As some of you know I have been without a computer (besides my brothers and my new laptop ) for close to 2 months due to my DFI LANParty 680i mobo blowing up. Getting this board repaired has been a real drama. First DFI told me that I broke the NB and it was going to cost $150 to fix, I said I would not pay over $100 to fix the board so we agreed on the price. I was then told that the board was fixed and on its way back to Australia. Now I have been told that the board is unable to be repaired due to Nvidia not making any 680i components anymore and they have offered me this board (DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200 T2R/G) with a warranty until the end of July 2009 (same as existing board) in exchange for my original board and the $100 repair fee. Personally I just want another 680i board, any 680i board so I can just whack the new board in my system without any formatting problems etc. I have looked in Australia and I can't find any 680i boards for sale. I have asked DFI if they have any of the 680i boards stashed away somewhere so I can just buy a new one from them. The board DFI have offered me runs on an ATI R600 chipset so I will need to format my drive and start from scratch. Usually I wouldn't have a problem with this but I am worried about my copy of Vista and Office. Will a new board mean that I need new CD keys? I would really rather not have to buy new keys thanks to DFI not being able to fix my board. What do you guys think about the board? According to the reviews I have read on Bit-Tech, Legit Reviews and AnandTech the board actually performs pretty well. It can keep up with the ASUS Striker Extreme 680i mobo which is roughly on par with my DFI 680i board. The only thing I don't like about the board is it's very bad NB cooler, yeah I could always upgrade it but I hit another wall. DFI insist on using clips for their NB coolers, not push pins or screws. I have 3 options of aftermarket cooling, I can get a air cooler that supports wire clip installations, I can see if DFI will send back the original NB cooler from my 680i board or I can buy a Swiftech MCW-30 chipset cooler and integrate it into my existing loop. Wire clip water block mounting isn't ideal, especially with 1/2" tubing so I may run into problems here. If I end up going with this new mobo and it dies that's it, I will be doing a complete system overhaul to i7, I was hoping to leave this until next year sometime but it may be the least painful option. So to recap: 1. Will a new motherboard mean new CD keys for Vista and Office? 2. What do you think of the mobo, is it a fair trade (despite the short warranty)? Should I look at getting another 680i board or see if DFI will offer a different board to this one? 3. How should I cool the NB? Air or water? Thanks in advance. Tb40
ok 1. a new mobo wont mean a new cd key or install! all that data is kept on you hard drive! when/if you swap out your mobo you should be able to just install the drivers from the manufacturer, update them and be set, also be sure to update the bios is necessary 2. about the trade, i haven't looked at either mobo, if it makes sense to you go for it, check ebay or some place for a 680i board if your desperate 3. if you already have a water set up it shouldn't be that hard to include the NB, but air is usually fine for a NB Good luck and I hope you find a good board!
To add to the above, even if you do have to reinstall Vista and Office, if they won't activate, give Microsoft a call, and explain you've had a new board due to your old one being faulty - they'll give you a new activation code over the phone.
Re-installation required depends on the Vista type. I can't say anything about general OEM copy. But my Vista on my Dell laptop is system universal. Meaning I can remove the HDD and plug it to ANY computer and be able to successfully boot Vista and even log-in to my account. However, activation with a new product key is required (in such situation I put the product key of my laptop Vista copy and it should work (I have not gotten so far), as when you put the HDD back in the original system Windows is back to be activated (I think it's a special build of Vista for Dell, which looks if it's a Dell system or not on the BIOS). As for retail, it's like every Windows, a re-install your system, as you'll get a BSOD at startup. However, if Windows detects your motherboard close enough as the old one (or the same), then it might pass and no re-installation is needed. So basically, it's a wait and see situation. If you have OEM and you re-install, then activation should fail, however a call to the toll-free number to Microsoft activation (will be mentioned on the activation dialog box), saying that the motherboard was needed to be replaced with a different one as the manufacture doesn't produce one anymore. (Remember, you build computer for clients... in this case, yourself). No more is needed, they will give you a number that you type in the appropriate field and you are set. Activation will be successful, if not, then there is a typo at 100%, confirm the number with the person on the phone. If it's legit, it should work at 100%. I don't know about this motherboard, but I know the the nForce 600 series are quiet the heater. So that should be the up side. If you have a Nvidia graphic card, you will a slight decrease in performance. But, if you have an ATI one you should see a slight increase in performance. I don't know how they know how you burned the NB chip. The only way is that you overclocked, and you said that you did it, or gave out enough hints that you did, that is why you have to pay, if it's under warranty, that is. I think you could have negotiated a much lower price. Reminds me when my Nintendo GameCube Memory slot 'A' was broken on my out of warranty Wii. Nintendo said 95$ to repair it and that is it, I need to cover the shipping of my Wii to them. After some negotiating a bit, for 20$ I got shipping covered both ways, a new Wii (console only with all my data transferred), a new game cube memory card (also everything transferred), and a new warranty of a year (which is what you get in Canada for the Wii) starting the day I get my new console. If you are out of warranty, you could also look at your region law for something called the "legal warranty". Basically, you go to a small claims court (some charges such as 40$ may apply, depending on the region you are in) and you can show to a judge that the years set by the manufacture for the warranty is not sufficient as it's too short. And the judge will force the company to get you a satisfying replacement with a new warranty forced to be extended set the judge (in Quebec they usually set it to 5+ years for TV's and such goods) or your money back of the original price that you paid. That is why extended warranty offered in stores is B.S. Sure you might say it's annoying to do this, but if enough people do it, then they will increase the warranty for their future products and stop with this 1-2 year warranty (well your motherboard should be more). Take for example Logitech, they know that their market that they aim are consumer aware, and that is why they put 3 year or more on their products, because they figured it would be simpler to do that then send a lawyer to the court of your region on a losing case and be forced to have a keyboard that they need to give you for free + probably a 10 year warranty as well... when was the last time you saw a broken keyboard that you actually paid a lot of money on. You don't need a lawyer for small claims court, so you just show up. Talking about Logitech, even if your products out of warranty they can give you 30-50% off a new product that you order from them, with proof of purchase of your previous product.
Thanks a lot, all of you. Just to confirm, the copy of Vista I have is an OEM copy of Vista Home Premium 64bit. Thanks for the info about the CD keys. If it comes to me reinstalling Vista and Office and it doesn't work I will just give Microsoft a call. @GoodBytes - They didn't say I burned out the NB, only that it was damaged, I haven't done any OC at all on this board. They said that the NB chip was damaged due to improper installation of the NB cooler, they sent me this pic to confirm: Personally I can't see any damage to the NB at all but I know for a fact that those marks on the black chip surface weren't there when I sent the board away, I cleaned the chip before packing it back up. I told DFI this and they dropped the repair price from $150 to $100, probably because they know they are at fault. The board is still under DFI's limited warranty (3 years total, 1 year full, 2 years limited) until the end of July this year, I have to pay because replacing a NB chip isn't covered under their limited warranty. I am still considering this replacement board they are willing to give me but personally I think paying $100 for a new board with only 4 months warranty on it is kinda stupid. I am looking at possibly upgrading to a 780i chipset, if DFI can't find an identical board as my original or if they wont offer me a better replacement I may see if they will let me pay extra towards a brand new 780i mobo. If you guys have any recommendations for a replacement please let me know. Once again thanks for your responses.
If you sent the board with a northbridge cooler attached it's entirely possible the carrier did that between you and them. Either way, an unfortunate situation! eBay?
Actually due to the size of the NB cooler on the DFI 680i mobo the cooler must be attached by you when you buy the board, the cooler is too big to me packaged with it installed. See what I mean lol: The cooler is almost as tall as an installed GPU haha, does a damn good job too. And no Ebay has let me down, they only have a rear I/O shield and the BIOS chip, not the board.
I wish all boards would have such NB coolers... Just look at this for example (Asus P5Q Pro): The puny cooler is not able to cool down the chip during intensive GTA IV sessions.
I like that lanparty cooler thermalright do some nice VRM and northbridge heatsinks that certainly do the job, trouble is the cost of a P5Q Pro plus some thermalright kit is about as expensive as a P5Q Deluxe
I'd say get a new 780i, or just replace the whole set, since that repair will run you about $100 anyways.
Thank you all for your inputs. I am having a closer look at the mobo DFI are offering but have also been looking at alternatives. I can get a 780i board and looked at a few others but they all cost $300AUD plus and I really don't want to spend that much ATM. I guess the upside of the new board (besides the newer tech) is the full warranty, not just the warranty to July. I am waiting to see what DFI have to say on the matter, I am hoping they offer me a newer mobo than the one they previously offered. I will most likely just pay for a replacement mobo from DFI with the limited warranty and when it dies I will upgrade the whole system.
if you are going to buy a sli board then it should be evga as they are the only people who make half decent sli boards. the evga 780i is a good board so is the 750i 780i is cheaper http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase21.3&prodID=B135425 but 750i better layout http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/EVGA...I-E-(x16)-DDR2-1066-800-SATA-II-SATA-RAID-ATX
they still sell the 680i LT here in the states at least.. it's basically the same board as the 680i with a gimped bios- you could take the nb cooler off your old 680i and replace the bad cooling they have on the LT (which sells for 99 bucks here in the states- not sure about aus), re-tim it and then flash in the 680i P30-32 using the alt+f4 method.. everything works like this.. pretty funny =] I still recommend this if someone has a older chip.. other choice would be to go 750i.. not worth going 780-790 unless your planning on going tri-sli if your single card.. I'd skip on the nvidia chipset
The P5Q NB heatsink is positively phase change compared to the cruddy DFI heatsinks I've got (yes, the infamous DFI 790FX-B M2RSH. (That said I got it for £100, £30 cheaper than the M3A79-T and it's been a good board apart from 2 unsucessfull BIOS flashes)
no problem with the p5q pro NB heat sink here. hovers at around 40C max temp as measured with an infrared temp gun. Plus, if you strap a small fan to it, it has the potential to be cooler then the south bridge.
@pizan - Thanks a lot, I will check it out. @bagman - I have looked at eVGA but as I am only running a single 8800GTX I am not really interested in the SLI performance. I picked my DFI board cos it was one of the best overclocking boards of the time, I just never got around to giving it a go lol. @thehippoz - My DFI board is actually a 680iLT chipset but with all the onboard accessories (extra USB, 3xPCI-e 16x lanes etc.), that's why I brought it in the first place, it could perform as well as a fully fledged 680i mobo such as the ASUS Striker Extreme. If I end up going for the board DFI have offered me I am going to see if they will let me have the NB cooler off the original board, if not I will just W/C the NB. I need to take a look at the 750i series of boards, I have no intention of going SLI so I may even go with an ATI chipset. Do you have any particular boards in mind? Thanks for all your help guys.
Ok, so I have looked at the boards that are available to me and these are the only ones really worth looking at: DFI LanParty UT-X48-T2R ASUS P5Q-E-WIFI-AP ASUS P5Q Premium ASUS Maximus II Formula XFX N780-ISH9 780i And of course, the one DFI offered me DFI LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G Realistically the DFI X48 board and the P5Q-E-WIFI are the best bets for me I think if I go down the path of purchasing a new board. If I start looking at the XFX board and the other 2 ASUS boards I may as well go i7 now cos the boards cost around the same. Once DFI get back to me I will see if it is possible for them to exchange my board for the X48 board, even if I have to pay a little extra. If they can't do this I will probably take their original offer and see if they will let me keep the NB cooler from my original board to replace the one on the replacement. If they wont let me do this I will just W/C the NB instead.
En..you can have a look at the ASUS P5Q LGA 775 . This is one very well laid out motherboard. The instruction book is perfectly clear.
