Intel DX38BT/DX48BT2 (Bone Trail)

[Ford Freak]

F3-8500CL6D-HK (DDR3-1066)

I asked them where I could buy it about a month ago. They said it hasn't been released yet...

I don't know about the video card yet. I am thinking about the 3870X2 if it registers as one video card rather than Xfire. I'm going to use my x1800 for now.

I should be able to get to 3ghz with that ram. I'll go as far as I can without adding too much voltage.

[Sandog]

Way to go Ford Freak
I want this board to but I believe it will be a few months before I dig in. Might get the new P45 chipset board if it materializes in time.

[Mr Steveo]

Hi gang!

A few question:

A. Has anyone used the eSATA ports with an eSATA drive / device? If yes, how was file transfer integrity, speed, and smoothness (even speed vs choppy) on file transfers?

B. What brand controller chip handles the eSATA ports?

C. If its not the Intel Southbridge, is the thrid party chip routed through the PCI bus?

D. It seems Intel has cut some corners on this board.* For those of you who have used the mobo extensively, is it a solid, stable platform with the major features? Or does it give the feel of a slightly buggy, rushed, compromise product?

All replies, partial or full, welcome!



* The Intel ICH9R is fully capable of supporting one IDE channel and is capable of eSATA (see ICH9R eSATA implementation on the Intel DP35DP mobo.) I cannot for the life of me understand why Intel would choose to offload either or both functions to third party chip makers. Very disappointing and potenitally burdensome to the already bandwidth challeneged PCI bus.

[2411]

Happy New Year Mr.Stevo. I have been watching a thread at ** OFFICIAL ** Intel DX38BT BoneTrail Thread - XtremeSystems Forums this is the only place I have found out any info on the Bonetrail you might want to check it out.

[Mr Steveo]

Thanks 2411!

Few other questions please:

I hear about the initial BIOS being buggy. Assuming I should flash to the latest BIOS ASAP (before installing Windows,) what BIOS update method do you all recommend? What kind of drive will I need to have? (I have only flashed by iFlash with a floppy or express flash from Windows, so I am a bit ignorant here.)

[Sandog]

Hi Steveo,

The X38 mobo uses the Marvell 88SE621 SATA controller chip for the extra SATA ports of which the two ESATA are part of. I believe the ICH9R chip handles the interface if you take a look at the X38 chipset diagram here. The bandwidth is 3 gigabits/s for the SATA ports. The SATA implimentation is identical to the X975 chipset only the X38 uses the newer ICH9R chip and a newer Marvell chip so I would think it is equal to or faster than the BA1/2 chipset. It at least adheres to the bus speed specs. There may be driver issues with the Marvell chip especially in Vista. I gave up quickly on the BA1 Marvell controller a while ago but I am sure you can get it to work properly. I don't believe Intel cut corners on this board at all. They continue to build quality boards with new technology. You do have to handle not being able to install drivers from a floppy drive though unless you get a USB floppy drive which I'm not sure it's bootable either. If you are not into OC much you may want to take a look at the P45 mainstream chipset coming out next quarter I believe.

[Mr Steveo]

Hiya Sandog!

I didn't mean to offend by my comments on the quality of the board. In another post or another thread I'll elaborate on where I have seen quality and other concerns about Intel across product lines. But let me leave that for later.

Setting:
I will definitely look forward to the new Intel released boards coming down the pipe. However the reason I may seem a bit rushed at the moment is that I have had a major hardware failure and need to buy a number of replacement parts to get a rig back up and running.

Also, in laying out the setting, I had a number of bad expereinces trying to update the BIOS on my Dragontail Peak Intel mobo. I have a SATA DVDRW drive, and I have a USB flash drive. Yet the BIOS would not run iFlash or Recovery BIOS from either of those devices (which should have been possible.) Furthermore, I hooked up an IDE CDROM drive to try and flash that way and the mobo didn't even recognize there was a drive on the IDE cable. In the end I resorted to building systems with DragonTail Peak where I waited until Windows was installed and using the Express BIOS update.

That being the case, and knowing I may want to update the Bonetrail BIOS straight away, I am a bit worried how I should go about the update and if I need to order any additional hardware.


Question / Help:
So, if anyone can tell me how they have flashed their own BIOS on Bonetrail that would be helpful. Specifically, what method other than Express BIOS update did you use? What drive hooked to what controller did you use?




Thanks.
And my apologies for the rushed questions, I just need to press the 'Purchase' button on this hardware pretty soon.

[Sandog]

I'm sure somebody here who already has the DX38BT can tell you what drives the BIOS recognizes and are bootable like a USB thumb drive. If so you can put the iFlash bootable files with the BIOS update on it. Also I know the DX38BT still has the 3pin BIOS jumper. Leaving the jumper completely off will make it boot to a drive (use to be the floppy drive) and execute the BIOS recovery file. You can find out what drive it uses now for the BIOS recovery operation. Lasty, here is a link for installing SATA drivers without a floppy. This may also be useful toward a BIOS update, if not it is a good reference for installing the OS with custom Intel SATA drivers without having a floppy drive available.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=414

[R-U-Q-R-U]

I have been following this thread for a while and still am not sure what to do. I would like to build a new machine based on the X38 chip set, but am not sure if the DDR3 price premium is worth it.

The DX38BT has a lot going for it, but it forces me to spend lots of cash on RAM. So what advantage is there over, say the ASUS P5E which is also X38? With the P5E I can by 4 GB DDR2 RAM for less than 2GB of DDR3.

At the same time, I like the stability offered by an Intel made board. Would the P35 series be the wrong way to go?

I am not a gamer, but want a powerful enough machine that will last a few years for things like Photoshop and InDesign.

Thanks for the help!

[Sandog]

If you want to use an existing processor or one with a 1066 FSB then the D975XBX2 would be the way to go. It is a very good board that has been supported for a long time. This would save you a lot of money also. DDR3 is slightly faster technology but I think you get more speed benefit from going to 1333 FSB and higher. If you plan on getting a Penryn with 1333 FSB then you would have to get the P35 or X38/48 chipset board.

[Sandog]

Here's how you update the BIOS from boot-up with the DX38BT mobo.

Updating the BIOS with the ISO Image BIOS Update File

The ISO Image BIOS update allows for the update of an Intel® Desktop Board BIOS to the latest production release regardless of the operating system installed on the computer's hard drive and without the need to remove the BIOS configuration jumper.

It requires a blank CD-R, a read/writeable CD drive, and software capable of uncompressing and writing the ISO image file to CD. The image uses ISOLINUX* bootloader and automatically launches a script to upgrade
the BIOS via the Iflash utility.

Currently there is not an ISO image file for the DX38BT but you can also use the iFlash file which is available. It installs to a CDROM disk or USB flash device also. Intel just hasn't put the iFlash file to an ISO image yet I guess.

"Iflash BIOS Update / Integrator Toolkit BIOS Files [BTX3810J.86A.1397.BI.ZIP] - A DOS-based utility to update the BIOS regardless of operating system. It requires a CD or a USB flash device. This download also provides the necessary files for Intel® Integrator Toolkit. Support and FAQs for Intel® Integrator Toolkit are available here."

You really shouldn't have to update the BIOS before you install Windows. The most common and easiest way to update the BIOS is by using the Express BIOS update from within Windows.

[Sandog]

If you have followed this thread you would know about the new IDDC for the DX38BT. Here are some hardware requirements:

1.The Intel Desktop Control Center 4.0 beta supports the Intel(r) Desktop Board DX38BT. Earlier Intel Extreme Edition motherboards such as the Intel(r) Desktop Board D975XBX and D975XBX2 are NOT supported.

2.A video graphics card with hardware-based support for Microsoft* DirectX* 10 is highly recommended.

3.CPU overclocking features are only available with Intel(r) Extreme Edition processors. Intel(r) Desktop Control Center 4.0 beta will run on non-Extreme Edition processors, but the CPU overclocking features will not be enabled.

No. 3 is disheartening but you should still be able to change voltages and frequencies from within the BIOS for non-Extreme Edition CPU's.

[Ford Freak]

I just got my q6600 and dx38bt yesterday. I noticed it doesn't have a case speaker connection. I thought that was a little weird. I can't wait to get RAM so I can start using this MB and CPU. I'm also waiting for a nice copper NB heatsink to come out. I'll probably use the fan adaprter and a 40mm fan that puts out about 7 to 8 cfm for now.

I'm going to use water cooling for the CPU and video card. I bought an Enzotech SCW-1 and it arrived today. I'll have to return it though. The upper portion has a shiny blue coating on it. It started peeling off as I tried to remove the tape covering the coolant inlet and outlet. The holes are too close together too which would make it a PITA to put clamps on. I use Tygon 1/2" tubing which is thicker than normal 1/2" tubing.

I am a little disappointed that I won't be able to use it since it looks like it would do an excellent job cooling. The base really does act like a mirror. I've noticed that a lot of other products show off a "mirror" like finish on it's product pages but aren't close to being that shiny when you get the actual product.

[Sandog]

Nice Ford Freak, good luck and post pics if you can.

Sandog

[Sandog]

Review:
"This sums up the DX38BT in a nutshell. If you're running a Kentsfield processor there's no reason to move to from P965 or P35 to X38 and if you have any plans for a 1,600MHz Penryn processor the Intel DX38BT won't work. If you're happy with a QX9650 at near-stock speeds then the DX38BT is a winner but that feels like a small and exclusive club.

Perhaps that explains why the DX38BT is relatively cheap compared to other X38 models on the market and it even comes with a copy of Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter as an added bonus.

Verdict
Intel has rather shot itself in the foot by giving us a sniff of the 1,600MHz QX9770 processor as it effectively made the DX38BT obsolete before it went on sale. It's a decent bit of kit that looks the part and delivers rock-solid performance but it's time has already passed."

Intel DX38BT X38 Motherboard - TrustedReviews