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ICH8R vs 680i performance comparison

T

Tom Underhill

n00b
Joined
May 5, 2007
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4
Any real feedback on a performance comparison between the ICH8R and 680i? I see strengths of each board, and reviews of each one, but I have not been able to find a real comparison.

NVIDIA offers dual 16x (or even three) slots and supports 1333 FSB. I read that the RAID on the ICH8R really rocks, but is limited to 1066 FSB.

I'm looking to build a couple new dual- or quad-core Intel machines. They will run dual video cards (stand-alone, not SLI), 8GB RAM, Vista 64, and 3-5 drive RAIDs. We spend a lot of time in Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, and a couple of other programs, often all at the same time.

One of the machines will also be a database and .NET development box on top of a design box.

If we go with a 1333 FSB board, we'll go with low-end C2D chips and wait until the Penryns ship. If we're stuck with 1066, then we'll drop fast C2Qs into the systems.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
 
Tom Underhill said:
Any real feedback on a performance comparison between the ICH8R and 680i? I see strengths of each board, and reviews of each one, but I have not been able to find a real comparison.

NVIDIA offers dual 16x (or even three) slots and supports 1333 FSB. I read that the RAID on the ICH8R really rocks, but is limited to 1066 FSB.

I'm looking to build a couple new dual- or quad-core Intel machines. They will run dual video cards (stand-alone, not SLI), 8GB RAM, Vista 64, and 3-5 drive RAIDs. We spend a lot of time in Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, and a couple of other programs, often all at the same time.

One of the machines will also be a database and .NET development box on top of a design box.

If we go with a 1333 FSB board, we'll go with low-end C2D chips and wait until the Penryns ship. If we're stuck with 1066, then we'll drop fast C2Qs into the systems.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Click to expand...

For a business right?

Don't use the nforce 680i series unless you want SLI, end of story. At stock speeds the 975 and 965 boards are faster and far less picky with memory. They are also better when you get into raid.

The 1333 vs 1066 FSB really doesn't matter. As the CPU's you will be putting in said systems do not support it (today). That said if your goal is to push the board all of the chipsets will go well past 1333 FSB. The 680i board just supports better native options in memory and extras. Well spec'd what intel planned.

Currently the 680i boards still have far to many kinks to use for a business platform. It's just to flaky. For an enthusiast that knows what he is doing and can spend time with it, want's to OC, and use SLI yeah it kicks the crap out of everything out there. But as an IT worker by trade I'd NEVER use it at work (which it sounds like what you aim to do) not worth the headache.

You can google raid/memory issues with 680i and get blasted with loads of crap, that said a lot of it has been worked out.

If I wanted to run a dual GPU quadcore CPU machine for work, over multiple monitors, with little extra work involved, and with RAID, I'd look square at the p965 boards, or the 975x boards if you have extra funds. And pass right by the nvidia boards.

And this is from a person with 680i SLI who loves it.
 
sd11 said:
For a business right?

Don't use the nforce 680i series unless you want SLI, end of story. At stock speeds the 975 and 965 boards are faster and far less picky with memory. They are also better when you get into raid.

The 1333 vs 1066 FSB really doesn't matter. As the CPU's you will be putting in said systems do not support it (today). That said if your goal is to push the board all of the chipsets will go well past 1333 FSB. The 680i board just supports better native options in memory and extras. Well spec'd what intel planned.

Currently the 680i boards still have far to many kinks to use for a business platform. It's just to flaky. For an enthusiast that knows what he is doing and can spend time with it, want's to OC, and use SLI yeah it kicks the crap out of everything out there. But as an IT worker by trade I'd NEVER use it at work (which it sounds like what you aim to do) not worth the headache.

You can google raid/memory issues with 680i and get blasted with loads of crap, that said a lot of it has been worked out.

If I wanted to run a dual GPU quadcore CPU machine for work, over multiple monitors, with little extra work involved, and with RAID, I'd look square at the p965 boards, or the 975x boards if you have extra funds. And pass right by the nvidia boards.

And this is from a person with 680i SLI who loves it.
Click to expand...

I concur. In fact, if you've got that many RAID's (up to 5), why not consider an add-on card option? There's plenty of reasonably priced models out there. Check out the recent Comprehensive RAID Performance Report on the frontpage. It offers a 'decent' insight into the current RAID options; onboards and add-on.

I'm biased towards LSI, but 3Ware makes some good options. Couple either with the rock solid ICH8R and you're golden. A little birdy told me recently, if your investment was for something stable, go with a p965.
 
Thanks for the advice... from what I can read, I was leaning that way.

Do you see any reason to wait for the Bearlake/P35 boards?
 
If the performance is there, the budget is there.

My personal machine here at my desk has 1xDell 3007 and 2xDell 2007 monitors.

I'm not afraid to spend $5k on a machine if it really will kick some serious bootay.

We need high hard drive transfer rates, lots of memory and fast processors.

t
 
Thanks... you're not too late. We'll be moving on this system in the next two weeks.

At this point, I'm leaning towards a 965-based system...

t
 
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