590 or 680i SLI motherboard?

[Wolfsong]

I'm about to get a new motherboard so I'm wondering about the difference between the SLI versions.

NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition (D)
or
NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Intel Edition (D)

Is the 680i worth the extra money? What do I gain by it?

[MindlessOath]

this was an issues with bios...
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTI0NywsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

here is a good logicboard...
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=397&model=1439&modelmenu=1

ASUS P5W64 also not bad - i have seen great overclocking here:
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6630.html
its an intel chipset tho.

here is a little bit about chipsets... i didnt search to much, i was looking for two reviews but this will have to do for now :p http://www.anandtech.com/talkarticle.aspx?frmResourceID=2946&frmWhere=2

the amd/ati 690 chip for intel is pritty good i hear - just got a bios update which makes the onboard grfx even better and upgrades overclocking stability for both the onboard grfx (overdrive which is garanteed by the compainy) and updated cpu and mem overclocking - among other things.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/
http://www.hardocp.com/reviews.html?cat=MixNb3RoZXJib2FyZCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
http://www.techreport.com/reviews/page.x?pg=motherboards

[DaSmerg]

I'm running the EVGA 680i SLI board.  Love it.  Haven't had any issues....buuut...I was having various driver and vid card issues while running Win XP.  Now I don't know if it was just the system configuaration that I have but I ended up upgrading to Vista (Home Pro x64) and the issues I was suffering melted away.

From doing a ton of research previous to when I built (back in February) the 590 board is very popular, even still today.

From what I've seen so far, you'll gain a couple of extra features and the ability (now with the latest bios) to OC your FSB right up to 1333mhz on the 680i boards.  There's apparently better compatability for the quad cores on the 680i.

[Wolfsong]

Thanx for the info.

Now another question. I haven't been keeping up with the hardware development the last 2 years. Really? Yes. So now with all these CPU names I'm a bit confused.

What're these "Intel ViiV" CPUs?
These two CPU for example cost the same:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 (2,13 GHz, 1 066 MHz, 4 MB cache)
Intel Viiv Core™ 2 Duo E6420 (2,13 GHz, 1 066 MHz, 4 MB cache)

So what is the difference?

Then what is special about "Intel Xeon"?

I'm leaning towards a QX6600 or QX6700, but still wondering what those names are about.

[DaSmerg]

If I remember correctly, the ViiV CPU is for laptops.

Intel Xeon is a server grade CPU.  Usually runs at a lower multiplier, lower voltage and can take a bit more of a thermal beating versus it's retail PC grade sister.

[Wolfsong]

Ok.

The example above with the ViiV is actually from the options on one of Dells desktops. So I guess they use them there as well then.

The Xeon CPU I've only seen on desktops aimed towards people who render and such so that makes sense.