Testing / comparing : Intel D975XBX2 / Asus P5B DX ***56K WARNING***

[scaryogre]

Well everything was going great last night until I started seeing a huge slowdown in performance (again, no overclocking). Suddenly I got a BSOD and immediate reboot. During reboot my RAID5 array was in degraded state. It showed two out of the four disks as degraded. I chose to "repair array" and went back into Windows Vista. Same thing happened again, but this time the Intel RAID BIOS only showed one disk in degraded state.

I am wondering if it is a bad hard drive, but need to run a utility on it to be sure. My question though is how to install the Intel RAID manager software? As I mentioned I am running Vista. I tried browsing the CD included with the mobo as well as installing it via Autoplay and it bombs out. Is there a way to get it installed separately from the CD? Or do I need to download an executable direct from Intel's website?

Also, are there any drivers that I should have installed for my Intel RAID array once in Vista? I used the default ones that came with Vista because I read here in the forums that they should work fine. However, it appears something went wrong and am trying to figure out if it was the hard drive or possibly a driver issue?

Thanks,

-scaryogre

[gtj]

I am wondering if it is a bad hard drive, but need to run a utility on it to be sure. My question though is how to install the Intel RAID manager software? As I mentioned I am running Vista. I tried browsing the CD included with the mobo as well as installing it via Autoplay and it bombs out. Is there a way to get it installed separately from the CD? Or do I need to download an executable direct from Intel's website?
-scaryogre

I haven't had any problems with the stock Vista drivers but you can get the latest package from http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/

[scaryogre]

Thanks gtj. I appreciate all your help...I don't know what this forum would do without ya!

I will report back and let you know if it was a bad drive or if maybe Vista has some issues with RAID5 on this controller (if I can validate that).

[Severance]

need some help guys. I was running an x800 on this board for past few months all was good. Fsb 445+9 4 gig stable chilled liquid cooling. I swapped the chip for a qx6700 quad yesterday. 333+12 4 gig stable once again so all looked good. But when i try and play a video file , dots appear on screen. Does not matter what type of file. DVD, xvid or divx. If i clock down to 3.8 dots are gone. 3D gaming is fine no dots at all and comp is 100% stable. Pci was set to default so i set to 101mhz no change. tried to go up to 105mhz and dots got worse so that might have something to do with it. Did a format but no change. Hope someone can help...thanx

QX6700
bx2 mb
pc8000 ocz titanium 2gig
ati 1950xtx crossfire

[minsc_tdp]

I
I found that ATITool would cause instablity with moderate overclocks on an 8800 series card. Try another vga overclocking app.

Also, you should run the Blend test for at least 8 hours to test stability. 24hours is preferred.

ATITool is unstable with moderate overclocks of the CPU, or GPU? Because my GPU is not OC'd at all yet. I'm just using ATITool to scan for artifacts and watch GPU temps.

Naturally need to do 8 hours Orthos, just trying to find time (I'll probably do that tonight to lock in the 380 FSB as stable.)

[minsc_tdp]

What kind of problems are you seeing? (regarding RMClock 2.3 beta)

Well I switched to this from 2.2 right about as I passed 370 MHz and I get the occasional reboot, but I'm pushing things pretty hard right now. Since increasing the CPU voltage to 1.5 things have been fine. It's really hard to say that there's anything wrong with this, it's purely gut feeling but totally unfounded in anything empirical.

[minsc_tdp]

FSB: 360x9 at 1.35v
MCH: 1.6v
CPU: 3.25 GHz, 1.51v (seems a bit excessive to me)
RAM: 266/533, 2.0v (4-4-4-12, 2GB G.Skill HZ)

I have the 5-5-5-4 G.Skill HZ RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16820231077). I got some more stability out of it by upping it to 2.28 from 2.2 (the website says 2.2-2.4, but I think 2.38 was unstable.)

You might also loosen those timings to 5-5-5-12

[gtj]

need some help guys. I was running an x800 on this board for past few months all was good. Fsb 445+9 4 gig stable chilled liquid cooling. I swapped the chip for a qx6700 quad yesterday. 333+12 4 gig stable once again so all looked good. But when i try and play a video file , dots appear on screen. Does not matter what type of file. DVD, xvid or divx. If i clock down to 3.8 dots are gone. 3D gaming is fine no dots at all and comp is 100% stable. Pci was set to default so i set to 101mhz no change. tried to go up to 105mhz and dots got worse so that might have something to do with it. Did a format but no change. Hope someone can help...thanx

QX6700
bx2 mb
pc8000 ocz titanium 2gig
ati 1950xtx crossfire

Which OS and what player app?
What level of video acceleration?
Can you run the dxdiag DirectDraw and Drirect3D display tests?
Got any other display test tools you can run?

[Severance]

Which OS and what player app?
What level of video acceleration?
Can you run the dxdiag DirectDraw and Drirect3D display tests?
Got any other display test tools you can run?

Thanx for reply. Running windows xp home. Tried using 3 or 4 different players same problems . I will try directX tool. thanx. One other thing. I think the video is bleeding. If i use Black back ground on desktop the dots are bad on video. If i switch to white back ground the dots are barely visible.

[scaryogre]

Thanks gtj. I appreciate all your help...I don't know what this forum would do without ya!

I will report back and let you know if it was a bad drive or if maybe Vista has some issues with RAID5 on this controller (if I can validate that).

OK, well Seagate drive scan (SeaTools) went fine on all drives. So it wasn't a drive failure. I am wondering now if the AV that I installed prior to these issues (Avast!) was the problem. I can't think of anything else that may have caused it. I installed Avast about an hour or two before I started seeing all the issues...With that in mind, what AV program are you guys using and especially curious if anyone is using RAID5 with it? I am wondering if I ran into a weird compatibility issue between Avast and the RAID5 setup...

I am in the process of rebuilding everything (started from scratch again, destroyed RAID array and rebuilt and have reinstalled Vista). Is the following update necessary for Vista systems?

INF: Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility

I'll be sure and post again if I see the drive errors again, but so far so good...

-scaryogre

[TSFroggy]

Hello all,

I'm glad to be joining the league of users of the BadAxe 2. After some fun with the DFI RD600, I needed a stable, 24/7 board to put my computer in... at least for the next 6 months or so.

I'm going to attempt to run 400x9, and so far my memory isn't a problem. When I get my IHS relapped to be flat again, it'll take care of the heat issue. I want to run 1:1, btw.

I have my MCH volts at 1.6 (good stable voltage from what I read) and my FSB at 1.350. Is that enough for the FSB voltage? My system is the same as below, except with badaxe2 of course. I'm running the latest BIOS, but some people in this thread run the 2333, which seems to be the most used BIOS on this thread. Will it make a great difference?

BTW, I love the vdroop on this board - 0.02 volts. Big change from 0.05 for sure!

[gtj]

Is the following update necessary for Vista systems?

INF: Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility

I'll be sure and post again if I see the drive errors again, but so far so good...

-scaryogre

I did NOT install chipset drivers on any of my Vista installs and don't have any problems. The drivers were needed for Xp though.

I have my MCH volts at 1.6 (good stable voltage from what I read) and my FSB at 1.350. Is that enough for the FSB voltage? My system is the same as below, except with badaxe2 of course. I'm running the latest BIOS, but some people in this thread run the 2333, which seems to be the most used BIOS on this thread. Will it make a great difference?

BTW, I love the vdroop on this board - 0.02 volts. Big change from 0.05 for sure!

Welcome to the club! 1.350 should be OK for the FSB voltage but you might want to bring it up to 1.4, then when you get everything stable at your target, try backing it back down.

[minsc_tdp]

Hello all,

I'm glad to be joining the league of users of the BadAxe 2. After some fun with the DFI RD600, I needed a stable, 24/7 board to put my computer in... at least for the next 6 months or so.

I'm going to attempt to run 400x9, and so far my memory isn't a problem. When I get my IHS relapped to be flat again, it'll take care of the heat issue. I want to run 1:1, btw.

I have my MCH volts at 1.6 (good stable voltage from what I read) and my FSB at 1.350. Is that enough for the FSB voltage? My system is the same as below, except with badaxe2 of course. I'm running the latest BIOS, but some people in this thread run the 2333, which seems to be the most used BIOS on this thread. Will it make a great difference?

BTW, I love the vdroop on this board - 0.02 volts. Big change from 0.05 for sure!

Welcome! FYI I'm at 380 FSB pretty stable (2 hours orthos at least) at 1.35 FSB. I'm also running the latest BIOS. I can probably hit 400 but I'm trying to keep temps below 65 and plan to lower voltage a bit to extend the life of the system. Also, I think it's fast enough and I need to spend some energy on OC'ing the video to get any real returns in games.

BTW, I just hit <15s 1M Pi and 10001 3dMark2006 with a stock 8800GTS.

[jmpage2]

Hi guys, yet another fresh faced addition to the growing crowd of BX2 owners.

I'm wondering if I can get some advice. I've just put the rig below together and this is my first overclocking project since I overclocked a 300A Celeron to 450mhz back in the golden days of overclocking.

Right now the rig seems to be walled at 350mhz FSB. I've managed to overclock the memory bus to 266/667 for a healthy overclock of its own, but even with a 1:1 divider I can't seem to get any more out of this E6600 than 3.15 ghz. When I try to go to 366mhz I get a BIOS POST error (watchdog is disabled) and if I give a little more voltage to the FSB/vcore/etc then it will boot but starts to fail Prime95 testing.

At 9X350 the rig is a rock with all the default voltages. I was even able to confidently install the OS at this overclock since the system can run Orthos, etc, for 8+ hours at these speeds and be totally stable.

Does anyone have any ideas for squeezing a bit more juice out based on my settings below? CPU temps are idling around 38C and peaking at 62C according to TAT. It surprises me that the temps are as high as they are, the Zalman 9700NT is supposed to be a well regarded cooler.

Components;

E6600 (week 36 A stepping)
BX2
Corsair HX520W PSU
OCZ PC8500 5-5-5-15 2X1GB RAM (a real letdown, won't even run stable at 500 mhz with these timings)
EVGA 8800 GTS OC
Gigabyte Poseidon Case
2X Seagate 250GB 32MB Barricudas in an L1 RAID

Some screenshots of my BIOS settings below, if I'm missing something obvious let me know, I'm happy with what I'm getting out of it now, and don't want much higher temps, but when I bought the parts I was hoping for a healthy 9X400 overclock.

Thanks!!!


.

.

.

.

.

[nissangtr]

Hi guys, yet another fresh faced addition to the growing crowd of BX2 owners.

I'm wondering if I can get some advice. I've just put the rig below together and this is my first overclocking project since I overclocked a 300A Celeron to 450mhz back in the golden days of overclocking.

Right now the rig seems to be walled at 350mhz FSB. I've managed to overclock the memory bus to 266/667 for a healthy overclock of its own, but even with a 1:1 divider I can't seem to get any more out of this E6600 than 3.15 ghz. When I try to go to 366mhz I get a BIOS POST error (watchdog is disabled) and if I give a little more voltage to the FSB/vcore/etc then it will boot but starts to fail Prime95 testing.

At 9X350 the rig is a rock with all the default voltages. I was even able to confidently install the OS at this overclock since the system can run Orthos, etc, for 8+ hours at these speeds and be totally stable.

Does anyone have any ideas for squeezing a bit more juice out based on my settings below? CPU temps are idling around 38C and peaking at 62C according to TAT. It surprises me that the temps are as high as they are, the Zalman 9700NT is supposed to be a well regarded cooler.

Components;

E6600 (week 36 A stepping)
BX2
Corsair HX520W PSU
OCZ PC8500 5-5-5-15 2X1GB RAM (a real letdown, won't even run stable at 500 mhz with these timings)
EVGA 8800 GTS OC
Gigabyte Poseidon Case
2X Seagate 250GB 32MB Barricudas in an L1 RAID

Some screenshots of my BIOS settings below, if I'm missing something obvious let me know, I'm happy with what I'm getting out of it now, and don't want much higher temps, but when I bought the parts I was hoping for a healthy 9X400 overclock.

Thanks!!!


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.

.

.

.

My Badaxe2 is topping out at 370 fsb with vcore 1.425 fsbv 1.4 and nb 1.55. No matter how much more juice I give it, the system will crash even at 371 fsb. I'm running an E4300, so I wonder if it's the processor. It's still strange that the system will crash even with 1 more mhz on the fsb. 370 is rock solid with the 266 memory setting running 1:1 ratio. Does anyone know what can be done to squeeze a few more mhz without having to go to the 333 strap? I like the low latency/speed of my RAM right now as I'm able to get between 7300-7400 MB/s on both Sandra's integer and floating point calculation with the Patriot sticks at 4-3-3-10 with 2.0v.
This is a bit off topic, but I can run my RAM at 3-3-3-10 timing with the 370 fsb at 1:1 but I have to up the voltage to 2.2v. Is it worth feeding the Patriots an extra 0.2v to get the tighter timming in real world performance? It seems like the Badaxe2 does a good job with the low latency. For those of you running your RAM at about 700-800 mhz, what kind of numbers are you hitting from Sandra? Is my RAM speed somewhere in the neighborhood of respectability while running 740 mhz effective speed

[mezcal]

My Badaxe2 is topping out at 370 fsb with vcore 1.425 fsbv 1.4 and nb 1.55. No matter how much more juice I give it, the system will crash even at 371 fsb. I'm running an E4300, so I wonder if it's the processor. It's still strange that the system will crash even with 1 more mhz on the fsb. 370 is rock solid with the 266 memory setting running 1:1 ratio. Does anyone know what can be done to squeeze a few more mhz without having to go to the 333 strap? I like the low latency/speed of my RAM right now as I'm able to get between 7300-7400 MB/s on both Sandra's integer and floating point calculation with the Patriot sticks at 4-3-3-10 with 2.0v.
This is a bit off topic, but I can run my RAM at 3-3-3-10 timing with the 370 fsb at 1:1 but I have to up the voltage to 2.2v. Is it worth feeding the Patriots an extra 0.2v to get the tighter timming in real world performance? It seems like the Badaxe2 does a good job with the low latency. For those of you running your RAM at about 700-800 mhz, what kind of numbers are you hitting from Sandra? Is my RAM speed somewhere in the neighborhood of respectability while running 740 mhz effective speed

Can't answer your questions but I'm impressed you got the e4300 to 370. Mine won't go much over 300-Orthos mix errors in less than an hour @ 333. I haven't messed with voltages though. Was hoping for 3Ghz w/o any extra heat but it's not to be for me.

[jmpage2]

My Badaxe2 is topping out at 370 fsb with vcore 1.425 fsbv 1.4 and nb 1.55. No matter how much more juice I give it, the system will crash even at 371 fsb. I'm running an E4300, so I wonder if it's the processor. It's still strange that the system will crash even with 1 more mhz on the fsb. 370 is rock solid with the 266 memory setting running 1:1 ratio. Does anyone know what can be done to squeeze a few more mhz without having to go to the 333 strap? I like the low latency/speed of my RAM right now as I'm able to get between 7300-7400 MB/s on both Sandra's integer and floating point calculation with the Patriot sticks at 4-3-3-10 with 2.0v.
This is a bit off topic, but I can run my RAM at 3-3-3-10 timing with the 370 fsb at 1:1 but I have to up the voltage to 2.2v. Is it worth feeding the Patriots an extra 0.2v to get the tighter timming in real world performance? It seems like the Badaxe2 does a good job with the low latency. For those of you running your RAM at about 700-800 mhz, what kind of numbers are you hitting from Sandra? Is my RAM speed somewhere in the neighborhood of respectability while running 740 mhz effective speed

That looks pretty good to me, my RAM is running at a reported 887mhz in Sandra and with timings of 4-4-4-12 I am turning 6773/6818 in those Sandra Benchmarks with my RAM overclocked from 1:1 to 3:5.

[Blacklash]

Someone probably already posted this and I'll repeat it.

Vista has the AHCI driver in the OS. If you want to enable it do the following:

1. Exit all Windows-based programs.
2. Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3. If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Msahci
5. In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7. On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.

Source:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

After doing the above enter your BIOS and select AHCI. When you boot Vista will install the appropriate driver and you'll be gtg.

[markd89]

I had been running my E6300 @ 2.8 ghz (7 * 400 FSB). I'm running all voltages at their lowest 1.2, 1.5 and 1.2875 CPU. All is pretty good.

I have been running Corsair Dominator 8500s (1066 mhz 5-5-5-15 rated 2.2v). I had RAM set at 3-3-3-8, 2.16v, 266/533, which seemed to produce DDR800 speeds. It was fast and nice. Now, the system will not boot regardless of settings. I get 3 beeps (RAM error).

Fortunately, I have 1GB cheapo RAM which I am running temporarily. I'd like to buy 2 GB new RAM which can run at 266/533 (DDR800 at my FSB). I'm really looking for something that's going to be reliable and not too expensive. I don't want anything from Corsair.

I found these for $165 after rebate. However, I'd really like to get a brand/model that's been working for someone else with my configuration.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220144

Any recommendations?

Thanks
Mark

[Skerlnik]

I have the 5-5-5-4 G.Skill HZ RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16820231077). I got some more stability out of it by upping it to 2.28 from 2.2 (the website says 2.2-2.4, but I think 2.38 was unstable.)

You might also loosen those timings to 5-5-5-12

Ah, my G.Skill is the PC-6400 variant, 4-4-4-12 @ 2.0-2.1v. 2.28v is probably asking for trouble. Regardless, you're saying the problem that I can't run a higher FSB is memory? How can I be sure the POST-preventing culprit is memory or CPU?

- Sker

[slappynutz]

gtj, would you mind telling me the voltage settings you used at 400fsb?

Last night I finally started to move over stock volts, which let me go up to an fsb of 360 completely stable. I bumped vMCH and vFSB up two notches, to 1.575 and 1.300 respectively, and bumped my vCore up to 1.400. First test I tried an FSB of 370 .... went right into Vista, ran OCCT and passed with no problems.

Then I upped the FSB to 380 ... Vista was no problem, and I passed an hour of Orthos, but failed OCCT at around the 7-minutes-remaining mark.

Just wondering which voltage you used to hit the 400 FSB. My apartment was very hot last night at around 28c ambient, and my idle temps rose about 4c, with the load temps for the two cores hitting 56c in Orthos/OCCT. Think I still have some headroom to work with.

[gtj]

gtj, would you mind telling me the voltage settings you used at 400fsb?

Last night I finally started to move over stock volts, which let me go up to an fsb of 360 completely stable. I bumped vMCH and vFSB up two notches, to 1.575 and 1.300 respectively, and bumped my vCore up to 1.400. First test I tried an FSB of 370 .... went right into Vista, ran OCCT and passed with no problems.

Then I upped the FSB to 380 ... Vista was no problem, and I passed an hour of Orthos, but failed OCCT at around the 7-minutes-remaining mark.

Just wondering which voltage you used to hit the 400 FSB. My apartment was very hot last night at around 28c ambient, and my idle temps rose about 4c, with the load temps for the two cores hitting 56c in Orthos/OCCT. Think I still have some headroom to work with.

My E6600 needed at least 1.5250 vcore to be stable at 400 FSB with the same "up 2 notches" on the vmch and vfsb. Actually that's where "ralph" is now so I guess I need to update my sigs.

[jmpage2]

gtj, did you have a chance to look at my above post. Any concerns over the temps I am seeing at 350X9 on my E6600?

Is it even worth trying for 400X9 at this point?

[argylesocks]

Does anyone have any ideas for squeezing a bit more juice out based on my settings below? CPU temps are idling around 38C and peaking at 62C according to TAT. It surprises me that the temps are as high as they are, the Zalman 9700NT is supposed to be a well regarded cooler.

im not expert... but just for comparison purposes. I also have an E6600 as well as a Zalman 9700LED.

I have the fanmate2 hooked up & set about 1/4 of the way (keeps it quiet). even with that low settting, my idle temps are around 19-20c. and load with my cpu at 3.0ghz, its typically around 30-32c.

i used Artic Silver 5 & used the method described on thier website (basicallly a thin line). I have an antec900 case with has good air flow... but i typically only use one of the front fans.. the exhaust fan is on low, and the "big boy" is set to 1/2 way.

hope that helps for comparison purposes... 38c idle seems really high.
perhaps try to re-install the zalman?

good luck.

[jmpage2]

im not expert... but just for comparison purposes. I also have an E6600 as well as a Zalman 9700LED.

I have the fanmate2 hooked up & set about 1/4 of the way (keeps it quiet). even with that low settting, my idle temps are around 19-20c. and load with my cpu at 3.0ghz, its typically around 30-32c.

i used Artic Silver 5 & used the method described on thier website (basicallly a thin line). I have an antec900 case with has good air flow... but i typically only use one of the front fans.. the exhaust fan is on low, and the "big boy" is set to 1/2 way.

hope that helps for comparison purposes... 38c idle seems really high.
perhaps try to re-install the zalman?

good luck.

Any installation tips? I basically just installed the bracket as they indicated and then applied their thermal grease with the little "nail polish" applicator. Put the heat sink on and screwed the clamp down. I doubt that Zalman's thermal grease would run 10C higher than Arctic Silver and I only applied a thin coat.