ASUS and DFI add quad-core Penryn support to 680i boards

[Andreas G]

Retail quad-core Penryn support was suppose to be one of the great new things about the nForce 780i chipset, even though the support problems was due to the layout of the NVIDIA reference board and not the chipset itself. Since a few companies have their own layouts, like DFI and ASUS, they decided to get to work on the retail quad-core Penryn support with their nForce 680i boards. And they seem to have solved it. Both DFI and ASUS have beta BIOSes with working retail Penryn support for their nForce 680i-based motherboards DFI LanParty UT NF680i SLI-T2R and ASUS Striker Extreme. It's unclear when these BIOSes will be available to the public, but it shouldn't take too long.

[Skyguy]

Wow, that's interesting for 2 major reasons:

1. this would render the 780i somewhat unnecessary, except for triple-sli, although I heard that is technically possible in the 680i.

2. Other board manufacturers cannot make their products Penryn-compatible. I heard there was a physical limitation on the boards themselves that made them incompatible. If it's just reference boards, and DFI and ASUS aren't handcuffed by this, then that is great news for people that own those boards.

This is kinda making the 780i look like a simple update/refresh. I wonder if people will just wait until the NEW chipset comes from Nvidia instead.......?
_________________


Lian-Li A71B | Q6600 @ 3.5 on TEC/H2O | ASUS Maximus SE X38 | 4gb Corsair Dominators - 8500 | Raptors RAID 0 | 1Tb Barracudas | MSI 8800 Ultra SC | Coolermaster 850w | 2x22" Dell LCD | X-Fi Xtreme | G15 Rev.2 | G5 Rev.2 |

[Delph1]

TriSLI works just fine with 680i today,

EVGA offers an upgrade for a mere $89 so I think most EVGA users will upgrade. Others ... well I don't know, it really depends on when Intel decides to launch the next set of Penryn processors.

//Andreas
_________________
"I'm sort of a postmodern vegetarian, I eat meat ironically"
"You are our Swedish superhero "

Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[Mean Machine]

So, it would've been fun to try SLI out, but I can't stand the motherboards available. Crysis is a bit too hard on a single 8800GT at 1920x1200...
_________________
Man, or woman, or both?
Grandis spiritus, sanctus diavolos

[Arctucas]

Hello to all,

First time poster; I registered specifically to reply to this thread.

As a Striker Extreme owner, you should understand I am taking quite an interest in this topic.

However, I found this on the Asus Striker Extreme forum:
[url]http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070924103835140&SLanguage=en-us&page=1&board_id=1&model=Striker%20Extreme[/url]

Read the third comment by Gegi.

So, I ask, what is the truth? Is there a BIOS that enables Penryn quad core support on the Striker Extreme or not?

If anyone has further information, I would appreciate it.

[Delph1]

Well, I know of people having received a beta BIOS and running QX9650 with it.

Unfortunately, they are beta testers and not able to share the BIOS. Also it's suppose be a bit buggy.

The reason most nForce 680i boards doesn't support QX9650 is because of the subpar components used by the NVIDIA reference design, ASUS shouldn't have that problem.

//Andreas
_________________
"I'm sort of a postmodern vegetarian, I eat meat ironically"
"You are our Swedish superhero "

Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[Arctucas]

@Delph1,

I just came across this:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20080110011302718&board_id=1&model=Striker+Extreme&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
but the poster makes no mention of a quad Penryn.

[Delph1]

I believe this one is mainly for quad-core stability. Pretty much all companies with 680i boards in their lineup have released this BIOS (with different names and versions for each BIOS of course...).

I'll see if I can dig up the version number of the BIOS with the Penryn support.

//Andreas
_________________
"I'm sort of a postmodern vegetarian, I eat meat ironically"
"You are our Swedish superhero "

Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[Arctucas]

@Delph1,

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Delph1]

Haven't had much luck.

DFI is phasing out their 680i motherboard and I wouldn't be surprised if the Striker is seeing the end of its era quite soon. This makes me believe that these beta BIOSes will probably not see the light of day, but I hope I'm wrong.

Still searching.

//Andreas
_________________
"I'm sort of a postmodern vegetarian, I eat meat ironically"
"You are our Swedish superhero "

Forget everything, knowledge is your enemy, it's only going to make you second-guess yourself."

[Arctucas]

Delph1,

I also hope Asus releases the BIOS, but, I would not doubt they will not.

Why would they, when they can use the 45nm quad support to sell new 780i boards?

I do see that Asus advertises the Striker Extreme to support 45nm, although they do not specifically mention quad core.

[Mean Machine]

Actually, Asus generally has pretty good BIOS support. Weirdly enough, the P5W DH Deluxe has support for the QX9650 and its siblings, and the board is 1.5 years old. I hope the Striker Extreme will receive support for it as well, but to be honest; I don't care really.
_________________
Man, or woman, or both?
Grandis spiritus, sanctus diavolos

[Delph1]