Intel D975XBX (Bad Axe)

[RJ]

Thanks for the heads up. I am planning on rebuilding mine this weekend with two new hard drives, increase memory from 2GB to 3 GB, and try Vista instead of XP now that SP1 is out. I have a copy of Vista Business that I got at a reduced price when I purchased XP Pro SP2 last year. I am impressed that this board is still available on New Egg and elsewhere as the 975 chipset is outdated. Wish the price would drop so I could build a cheap 2nd PC for my son now that the Q6700 came down to a reasonable price. What's with the updated processor support?

[ATINUT]

Originally Posted by Sandog

Glad you are having success with the X2 card. If I remember correctly that dual GPU solution is still using Crossfire is it not? I am going to wait for ATI's next single card solution and decide then but I would definitely like to move over to ATI. The current single 3870 card is perfect in many ways but I find it a little bit underpowered and not enough of an increase in performance over my old 8800GTS.

Sandog, it's been awhile since I responded in this thread, I would wait for June or July to come, the 4870's are coming out before you jump to ATI. To answer your question, the 3870X2 for a single card, is in Crossfire right away. Here's how it works, for example, if you enable 8X FSAA, each chip will do 4X FSAA, and then one chip will render even frames, while the other renders odd frames. This Crossfire mode is alternate frame rendering, it's the only Crossfire mode supported on the 3870X2, which is part of the reason the card is so fast.

Scratch Vista 64, a recent Vista update messes with OpenGL games and causes them to lockup, this problem doesn't happen on WindowsXP.

I updated to the latest bios for my 975XBX2, and it helped fix a problem, after I changed fixed the boot order of my harddrives in the bios, where my 320GB would show up as the second harddrive checked for a boot record by Windows XP. Didn't have no problems installing the bios.

If you can help, I'm curious what cpu's the new 975XBX2 bios supports now, as cpu support was added to it.

[RJ]

"If you can help, I'm curious what cpu's the new 975XBX2 bios supports now, as cpu support was added to it."

I was looking around Intel today and I did not see anything new added to their compatibility chart.

[Greggor]

I am putting together a new system with the D975XBX2KR. and Q6600 I am not sure where to plug in my 2 SATA HDDs and STAT opticals.

I'm new and not sure wher to post my questions about this. If this is the wrong place I am truly sorry. If I am in the right place I will post all my system specs and the questions I have.

Thank you...Greggor

[TQ]

Have you looked in your owner's manual?

[Greggor]

Thanks for the relpy TQ.

Please excucs my gun shyness. being new at a forum and posting questions in the wrong place realy seems to ruin some floks day. But that is a whole nother subject.

To anwser you, yes I have read the manual and have learned a lot. Sure didn't realize a CMOS batt. could explode in so many different languages, but this being my first build I am unclear about things that I am sure are elementry to most people here.

I see that I have 2 sets of four SATA conectors One groupe (black) dedicated to to intels Matrix storage tecnology software raid, which I have a floppy for and another set (1 red and 3 blue) that work with the Marvell software Raid. Also have floppy for this.
I have 4 SATA devices. 2 WD raptor 150 gig HDDs. 1 Light-On 20x DVD burner and 1 Light-On combo drive. All SATA. Wish now I had gone with IDE on the opticals.
I supose I could just plug them all in one set and see what happens but I am already having palpations.

From what I have read, nothing will be seen that isn't on the raid list, ie. HDDs and opticals . Does this mean I will have to install the raid drivers even if I don't plan to set up a raid aray?

Here is what I would like to do with these drives, maybe you can shed some light on how to hook it up.

Would like to set up the 2 HDDs in a raid with 2 volumes, one raid 0 and the other raid 1. The first volume (inside tracks so it faster) small, maybe 35 gig and the rest of the space left on the drives for the second volume.
Can this be done on one set of conectors with the 2 HDDs and DVD and combo drive or will I need to split things up with the raid set under one controller, say Intel and the opticals on the other (marvell). I know this is probably an obvious thing to someone who has done this sort of thing before but this is my first build and I'm really getting cross-eyed from all the googling

If you can explain how this should be done I would be I your debt sir

Guess I should mention I will be running XP pro sp2. I have a few other questions but this more or less sums up where my build has stopped........

Need more input.............Thanks much Greggor

[TQ]

Originally Posted by Greggor

Please excucs my gun shyness. being new at a forum and posting questions in the wrong place realy seems to ruin some floks day. But that is a whole nother subject.

Won't happen here, bud. We're mostly well adjusted.

[Greggor]

Thank You,can you help me with my Question?

[TQ]

Originally Posted by Greggor

Does this mean I will have to install the raid drivers even if I don't plan to set up a raid aray?

Yes, sir, it does. Without installing the Marvell Raid drivers those ports are as useless as breasts on a boar hog.
I don't have a RAID setup but I do have a SATA optical drive connected to one of the Marvell RAID SATA ports.
It took me a while to realize that I needed to install the Marvell RAID drivers if I wanted to use those SATA ports at all. I didn't install them during my initial system build (not doing RAID, why would I install them?) but what I didn't know at the time was that without the drivers those ports were dead. I finally decided to install the drivers to see what would happen and voila! I had extra SATA ports...

[ATINUT]

I've got the Marvell SATA ports currently disabled in the bios of my board, as I don't really have a need for them at the moment.

[Greggor]

thanks guys, I've been all over the web again tonight and have learned more. Looks to me like the black (intel) conectors are tied stright to the south bridge and are functional without installing the intel software raid drivers (No raid by default) and the Marvill set is dead without the drivers. I'm thinking I can just plug everything into the intel conectors and fire it up. If I want to add Raid later I can install the Marvell drivers at the F6 prompt and set up a raid there without reinstalling the OS.

Sound right or am I misunderstanding something?

You folks have been great. Tried 3 other forums with the same question, Got a nasty letter from one for posting in the wrong place, ignored at another and my gramer corrected at the 3rd and not one anwser. This forum rocks!! Greggor

[emgarf]

Originally Posted by Greggor

...
You folks have been great. Tried 3 other forums with the same question, Got... my gramer corrected at the 3rd and not one anwser. This forum rocks!!
Greggor

It's grammar and answer!!!



Just kidding - welcome to the forum! Polite questions are always encouraged here.

[Greggor]

Have tried searching, no luck.

Sorry if this has been discused to death already.

The XBX2 has 1/ 24 (2x12) pin power conector, 1/ 8 (2x4)pin power conector and 1/ 4 pin (1x4). If I am reading my manual right, I don't use the 1x4 pin conector if I am using the 24 pin conector.

My corsair 620 has a 24 pin conector. I have the ability with the modular cables i COULD hook up all 3 but afraid I might be making a mistake with that!!

I'm sure this info is here but have not been able to find it ........

Thanks...................Gregor

[Sandog]

There are also new LAN and chipset drivers available.

Wish the great BA2 would run Penryn.

Download Search Results

[ATINUT]

Wish I knew what cpu's the latest bios added support for. As the new bios added cpu support, but Intel isn't saying for what cpu's on their website.