NVIDIA nForce 680i

[Michael]

NVIDIA has announced the nForce 600i series today to coincide with the GeForce 8 launch (as well as their LAN party). The Chipset models are the 650i Ultra, 650i SLI, and 680i SLI.

600 Series: http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce_600i.html

PR: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_37234.html

We hope to comment on the Linux compatibility and performance next week (ideally) after receiving motherboards based upon this new Chipset series.

[afterburntdw]

Hi Michael:

I was just going to post about this chipset! I would assume that Nvidia has great support for the motherboard using their proprietary drivers. I was really interested to see how the SATA raid options would work under Linux.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by afterburntdw

Hi Michael:

I was just going to post about this chipset! I would assume that Nvidia has great support for the motherboard using their proprietary drivers. I was really interested to see how the SATA raid options would work under Linux.

Actually NVIDIA really hasn't updated their proprietary Linux Chipset drivers... The open-source drivers with NVIDIA's Chipsets have been terrific with forcedeth, sata_nv, hda_intel, etc... The open-source drivers had worked great with the nForce 500 series, and I should be able to confirm the 600 series shortly.

[afterburntdw]

Which brand did you order? I'm particularly interested in the SATA implementation in comparison to the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe. It uses a Silicon Image chipset that is completely hardware based and thus transparent to any OS. I would love to move to a 600-based board, but I want to make sure about the RAID options first.


As always, thank you. I enjoy the Linux news you offer on the site!

[Michael]

Originally Posted by afterburntdw

Which brand did you order?

Whatever boards manufacturers send out and arrive at our location. Likely it will be some ASUS and Abit ones. I know the new Abit one will be here later in December or early January.

[feight]

Originally Posted by Michael

Whatever boards manufacturers send out and arrive at our location. Likely it will be some ASUS and Abit ones. I know the new Abit one will be here later in December or early January.

I would be very appreciative of any advice or links you can provide for getting linux to work with the 680i chipset; specificly with a 680i hardware sata raid 5 array as the primary (and only) storage.

I've never dealt with sata before and built a new rig on Tuesday with the EVGA 680i board with 3 Western Digital 250GB 16MB cache Caviar drives in a raid 5 taking advantage of the hardware raid support.

[feight]

Originally Posted by feight

I would be very appreciative of any advice or links you can provide for getting linux to work with the 680i chipset; specificly with a 680i hardware sata raid 5 array as the primary (and only) storage.

I've never dealt with sata before and built a new rig on Tuesday with the EVGA 680i board with 3 Western Digital 250GB 16MB cache Caviar drives in a raid 5 taking advantage of the hardware raid support.

Nevermind, I figured this out on my own. The 680i chipset is not 'true' hardware supported Raid, it is hardware-assisted software raid in the same mindset that Virtualization Technology is hardware-assisted software virtualization.

If you want to install Linux on the same "assisted" raid as windows you will need to use Fakeraid support. Here is a Howto page explaining the process in tandem with - my favorite distro - Ubuntu.

[ShazMagwar]

anyone have any current info to share about the 680i?

I think I've "settled" on this chipset for now...
though I was guessing there would be more mobos out by now for this

[1c3d0g]

Well, you're in luck, here's a brand new review of the Asus Striker version. Very impressive, and if I was in the market for a desktop motherboard I'd immediately jump on it.

http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=919&cid=3

[ShazMagwar]

yah, I noticed that one a while back....unfortunately [at the time] it was going to pull a Striker on my wallet...seems as though it still is

BTW ==> Giga~ is releasing their 680i board now.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/News/Moth...px?NewsID=1314

...who here can actually make immediate use of Quad LAN ?