastic thingies) are used. Because diodes have a small, but significant voltage drop when current passes through, this would give unacceptable losses (heat) at the high currents we have here. Therefore, another power MOSFET is used to replace the diode.
Such a pair of MOSFETs is switched on and off quickly (10s or 100s thousands of times a second), with 1 in conducting (low resistance), and 1 in non-conducting (high resistance) state at any given moment. BUT: when switching over, there is some overlap, where both are somewhat conducting, causing a momentary 'short circuit' (=losses, waste heat). Enter 3-state: switch one off, wait very short to make sure the MOSFET goes fully into non-conducting state, and only THEN switch on the other MOSFET.
My guess is this 'Quad-Triple Phase power' is a similar construction, but then 4 times, working in parallel (for more current), or alternating (to lengthen cooling periods between on-states). Basically: a high-current, energy-efficient 12V-to-CPU-voltage converter.
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Why? (Score:5, Funny)
(Before someone else replies, I have the most likely response, "Necessary? Is it necessary that I drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyways because it's sterile and I like the taste." -Patches O'Houlihan)
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The feature set sounds like it belongs in a server more than the average desktop.
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No, this board looks to me like it's exactly what they're marketing it as: a mainboard for the home enthusiast.
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But I have to ask who would really use some of the features it has?
Points:
1. 10 Sata ports...obviously there are some video editing applications or SOHO server applications this might be good for but still it sounds just a tad overkill.
2. 4Gigabit ethernet ports!?!?...What would someone use this for? Oh, I know...gotta be able to hook up those 4 T1s coming into your "Swordfish" style hacking suite:P I suppose you could setup all sorts of
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4 GbE ports does seem a bit much, though. 2 you could team on a home network to potentially good effect, but with 4 you've got teaming and redundancy (assuming you can even set it up that way). I really don't see the need for network redundancy in my apartment. I suppose it does open
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Agreed on the ethernet, though looking around it's hard to find multi-port gigabit cards that are anything except PCI-X, so it'd be hard to get a lot of extra ports. Still, for my money, what the hell
Passively cooled sounds good but not quiet. (Score:3, Funny)
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I've certainly built systems where the total air throughput was more than adequate to move all the heat, but it wasn't adequate to cool down a specific hotspot. Which isn't surprising,
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being as heatpipes have been used for cooling in zero gravity, i doubt it would make any differant at all what direction the tubing goes.
Tech Review Site (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Tech Review Site (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Tech Review Site (Score:4, Insightful)
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But... (Score:5, Funny)
That is the question
Re:But... (Score:4, Informative)
It is funnier, at least, than imagining a you-know-what cluster of them...
editors..... (Score:4, Informative)
From TFA:
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
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If they were deployed right, it would be very nice teaming and redundancy. What are the chances of that on retail hardware?
10x SATA
I need a new file server. Nothing like an LVM using 10 drives. Pretty cheap. But hot.
Is there a performance benefit to putting those ports there?
If you did the same thing with PCI slots the power and heat requirements might be higher.
No doubt this will be an expensive board few will pay for.
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If they were deployed right, it would be very nice teaming and redundancy. What are the chances of that on retail hardware?
From the fine article:
My first thought was that if I needed 4 GigE NICs, they'd all be Intel, so maybe this isn't so much a feature.
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Right now you can get from Newegg PCI Express SATA controllers with 2 ports for $20, but the ones with 4 ports are all more than double. Just the way it goes, nobody making one with 4 ports with two chips on it
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Sheesh, get with the times.
10 USB posts isn't a lot. I have iPod, Shuffle, Camera, printer, head set and external drive.
Considering most people also have a USB mouse and keyboard and speakers.
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tell that to the optical drive manufacturers. it is still problematic to find SATA optical drives at reasonable cost.
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I also don't expect to see SATA floppy drives available any time soon.
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And that's 2 too many.
PATA ribbon cables are horrid. I've successfully converted all of my new system to SATA except for the optical drive now (and that'll soon be SATA). I purposely bought an Asus board that only had 1 IDE port (hard to find boards with none).
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Lite-On 20x DVD burner (IDE): $28.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16827106048 [newegg.com]
Lite-On 20x DVD burner (SATA): $30.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16827106070 [newegg.com]
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless you're going to be buying a craptacular "fake raid" card, you're going to be paying hundreds of dollars for a card that can handle these drives, so it's a good thing the damn board comes with extra PCI express slots, especially since you're more likely to find a PCI-X raid card, and there are no PCI-X slots on this board (and good luck trying to fit it into a PCI slot, with all that extra crap on the board).
All that SATA with no RAID suggests that all the extra SATA slots are just epeen. All the board real estate used on things that you don't need multiples of, just so you're forced to blow a card slot to make up for it.
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solid-core vs solid-state (Score:4, Informative)
Three PCI Express 16X Slots? (Score:2)
Three PCI Express 16X Slots? I'm not quite sure I get that one. Why? To run SLI on one pair, and have another single graphics card? Most cards today come with two outputs anyway, and if you're crazy enough to need SLI on two monitors, why wouldn't you need it on your third/fourth? Four slots would've made more sense to me.
I guess they must be aiming at the booming five- and six-monitor market...?
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Two actually (Score:2)
however, to answer your bigger wuestion: There are cards other then video cards that use 16 PCI-eXpress.
Fuck It, We're Going To Three Slots (Score:4, Funny)
Overheard at Gigabyte HQ...
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I hadn't thought of that; I guess I still have my old 3dfx Voodoo2s in mind. Still, the Wikipedia article only details dual- and quad-slot setups, and has only this to say about three-slot motherboards:
Capacitors (Score:3, Informative)
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A few years ago an electrolytic capacitor in my PSU literally exploded, frying the mobo, both CPUs, keyboard and mouse...
Beef.
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Not only do the solid caps not have a liquid electrolyte to boil off, they very well may have lower ESR to boot - prod
N680SLI-DQ6 (Score:5, Funny)
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In some fairness to the naming, the first two thirds of the model number describes the chipset and main feature. I have no idea what "DQ6" is, maybe that's the type of Dairy Queen building that goes with the board.
iSCSI SAN (Score:3, Interesting)
Obligatory single page link (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?arti
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Just not worth it. (Score:2)
100% solid-state capacitors (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I read the article. Seems to me that electrolytic is kind of solid state, but I get the idea. Whatever happened to mica?
Hot hardware (Score:2)
Maybe I'm missing something, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Thro some D's on that bitch (Score:3)
Gigabyte? Not interested (Score:3, Informative)
They flat out refuse to honour the warranty without payment on a video card - it's STILL under warranty and broken in my drawer at work.
I'd rather stick with Asus or MSI or well,,, anyone but Gigabyte.
Oh and the amazing overclocking Gigabyte DS3? Yeah, not so much, go search on google for the 'post bug' problems where it refuses to re-boot even if the overclock was stable for a week, or it re-boots itself at the post stage multiple times for no apparent reason - very flakey - very cheap - not interested.
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2 of them are for SLI video cards and are x16, the third is for whatever is only x8. In the pictures the orange one is the 8x while the 2 blue ones are for x16 SLI video. The blurb is incorrect - maybe the submitter just looked at the pictures?
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The third slot is physically x16, so it counts as being called "x16" and the blurb is correct. It's electrically x8, so the article is also correct. You can put an x16 card in it; it'll just run at x8 speed.
One is better than two (Score:2)
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The opposite of "solid-state" capacitors is in this case the aluminium electrolytic capacitors. Presumably they just use tantalum or some other kind instead on this board. Now, these are also polarized and technically also "electrolytic" (b
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Re:solid-state capacitors (Score:4, Informative)
About the only advantage of an aluminum electrolytic is that it's cheap.
steve
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Two words. They paid cmd taco off. Okay 5 words...
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More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express [wikipedia.org]
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So, was the rent cheap for that rock you've been living under? 'Cause since you moved in, users have started hooking up multiple monitors to their PC, and some people even invented a little thing called SLI [wikipedia.org].
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Some people might also want to do 4 monitors on 2 video cards (or even have larger arrays of monitors). Matrox has specialized in this kind of thing for the past several years, since it can't make fast enough GPUs to compete in the gaming market.
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(Ok not so new anymore but you get the idea)
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"You must be new here"
Re:Solid state capacitors = article written by dim (Score:3, Informative)
The Industry's Leading All-Solid Capacitor motherboard Design
To ensure a longer for systems in daily operation and boost system stability under extreme conditions, this platform adopts cutting-edge Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors from the world's leading vendors. With these high-quality components , users can take advantage of better electronic conductivity and excellent heat resistance for enhanced system durability.
There are indeed 100% non-electrolytic capacitors on this board, despite what it 'looks' like to you. There's even a pretty sticker on the box saying 100% solid capacitors. It's not like it's a hugely rare feature these days, other boards have 100% solid caps too, like the ASUS P5N32 SLI PLUS.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Pr oductCode=242713 [zipzoomfly.com]
Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 1333MHz DDR2-800 Motherboard Retail ***Free Shipping***
800/1066/1333FSB, ATA/133, 4DDR2 DIMM, 2 PCI Express x16, 1 PCI Express x8, 1 PCI Express x1, 3PCI, USB 2.0/1.1, IEEE 1394a, Audio, Quad Gigabit LAN, RAID/SATA, eSATA
Features exclusive Silent Pipe II fanless cooling technology and 100% solid capacitors