Intel D975XBX (Bad Axe)

[chrisd]

Originally Posted by Daddyrabbit

Intel D975XBX2 rev 505, C2D E6600, 2G Corsair XMS2, Corsair HX620W PSU, EVGA 8800 GTS, X-Fi Extreme Music, Antec P180B Case, Seagate 320G HD.

I noticed in your sig that the machine I'm getting close to build -- you already have? If so, what do you think of each (especially the Intel board).

[Daddyrabbit]

Originally Posted by helimox

You'll be fine running the SATA in IDE mode then and no floppies will be required.

If I run it in IDE mode will it limit the data rate?

To be honest I don't notice a performance difference, but I'm not really a benchmarker. I installed the AHCI mainly because I may want to hot swap some removeable drive chassis at some point. If it's fast enough for you the I wouldn't muck with it

[Daddyrabbit]

Originally Posted by Dandruff

@Sandog, Daddyrabbit & helimox: please read this URL link removed due to me (DaddyRabbit) being a newb to the forum

C'mon Dandruff, it was 0836 in the morning, I hadn't had my yet!

It does make the thread hard to follow however guess I should use that "Preview Post" button more

[Daddyrabbit]

Originally Posted by chrisd

I noticed in your sig that the machine I'm getting close to build -- you already have? If so, what do you think of each (especially the Intel board).

Chrisd,

In short, coming from an OCd (roughly to 3800+ specs) Athlon64 3500+ rig with an X800Pro and a gig of RAM... FREAKIN' WOW!

Give me a few and I'll post a mini review of my opinions...

[Dandruff]

BX2 BIOS 2431 is out. but no info about the harddisk-led!?

[Dandruff]

flashed the new bios. works. "Fixed calculation and display of the nominal" seems to work here (displays the correct settings for my memory now).

hdd-led still not working (with the marvell controller disabled) and my ps/2-mouse still has issues (not recognized/initialized) after the system was powered off.

[Dandruff]

Originally Posted by Dandruff

no need to save the original. just flash a original bios from intel (it's included in every one) ... the toolkit just modifies such an original *.bio file with yours ...

@Sandog: seems i was wrong. just updated to the new bios and my black custom boot-screen still was there. seems this doesn't get overwritten by a normal bios update. that's pretty cool, as you don't have to use the toolkit for every bios-update then. just read on the intel-website that a recovery-bios-update will restore the original intel-logo!

[Daddyrabbit]

Originally Posted by chrisd

I noticed in your sig that the machine I'm getting close to build -- you already have? If so, what do you think of each (especially the Intel board).

Ok here's a little more:

Up Front Caveat Disclaimer:

I am not a techno-wiz, I don't do heavy overclocking, I don't benchmark, and while I game quite a bit I'm not an Uber-Gamer...


My old rig:

Shuttle SN95G5
Athlon64 3500+
1G Kingston DDR 400
WD 200G SATA I Drive
HP DVD740 DVD Burner
SB X-Fi Extreme Music
Samsung 204B 20" LCD
Logitech 5300 5.1 speakers
MX-10000 Mouse
Logitech G-15 Keyboard

This was a killer little rig and I could carry it with one hand. It served me very well (and will continue to do so as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

What I bought (or got for Xmas). The KB, Mouse, DVD Burner, X-Fi, Speakers, and Monitor were re-used:

1. Core 2 Duo E6600
2. Intel D975XBX2 Rev 505
3. 2G Corsair XMS DDR2 6400 RAM
4. Seagate Barracuda 7900.10 SATAII 320G HDD
5. Antec P-180B Mid Tower case
6. Corsair HX620W Modular PSU
7. EVGA Geforce 8800GTS

Mini (non-technical and totally an un-educated opinion view) reviews:

1. Geforce 8800GTS:

I REALLY struggled with buying this card. It was a huge chunk of my total upgrade cost. I primarily have been an ATi guy for a long time due to IQ and was trying to decide between 1 X1950XTX, 2 X1950 Pros in crossfire, or 1 GF 8800GTS (the 8800GTX was out of the picture due to price). I finally pressed the order button on the GTS since I won't be able to upgrade for awhile and DX10 is coming).

Initially I was pretty disappointed. I loaded up a fresh install of XP and immediately installed the 97.44 drivers with NTune and Riva Tuner. I installed 3dMark06 and PCMark05. I normally get lower 3DMark scores because I don't tweak for benchmark scores but these scores were ridiculous (in the 2000s range) for what I'd spent. I then installed Guild Wars. While it ran well (better than my old rig) it still wasn't much better. I installed the Dark Messiah that came with the card. The game started fine but shortly into the menu blew out looking like I was going down a "warp" tunnel. I patched it to no avail. Then I installed Battlefront II, The game would run for 30 seconds to a minute then the textures would "block up" and crap out. I could CTRL-ESC and switch back and the game would be fine for 20-30 sec then rinse and repeat. I installed Steam and HL2, HL2 Lost Coast. While these were installing I was thinking about how long the RMA would take. Fired up HL2 and at the "blurry" start screen everything was fine till the start menu displayed for, oh about 5 seconds and the the textures went nuts! Now I was peeved... (keep in mind I had also been twiddling with resolutions, AA and AF settings and such throughout all of this to no avail).

I was depressed that I'd have to now wait weeks for RMAs and such so, in one last effort, I uninstalled anything Nvidia and/or Riva and just installed the CD drivers. Fired up 3DMark06, got ~9800, Get 180-220FPS in HL2 @ 1600x1200 full HDR, 4x and 16X respectively and it looks GREAT, Oblivion rocks etc... The Rabbit is happy again. Can't wait for Hellgate London and Crysis!

2. E6600:
The 1st in the C2D lineup with 4M cache. I went from an HT 2.8G P4 to a single core Athlon64 and IMMEDIATELY noticed the multitasking hit. I got used to it till now. After my above 8800GTS driver issues were resolved I was playing Guild Wars @ max settings and, for a few frames, it got slightly choppy (not bad but noticable). I thought I might have to drop the settings a bit but continued playing with no further problems. When I exited the game Symantec was running a full system scan in the background (I lost like 5 frames, I am sold!!!).

3. Corsair memory:

It's not the fast C4 stuff with EPP and lower latency but it works fine.

4. Seagate Barracuda 7900.10 SATAII 320G HDD

It's very quiet and relatively fast, I think I like Seagate again after being a WD Ho, but I really had bad experiences with Maxtor (which Seagate now owns i think).

5. Antec P-180B

This case was a tough choice but IMHO...

I really like this case because I like quiet, cool, and I'm a minimalist. Someone referred to it looking like the "Monolith" from 2001 and I agree. Its very quiet, I don't like "Bling" and it has none, Well laid out.

On the con side; Plastic is more fragile than metal, while I haven't broken anything yet some have reported breaking off the plastic tabs on the side panels. The only other con is that the PSU choice (since the PSU is in the bottom of the case) is critical as cable routing in this case can be a real BEAR. All in all it's a fantastic case though.

6. Corsair HX620W PSU:

Modular

Flat cables

Plenty of current

Nice bundle

Quiet

Nuff said... but I would like to see a couple of long cables with just one molex (would help with the "PSU on the bottom" Cases)...

7. Intel D975XBX2 Rev 505 - In short I really like this board (especially for the price) and am very happy with the purchase...

I was initially set on a Nvidia 680i but then started hearing the horror stories. Then the upcoming RD600 boards were announced but just now, as of Jan 2007, becoming available at $300.00 USD so don't think so...

So now it's down to the ASUS 975 or the ASUS or Gigabyte 965 boards... Then comes a very low key release of the XBX2 "Bad Axe 2". The problem is that you will find very few reviews on the XBX2 anywhere, IMHO the BX2 is a huge step forward (from the allowing overclocking perspective) for Intel and not just an upgrade to the BX1. My install went something like this:

1) While waiting for the board I downloaded and burned the ISO BIOS flash for the 2395 BIOS. After I got everthing in and installed I booted to this first, flashed the BIOS then began the OS install.

2) I installed with SATA in IDE mode (because I forgot) and I set the vDimm to 1.9 (what it was rated at) from the BIOS default of 1.84

3) I had a bunch of errors while Windows was copying files from the CD (missing or corrupt files) with two different media sets, I set the RAM back to default and the installation went without issue.

4) I had some issues with the Nvidia drivers at first but those were fixed.

5) When Dandruff was having mouse issues I decided to set the SATA mode to AHCI to help isolate the issue (I want to do hot swapping anyway). I installed the Intel AHCI drivers from Device Manager and rebooted and set the SATA mode to AHCI, worked like a champ except when I boot with the Primary IDE disabled I get a BSOD (no biggie for me as my Optical drive is still PATA) so I couldn't check for the mouse problem (I've had none)

My BX2 runs very fast and extremely stable for me, I haven't tried any REAL overclocking but I've played with the FSB a bit and had no issues.

My only gripes are:

- The above mentioned BSOD with Primary IDE enabled (probably due to my install order for the AHCI drivers)
- The HDD LED is on all the time with the Secondary SATA disabled.
- While the BIOS will gracefully recover from a slightly over the edge overclock if you push it too far too quickly (make a huge jump in FSB or something) you have to use the BIOS Recovery jumper which can be tricky to reach.
- I didn't get an E-SATA port adapter (I still think ASUS has a slightly better bundle but costs considerably more)

So with the Marvel disabled my HDD LED stays lit all the time but compared to some of the problem posts in the 680i forums I'm pretty happy overall.

[helimox]

Hi again,

Okay I'm getting ready to fire the beast up for the first time and hopefully I dont smoke 3 grand of components. Anyway I was looking on the driver download page for the 975XBX2 and I'm confused....again.

#1. What is TPM : st micro " trusted platform module " and do I need it

#2. On My cooler master stacker 830 case I used the HD audio plug to hook up to the motherboards front panel audio header so which audio drivers do I Need because when I look at the ones on the driver downlaod page they talk about Ac'97

#3. The INF driver download - there are 2 listed which look exactly the same except for the release dates , I know what your thinking one is newer than the other so just use the newer one but if you look at the intel symbol key they both have a cd with a star beside them which according to the key indicates that " Latest currently available " - which confuses me if ones an update , or is this just intels snafu.

#4. What are the exact most updated drivers that I need apart from the c.d that came with the board , or should I not install anything from the cd and just install from the website. Okay Im sure there has to more on the cd than what is available on the website as there is only 5 or so drivers - raid , lan , audio , INF, and a coule others , Is this al you need?

OKay stop rolling on the floor laughing and once my system is up and running I will stop embarrsing the experts who have helped me thus far.

Thanks

Tim

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by helimox

Hi again,

Okay I'm getting ready to fire the beast up for the first time and hopefully I dont smoke 3 grand of components. Anyway I was looking on the driver download page for the 975XBX2 and I'm confused....again.

#1. What is TPM : st micro " trusted platform module " and do I need it

You do not have the TPM module on the BOXD975XBX2KR. It is used to sign documents I believe.

#2. On My cooler master stacker 830 case I used the HD audio plug to hook up to the motherboards front panel audio header so which audio drivers do I Need because when I look at the ones on the driver downlaod page they talk about Ac'97

I use the ones with Intel Audio Studio. I do not use the ones that say AC97. Not sure why they are available but AC97 is a lesser standard than HD audio. My guess is that Intel finally took support out for AC97 but still has a set of drivers available with it.

#3. The INF driver download - there are 2 listed which look exactly the same except for the release dates , I know what your thinking one is newer than the other so just use the newer one but if you look at the intel symbol key they both have a cd with a star beside them which according to the key indicates that " Latest currently available " - which confuses me if ones an update , or is this just intels snafu.

Haven't been to the INF DL page but I would use the most current ones. I remember there are different formats for the same INF. Ones in an executable format DL but they were the same software.

#4. What are the exact most updated drivers that I need apart from the c.d that came with the board , or should I not install anything from the cd and just install from the website. Okay Im sure there has to more on the cd than what is available on the website as there is only 5 or so drivers - raid , lan , audio , INF, and a coule others , Is this al you need?

For your first time experience I would run the installation CD. You will have an easier time and all should work well. I just use the latest drivers from the BX2 DL page. Upon checking for driver updates from the CD, I have noticed that it says you have the latest drivers which is incorrect in for some drivers installed from the CD.

OKay stop rolling on the floor laughing and once my system is up and running I will stop embarrsing the experts who have helped me thus far.



Thanks

Tim

Sandog

[Sandog]

Well I have been running this X6800 at x13mutl. (3.46GHz) and with default voltage (1.325V) for a few days now with no problems. The fan is just as loud as it is at default clock with the Zalman CNPS9700 NT. The computer feels faster and games are smooth (UT2004/C&C Generals). I think I got a really good processor in that it goes that high on default voltage and a good heat sink since I can go so high on air. CPU-Z only show 2.93GHz (probably because I use the multiplier and not a FSB OC) but Windows, IDDC and TAT show 3.46GHz. TAT shows higher temps than IDCC. Right now TAT shows 39C at 1.6GHz (idle) and 67C at load. TAT is the mother of CPU heat generators and I never hear my fan as loud as I do when I run in games. I am leaving the awesome CPU at 3.46GHz. Memory is set to 4-4-4-12/800MHz/2.2V.

[Sandog]

Well it appears I have my system working at 2.12V DDR also. That is what my Corsair Dominators are guaranteed to run 4-4-4-12/800MHz/2.1VDDR. I lowered the memory voltage from 2.2V. I have to test this in games but it ran fine under IDDC Stress Test for 15min., 100% load on tested components. You can see the temps appear nowhere near what TAT produces.

[helimox]

Okay ,

Thanks to everyone that has helped me thus far - here is wher I'm at with my first build.


Installed windows and intel driver cd - flashed the bios ,

The questions I have now are these -
something to do with the marvell controller?
1. During boot up I get the no array is defined and no hard disk detected
for about 5 - 10 seconds it then continues the boot process and windows loads - How can I stop this.
It runs fine in IDE mode but if I switch to AHCI it BSOD
also on startup when thr " controller is scanning " IF I oree ctrl M to enter setup it does but I cant navigate the menu I can get into " adapter " but space or enter takes me back to the main page.
IT will not allow me to create.
Im wondering if I have to first put it in AHCI mode and then define an array even though Im only using one hard drive ( no raid )
This is the only kink I have - the computer works fine but I don't like it tellimg me on boot that there is no hard disk detected.
Once again this has been a great experience and I thank those that have chipped in
She's running at 25 c on Zalman air at idle

Tim

[Daddyrabbit]

Originally Posted by helimox

Okay ,

Thanks to everyone that has helped me thus far - here is wher I'm at with my first build.


Installed windows and intel driver cd - flashed the bios ,

The questions I have now are these -
something to do with the marvell controller?
1. During boot up I get the no array is defined and no hard disk detected
for about 5 - 10 seconds it then continues the boot process and windows loads - How can I stop this.
It runs fine in IDE mode but if I switch to AHCI it BSOD
also on startup when thr " controller is scanning " IF I oree ctrl M to enter setup it does but I cant navigate the menu I can get into " adapter " but space or enter takes me back to the main page.
IT will not allow me to create.
Im wondering if I have to first put it in AHCI mode and then define an array even though Im only using one hard drive ( no raid )
This is the only kink I have - the computer works fine but I don't like it tellimg me on boot that there is no hard disk detected.
Once again this has been a great experience and I thank those that have chipped in
She's running at 25 c on Zalman air at idle

Tim

You can disable the Marvel controller in BIOS, disable the Secondary SATA.

If you installed to one drive on the Intel controller in IDE mode then the Intel ICH7R drivers were not installed (unless you did so during install using the "F6"
method). If you did not install them at boot time you can install them from the device manager using the "Have Disk" method. I did this and it worked OK although it doesn't seem to want to boot with "Primary IDE" disabled now, but that's probably something I did.

These might help:

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology - Changing and/or Choosing Serial ATA Modes

It recommends to NOT do what I did which is install the Intel driver after the initial install replacing the SATA controller driver with the AHCI one in device manager then rebooting immediately, going into BIOS, and setting the mode to AHCI. So DONT do what I did unless you are up for a possible re-install, guess I got lucky...

[Wry1]

About This BIOS:

 January 11, 2007
 BX97520J.86A.2431.2007.0110.1629
 SATA RAID info:
 Intel(R) RAID for SATA - v5.6.2.1002
 Marvell 88SE6145 SATA BIOS – v1.1.0.34
 PXE UNDI: Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.2.28
 PXE Base Code: Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.2.42
 Intel® Active Management Technology info:
 Intel® AMT BX Firmware: v1.2.3

New Fixes/Features:

 Added Hardware Watchdog Timer feature
 Fixed display of L2 Cache in BIOS Setup for multi-core processors
 Added "HPET Enable/Disable" BIOS setup option and set default
state to "Disable"
 Fixed calculation and display of the nominal (TCL-TRCD-TRPTRASMin)
memory timing values in BIOS Setup
 Fixed issue where certain processors would not resume from standby