Intel D975XBX (Bad Axe)

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by Snake Pliskin

Does koolance allow you to keep the cooling solution without the case? If so, ditch the case for a bigger one. It looks like you will need one eventually.

Dan

No you can not remove the cooler from the case. It is a built in Koolance Exos II cooler. One of the reason I moved on to LianLi cases and then the Koolance LianLi was for the front panel connectors for audio. I wanted to ditch sound cards and use Intels onboard sound chip which works great except for the stupid microphone volume. I was perfectly happy with my old Antec SLK3000B case with just 2 USB ports on the front and using a SB card.

I will probably move on to the same LianLi case I have now sans the Koolance cooler when Conroe appears. I like the quality of this case.

Matter of fact. I would like someone to help me out. Can anybody with a D955XBK and using the onboard sound try to verify that the mic volume is too low? All you have to do is hook up any Best Buy or other common mic to the rear mic input and open MSN Messenger and go to tools and setup audio devices. Try running through the config. (it's very short) and see if you get any volume out of your mic, please. I just tried this with the latest audio drivers and it still does not work. I will inform my new Intel contact about this ongoing problem.

[Sandog]

Just wanted to mention that those beta audio drivers are old. There is a newer version than the beta that are official so don't use the beta's.

[Sandog]

WoW, only $1300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116246

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by Sandog

WoW, only $1300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116246

That seems to be Newegg's new policy now.

The mic issue still lives on with the D975XBX. You have a PM Sandog.

[pointreyes]

Originally Posted by Sandog

WoW, only $1300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116246

Shame on them.
Maybe newegg should change their name to ripegg.

[bingo13]

Off Topic but still a i975x subject.......

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131589

This board is suppose to be in the US $209~229 retail range. If you have it and need a fixed bios please pm me.

[pointreyes]

Originally Posted by bingo13

Off Topic but still a i975x subject.......

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131589

This board is suppose to be in the US $209~229 retail range. If you have it and need a fixed bios please pm me.

Have you seen the workstation edition for sell on the Net? The one with PCI-X slots?

[bingo13]

Originally Posted by pointreyes

Have you seen the workstation edition for sell on the Net? The one with PCI-X slots?

It is in production currently and should hit retail at the end of the month. The price will be in the US $249~269 range. They updated the LAN chip and will be offering a higher FSB ability (320 range) than the board we reviewed. I think it is a better board than the P5WD2-E although it will not overclock as high the stability is superb.

[pointreyes]

Originally Posted by bingo13

It is in production currently and should hit retail at the end of the month. The price will be in the US $249~269 range. They updated the LAN chip and will be offering a higher FSB ability (320 range) than the board we reviewed. I think it is a better board than the P5WD2-E although it will not overclock as high the stability is superb.

Stability is what I want. I might be ending up with a 975 and 955 system.

The 975 would have the 940 proc and the 955 keeps the 830 proc. What has happened is that I might have someone purchase me the 940 proc for a swap of my RAIDCore storage system. I have 3 Gig of RAM, so I could easily take one system to 1 gig and the other at 2 Gig. That leaves a PSU and case to have a second system. SCSI drives would move over to the 975 system.

[Sandog]

That sounds good to me Pointreyes.

I messed around with onboard sound again yesterday. It sounds wonderful playing music. Anybody who gets the D955 or D975 mobo needs to immediately check the audio out . BUT....I played a game with it yesterday and the audio sounded terrible. I know it is because I left the SonicFocus filter/compression process running (enabled by the big blue button you see in my avatar). Anyway the sound is better in games coming from the X-Fi. I have decided to keep the sound card and put it in the D975 mobo. I am also going to get a single X1900XTX. I am not 100% sure yet but I may get the 955EE with EIST when it becomes available, hopefully in the near future. All that is left after that is to get some GB Corsair modules (until Conroe arrives of course).

[Sandog]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29195

Not when NE gets ahold of it

I love price wars. I wish AMD did this to the desktop chips. I think the 9XX series are not priced to badly if you get a 940 or below.

[pointreyes]

Originally Posted by Sandog

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29195

Not when NE gets ahold of it

I love price wars. I wish AMD did this to the desktop chips. I think the 9XX series are not priced to badly if you get a 940 or below.

Yeah, I noticed that the Opteron 175 I sold is going down close to the price of the 940. I hope I made the right decision with trying to get that 940. Hopefully the person that wants that RAIDCore storage system will wait long enough for the 2nd gen of Preslers before purchasing.

[Sandog]

I sold my 3.73EE for over $900 but the 840EE are going for $500 brand new on Ebay. I have to be careful with buying and selling now. Ebay is not as rewarding as it use to be. I wonder what my $574 Leadtek 7800GTX is worth? People are becoming better online shoppers also.

[Sandog]

Well I went for a new ATI X1900 XTX. I chose the XTX version since I am only going to be using a single video card. I got it for the MSRP of $649 at CompUSA plus paid a little extra for 2-day delivery. This seems to be the going price for this card according to reviews. The regular XT is $599. I like the BB ATI models since the OC feature will work on the card inside ATI's CCC. It also is retail boxed version with 1yr warranty.

I haven't received any shipping info. on the D975XBX but maybe it will magically appear on my doorstep. These products will complete two more requirements for my new gaming rig. All that will be left is a 955EE with EIST and Corsair 1GB LL DDR2 modules, both of which are not available yet.

[Sandog]

FYI, the ATI X1900XTX has up to %84 performance lead in HL2 benchmarks at higher resolutions than the X1800XT. It also gets around a %43 better score in 3DMark'06. These are not minor increases at all and makes the purchase of a X1800XT just a couple of months ago seem foolish especially when the new card only cost $50 more.

"Half Life 2 is the first benchmark where we start to see huge performance increases for the X1900XTX. At the higher resolution the X1900XTX is a massive 84% quicker than the X1800XT and the X1900XTX is only just behind the dual X1800XT Crossfire configuration."

TweakTown