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

[Kosta]

Been reading this thread, and also wanted to know, if you would recommend this board when it comes to terms of 3D stability when OCed. Also, can I get it easily up to 4Ghz with say Corsair XMS2 800Mhz CL4 and E6600? Do you think for such case P4B DLX would be better? Same? Better perf with Bad Axe 2?
If so, I am off to the shop

[GWillakers]

Gwillakers: If it was an everest problem then the incident of resetting the voltages would not be limited to the bad axe 1 or bad axe 2 board. It may not be but with the data I have now of it mainly happening with these two boards it sounds more like the board makers forgot to shove in a safety to prevent this from happening.

Safety to prevent this from Happening? ???

If you want to prevent it from happening ... then stop running the buggy program!

It is the program that is in control! Everest changed the voltage!!!

The Bios does not reset voltages when programs terminate.

If I write a program that makes an annoying beep when run on an ASUS board, would you blame ASUS for the noise?

As to Everest and Sandra having the same issue, well it wouldn't be the first time one vendor lifted code from a competitor... bugs and all.
{Note, I am NOT stating that either manufacturer did something illicit, there are many forms of code sharing agreements in the industry}

I just think that as a consumer, one has a responsibility of placing blame where it belongs. One should not be too quick to state that this is a problem of vendor X, when in fact it could be a problem of vendor Y.

It is an issue that one could reasonably raise with both vendors, but my money would be on it being a problem with the writer of the failing application.

[Teratism]

Gwillakers: I will agree blame should not be immediately placed on one or the other vendor and if possible both should be asked to correct this issue if it is their fault.

[alejo]

The Everest developers told me that it was a BIOS issue. I've heard of no other board doing this. Moreover, this happened on the badaxe 1 with Speedfan and CPU-Z also.

[BAR*B*Q]

you're using the faster (1066) strap, right?

yup, its default strap

That is pretty slow pi for 3.8 and such a high FSB. What are your RAM timings? Does the reduced cache make that much difference?

ya, it does prettey much @ 1M

[tjelaw]

what app do u guys to check vcore in windows?

[GWillakers]

The Everest developers told me that it was a BIOS issue.

Well you are gonna get far with a response like that.


Did you ask him for specifics as to what code was broken?

What BIOS call was being made? What parameters did the function take?
What were the values that were expected to be returned?

What "Documented" Interface was the application vendor using that he feels failed?

Their are documented BIOS interfaces for things like A) reading Harddisk sectors, B) setting times and dates, C) beeping the speeker...
but I know of no "published" specifications for setting voltages on the motherboard.

Without published specifications, application vendors try to "hack" into the
system. Try to figure out what snippets of program code are really doing.
Problem is they often guess wrong. Maybe they were sucessfull for deciphering something in an Award BIOS or Pheonix, but maybe it's different in Intel.

You see...it's not really an Intel problem untill you can prove it to them it is an Intel problem. And then they WILL take ownership of it. Read the Errata sheet for your motherboard. There you can find out all pending problems, whether it is planned to be fixed by a BIOS, or a Hardware change, or not fixed at all.

[alejo]

Well you are gonna get far with a response like that.


Did you ask him for specifics as to what code was broken?

What BIOS call was being made? What parameters did the function take?
What were the values that were expected to be returned?

What "Documented" Interface was the application vendor using that he feels failed?

Their are documented BIOS interfaces for things like A) reading Harddisk sectors, B) setting times and dates, C) beeping the speeker...
but I know of no "published" specifications for setting voltages on the motherboard.

Without published specifications, application vendors try to "hack" into the
system. Try to figure out what snippets of program code are really doing.
Problem is they often guess wrong. Maybe they were sucessfull for deciphering something in an Award BIOS or Pheonix, but maybe it's different in Intel.

You see...it's not really an Intel problem untill you can prove it to them it is an Intel problem. And then they WILL take ownership of it. Read the Errata sheet for your motherboard. There you can find out all pending problems, whether it is planned to be fixed by a BIOS, or a Hardware change, or not fixed at all.

They were not very forthcoming with info and even if they were to provide me with anything, I wouldn't know what the heck to do with it anyway. I'm just an end user. I asked if they could maybe take it up with intel, but they said that they are not in contact with them.

Anyway, sorry for the derail. I was just curious if the Badaxe2 had this issue also.

[alejo]

what app do u guys to check vcore in windows?

For intel boards, use their Intel Desktop Utilities.

[death metal]

How exactly did everest reset your voltage? Also does this mean you recommend this board?

Yep, it will. I already did post it before on my Blog (and on Eva's posting). You can find link here: http://sleektech.nl/~dm/review/intel...x-note-04.html

Eva's post: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=122350&page=2

Use Intel's supplied utility, IDU (Intel(r) Desktop Utility) to measure environmental settings in Windows.

[astrodave]

Well you are gonna get far with a response like that.


Did you ask him for specifics as to what code was broken?

What BIOS call was being made? What parameters did the function take?
What were the values that were expected to be returned?

What "Documented" Interface was the application vendor using that he feels failed?

Their are documented BIOS interfaces for things like A) reading Harddisk sectors, B) setting times and dates, C) beeping the speeker...
but I know of no "published" specifications for setting voltages on the motherboard.

Without published specifications, application vendors try to "hack" into the
system. Try to figure out what snippets of program code are really doing.
Problem is they often guess wrong. Maybe they were sucessfull for deciphering something in an Award BIOS or Pheonix, but maybe it's different in Intel.

You see...it's not really an Intel problem untill you can prove it to them it is an Intel problem. And then they WILL take ownership of it. Read the Errata sheet for your motherboard. There you can find out all pending problems, whether it is planned to be fixed by a BIOS, or a Hardware change, or not fixed at all.

Sounds like you are the best man for this job. My suspicion is that whomever you talk to on the other end will be like ummm, huh? Those tech support peons will have no clue what you are talking about and will have no desire to get you to the person that does.

[Teratism]

death metal: Thanks for the heads up.

gwillakers: I checked the errata sheet from the intel website. They have none or so the guide says.

[nattoNrice]

Can we stop squabbling over a peice of software?

Supertim0r >> Any updates on how things are going with the board?

I just put an order in for one and am very looking forward to playing with it

[Supertim0r]

yes, installed the kentsfield but I hit a wall at 390fsb

[tjelaw]

Well... Ive been playing around with mine, and it not what I expected.
The OC-ing performance is okay so far, 370x10 with 6700 ES, fsb:mem 1:1.
But nothing my P5W-DH couldnt do. Im own a rev. 503 btw

My findings:
- vdroop is not that bad, but not as excellent as tim0r says. (note that using the advanced power slope feature helps!)

- I find the overclocking feature pretty frustrating and disappointing. If you set a too high setting, and it wont boot, you will have to clear/config the bios manually by turning of power and switching jumpers EVERY TIME. As where the P5W just automatically uses safe settings when boot or post fails.

This is very very very very fing annoying, especially since OC-ing in windows is not yet possible, because of the new PLL IC.

I can see myself trying to find the best vcore-vMCH-fsb ratio and having to switch jumpers 50 times every evening. And its not placed in a easily reachable place!

- The BIOS freezes very often while adjusting settings. ctrl-alt-del helps to reboot. But it seems very buggy. Having had to try 5 times to change vcore from 1.55 to 1.6. NOTE: this also happends with perfectly stable stock/default settings. I already updated to the latest bios

- CPU multi is NOT adjustable, at least it isnt for me. The option is shown in bios, but isnt selectable.

New bios plz?

More to come

[shawn1998]

Anyone that has this board have an X-FI? Are there any issues with it and the BA2? I've been contemplating dumping my 680i and have been looking at this board. Any feedback?

Thanks.

Shawn

[NP7]

Anyone that has this board have an X-FI? Are there any issues with it and the BA2? I've been contemplating dumping my 680i and have been looking at this board. Any feedback?

Thanks.

Shawn

BX2 @ stock with X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro. No probs so far, but I only tried it in Oblivion and a couple of other games. There is one minor issue, but I guess it's Xfi software related: in gaming mode if you change any settings in the THX control panel the channels get re-mapped (e.g. front left disappears, rear left gets mapped to sub). If you don't touch THX all is fine, though. (5.1)

[shawn1998]

Thanks.

[heikis]

Well... Ive been playing around with mine, and it not what I expected.
The OC-ing performance is okay so far, 370x10 with 6700 ES, fsb:mem 1:1.
But nothing my P5W-DH couldnt do. Im own a rev. 503 btw

My findings:
- vdroop is not that bad, but not as excellent as tim0r says. (note that using the advanced power slope feature helps!)

- I find the overclocking feature pretty frustrating and disappointing. If you set a too high setting, and it wont boot, you will have to clear/config the bios manually by turning of power and switching jumpers EVERY TIME. As where the P5W just automatically uses safe settings when boot or post fails.

This is very very very very fing annoying, especially since OC-ing in windows is not yet possible, because of the new PLL IC.

I can see myself trying to find the best vcore-vMCH-fsb ratio and having to switch jumpers 50 times every evening. And its not placed in a easily reachable place!

- The BIOS freezes very often while adjusting settings. ctrl-alt-del helps to reboot. But it seems very buggy. Having had to try 5 times to change vcore from 1.55 to 1.6. NOTE: this also happends with perfectly stable stock/default settings. I already updated to the latest bios

- CPU multi is NOT adjustable, at least it isnt for me. The option is shown in bios, but isnt selectable.

New bios plz?

More to come

anybody else with those problems?

and has anybody used badaxe2 on e6400 or e6300? i have my e6400 waiting for a board and im not sure if it will fly on the baxe2

[Supertim0r]

-yes, you need to reset cmos everytime an oc fail
it's annoying but it's new board, early bios

I made a switch to reset the cmos this summer for Bad Axe 304...using it on the bx2 now so I don't have to move the tiny jumper everytime my oc fail

-the vdroop is VERY small for me (YRMV)

-X-Fi = no problems for me

-I can only adjust multi on Kentsfield Q6600ES, not on E6600ES

[Grain_Man]

Before I make my order at ZipZoom, could you look at my list and see if any conflicts/problems.
To Buy:
Badaxe2
6600
8800 gtx (evga)
...............
I've have bought:
ufo
storm
mcp355
pa120.3
turbo cool 1k (24 pin atx,8 pin cpu,2 x 6 pin pcie)
loon fans & baybus & rheobus
..............
Still need:
couple of raptors
dvd/cd rw
sata cables , etc
..............
My 1st build, has taken year to accumalate, Will probably use retail fan then
switch to storm when system is up and running stable. First hurdle would be to put it all together and run stock. My two teenage boys would love to play
Oblivion first before I start tweeking/ocing and burn it up. ( Have hipro mem smoker too )

thanks

[bofors]

To Buy:
6600

Why not pay a few dollars more and get a Xeon 3060 (higher quality E6600)?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=122224

[Grain_Man]

bofors . Thanks
3060 looks interesting. I'll give it a try.

[Blacklash]

My Bad Axe 2 from ZZF should be here monday. Naturally I'll torture it and post results.

[turtletrax]

Again, nice work Supertim0r

Looks like there might be a replacement for the XBX I bought off you

Still haveta wait for RD600 and make the choice then, but it is nice to know your results.