What SLi Motherboard For Over Clocking?

[Scarecrow]

Im trying to decide on what SLi Motherboard to go if i want to delve into over-clocking of a Q6600. I was going to go a Striker Extreme, but ive read some good and bad (mainly bad) about it. From what i read on these forums, everyone seems to have a different opinion about it.

What are the 680i mobo's from BFG and XFX like?

 

[JC316]

The Evga 680I are good overclockers. I had on and it did pretty good.

 

[pbmaster]

All of the Asus and DFI boards have been great. DFI is known for producing great OC'ing boards anyway.

 

[newtekie1]

All the 680i based motherboards, regardless of who makes it, suck at overclocking quad-cores. They are great at overclocking dual-cores, but suck with quad-cores.

 

[mrw1986]

newtekie, have you looked at the eVGA 680i A1 or the XFX 680i rev. 00? I don't think you have because they overclock quads like crazy.

 

[newtekie1]

newtekie, have you looked at the eVGA 680i A1 or the XFX 680i rev. 00? I don't think you have because they overclock quads like crazy.

I own an eVGA 680i A1, it wouldn't keep my Q6600 stable at 3.0GHz. It seemed stable, and would pass 24 hours of Prime95, but every couple of days it would either blue screen or just freeze. Same story with my P5N-E SLI(650i) and P5N32-E SLI(680i). I know it isn't the chip, because if I put it in my P5B it runs just fine at 3.2GHz complete stable, and has been for the past week since my P5N32-E died.

 

[mrw1986]

Ah, sorry to pass judgment then! That's good to know man, I think I'm still gonna pick up the A1 because I'm getting a really good deal on it and I wanna run 8800GT SLi

 

[Scarecrow]

From what ive been reading on these forums in regards to the 680i chipsets and over-clocking quad cores, would it be a fair call to say that i could get away with overclocking a Q6600 to about 2.6-2.8 GHz without too many difficulties?

Its getting frustrating at the moment, because every time i think i have a PC build that should go alright, i read a crap review or something of one of the parts and all goes to the wind...

I think i have settled on as follows:

ASUS Striker Extreme
Q6600 (hopefully overclocked to about 2.6-2.8 GHz)
2 x 8800 Ultra's in SLI
Coolermaster Stacker CM 632
Coolermaster Toughpower 1000W PSU
OCZ Reaper DDR2 4GB 4-4-4-15
DVD Reader
DVD Writer
4 x 120mm Case Fans
Zalman CNPS9500ALED LED Copper Heatsink + Fan
2 x 500 GB WD Cavier HDD
1 x 74 GB WD Raptor

Does this sound pretty good for a dedicated gaming rig?

 

[Namslas90]

Striker Extremes are good, but quit complicated, not recomended for beginners.
The 680i chipset however good, never really delivered what was expected, and has issues of it's own.
DFI's have their ticks, but plenty of 3rd party support for them. Along with the evga's nice boards and easier to OC.

 

[Fitseries3]

THE STRIKER EXTREME HAS A PROBLEM WITH QUADS. DON'T GET IT. SAVE $150 AND GET THE EVGA A1 BOARD. you'll thank me later.