I should start this entry by saying that once I start writing a poem, it seems to get more and more satirical and ironic as I go along, whether that is my intention or not. Never is this more apparent than events such as Mother’s Day…It’s lucky my mom has a good sense of humour. In this case, I’ve honestly had a pretty good run with 680i. There were some problems with it, sure, but that’s not to say that there are MORE problems with it than any other chipset past or present. It just happens to be the one that I’ve had the most experience with as an SLI user. It’s managed to survive an attempted upgrade to X38 (didn’t like my RAM), as well as a contemplated upgrade to 790i (required a full tear-down of my water cooling loop - couldn’t be bothered right now with my 680i board running the way it does) without being replaced, and for someone who upgrades as frequently as me, a board that lasts this long may as well be made out of solid gold.

Quite frankly I’ve had this system working GREAT until I moved into my new place. I had it stable with 8GB at 3.6GHz on my water cooled Q6600. Can’t complain about that. I moved into a new place and it’s really hot in my room now, so I’m having a really hard time re-stabilizing it and I’m already back to 3.0 (and still going…) trying to get things running so well again. That’s what reminded me of some of my initial frustrations with this board (well my old AR revision especially), and prompted me to write this poem.

Without further ado:

Ode to 680i

The chip I met that fateful day

Was called 680i.

They promised the world

It would dance, it would sing

But it also made me cry.

–7F–

I unwrapped my board. So excited I was,

That my knees were all a-quiver

But despite using French

And a knife, and a wrench

I just couldn’t make it deliver.

–7F–

“An overclocker’s delight” they proclaimed.

“Engineered for the extreme”.

But my Q-6-6

At a mere 2.6

Made my blood start to boil and steam.

–7F–

Fanbois weren’t impressed. They said,

“There’s going to be hell to pay.”

The partners were scared

Board revisions prepared

And nVidia saved the day.

–7F–

But all was not well in nVidia town.

There were still a few bugs that remained.

Cried the internet trolls,

“There are FSB holes

When the memory speeds are *unchained!

–7F–

“Well nothing is perfect”, nVidia said,

“But we’ll help you as best as we can.”

“Try linked and unlinked

Try a prayer, take a drink,

Or try an additional fan.”

–7F–

The BIOS rev. is now P32

and most everything seems to be swell

It BSODs

If I so much as sneeze,

But at least it’s not Apple or Dell.

–7F–

Part of the problem may lie with my RAM

Because I am using 8 “G”s.

It says it should work,

But it’s not without quirk

So the speed boost is only a tease.

–7F–

Hardware that doesn’t work quite like it says

Is so common these days, I’m afraid.

But wipe those eyes dry.

Replace it, don’t cry

And get back to your Warcraft Raid.

–7F–

It’s the heart and soul of DIY

And there isn’t a lot you can do.

You can YELL on the ‘net,

suck it up, buy new stuff,

Or just go back to nForce2.