INTEL D975XBX2 alias BAD AXE 2: INFO TREAD

[Zucker2k]

Guys,
First of all, this thread is meant to be a supplement for the one here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=124131. So if you can't find what you're looking for in this thread, you may want to check that out.

The space in which these texts are is meant to be a one-stop shop for quick helpful information for a trouble-free computing (as if such a thing exists) experience with the Intel D975XBX2, aka Bad Axe 2. I will be editing this post often to update it with new info as it becomes available so watch it often for changes as members make new discoveries.

Helpful links:
Bios Glossary(I don't know who to thank for this) still, kudos to Blauhung for the find: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1168030823

Intel's Bios Recovery Page: http://support.intel.com/design/moth...coverybios.htm

Support Page: http://support.intel.com/support/mot...ktop/d975xbx2/

Downloads Page: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...=2578&lang=eng

Latest Bios 2507: (OCs Beware of the "Failsafe Watchdog." Otherwise, this has proven to be the best bios for overclocks (for me) http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...ional&lang=eng

Cool Wallpapers: ftp://download.intel.com/design/moth...as1024x768.jpg : ftp://download.intel.com/design/moth...db1024x768.jpg

D975XBX2 Online FSB/RAM Calculator: http://www.peakin.com/xbx2/calculator.html

Mods: http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=4111&s=8


Known Issues
Please note that some, or all of the issues listed below may be fixed in an upcoming bios release.

1. There have been reported issues with freeze-ups in bios. While it is not clear what causes this, this issue has only occured in the case where people were using usb keyboards.

2. Bios 2395 has proven unstable for many forum members so unless you really have to, stay away from it for the moment. This is just an advice.

4. Certain system benchmarking tools eg. SANDRA, and Everest are causing fatal crashes on overclocked systems.

5. IDCC and IDU may experience problems if you run stress-testing software like orthos and prime95 immediately before running them.

Bios
I think the first thing of priority is Bios Recovery. There's no need worrying about all these if your system won't post. There are two known ways to recover from bios.

1a. The Intel (normal or official method), or jumperless. Simply remove the jumper and boot your system making sure you have a bootable diskette in the drive with the bios file. Remove all discs in the CD/DVD drive(s).

1b. I discovered this second method during a desperate session of recovering my board after the above method had failed. Simply switch the jumper to Configuration mode, that is, pins 2-3, and boot the system making sure to remove all discs from the CD/DVD drive(s). It'll take anywhere between 1-3 minutes for the floppy seek to kick-in so resist the temptation to chew on your finger nails while waiting. Once the process kicks in, your monitor should power on and you should be able to see the rest of the recovery process. Follow the prompt and turn of your system. Switch the jumper to normal mode and turn on the system. You're set to go.

Recovery Diskette Creation Guide

1. Download bootdisk file. I recommend this one here: ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/u...s/drdflash.exe

2. Run the file and create diskette. Note that all information on the diskette will be lost.

3. Download the 'IB' version of the bios you want to flash. Note that the bios releases come in 4 flavors with various extensions; there is a .bio, a .iso, and 2 .exe files. Normally, the last .exe file has the letters 'IB' I believe these are acronyms for Integrator Bios meant to be used with the ITK tool. The reason why we're interested in this particular file is because it will decompress it contents easily, all by itself.

Double-click the file to decompress it. Locate SW.exe. copy it to another location and double-click it to decompress. You'll be prompted after both double-clicks to press yes or no to continue.

4. SW.exe will decompress 5 files. Rename the file "EXECUTE.BAT" to "AUTOEXEC.BAT," and copy all but the .itk file to your diskette. You will be overwriting the "AUTOEXEC.BAT" file on the diskette I have no idea what the "token" file does, but add it since it will not hurt anything.

VERY IMPORTANT. OVERWRITE the autoexec file with the one from the SW extract or the recovery WILL FAIL!

5. You're all set. You have your recovery diskette just in case something goes wrong. I strongly recommend you have one made and tucked away for emergencies. You can manually flash bios with this diskette. The entire process is automated.

* I have not included the creation of a usb recovery drive because the process has no access to the usb ports while in recovery mode. It does however, have access to the CD/DVD drive so you can create a recovery disc by downloading the iso version of the bios file, creating a bootable CD/DVD, and adding the 3 files outside of the linux folder. Burn to disc.

Check out the jpeg attachment below for how the diskette folder should look like if done right.

[Blauhung]

gtj's nice table of memory dividers. I'll delete my post when you get it integrated in to the guide

oh, hehe, and edit the title, it said tread

For me, 1:1 is the best compromise between performance and stability with the memory I have. I set the memory reference frequency to 266 and the memory freq to 533. Since I have my FSB set at 401, this makes my memory freq also 401 (I.E. DDR2-802) which is only a fraction above it's rated speed.

Remember the BIOS reports "Memory Frequency" as the DDR2 equivalent not the actual frequency which is half that. cpuz will report the actual frequency.

The formula is (ref / (mem / 2))

REF MEM RATIO
333 800 5/6
333 667 1/1
333 533 5/4
333 400 5/3
266 800 2/3
266 667 4/5
266 533 1/1
266 400 4/3
200 800 1/2
200 667 3/5
200 533 3/4
200 400 1/1
133 800 1/3
133 667 2/5
133 533 1/2
133 400 2/3


**NOTE: Not all of the above combinations will boot!!

[TheMagician]

What about using CPUs that are not on that list? Like Celeron D or the D805. Has anyone tested that?

[deeznuts]

gtj's nice table of memory dividers. I'll delete my post when you get it integrated in to the guide

oh, hehe, and edit the title, it said tread

It actually says tread through the whole ... thread

Thanks for the links though, this board is on my short list (where are you abit ab9 quadgt?)

[gtj]

How about an online memory calculator?

http://www.peakin.com/xbx2/calculator.html

[bloodbanger]

So i need a bloody floppy-disk to do bios-updates?Damned,and then to say that that was the only thing i DON'T want in my new pc...

[gtj]

So i need a bloody floppy-disk to do bios-updates?Damned,and then to say that that was the only thing i DON'T want in my new pc...

No. You can download the ISO and just burn it to a CD.

[Suge Knight]

I already send an email to the CpuZ team so that Clockgen work with XBX2, I did not have an answer yet. I will also send some to Systool and setfsb.

[Blauhung]

I'm selfish and wanted to start a fresh one for my work here. Please comment and i can send you my work if i can't get my thoughts across here. I probably made this too hard on myself and probably also need to try different multipliers, but here it goes.

Some background on the BX2:
As with a few other higher end 975x boards, the BX2 allows you to set the chipset strap independent of the FSB speed. In bios this option is referred to as the reference frequency. This reference frequency also sets the possible memory dividers. I am testing this because it was thought to be that running higher multipliers on tighter straps results in better performance at lower FSB speeds.

First off i ran a string of FSB for both the 800 strap and 1066 using 12x and 10x multipliers respectively that covered from ~3100 --> 3600 MHz on the cpu. In order to keep as much as possible the same, i held all memory timings constant and ran at all of the stable <1 memory dividers.

my chart


after setting all this up, i needed a way of comparing the cpu speeds on each strap at equal memory speeds. Although with the divider settings on 975x boards you can't get equal memory speeds across a range of different FSB speeds, i figgured out a way of at least getting a theoretical value. From each reference frequency/memory frequency combination, i calculated the CPU/Mem speed ratio and used that to set an average ratio between the 2 that I could use as my reference point. I had to extrapolate theoretical performance values at each CPU speed based on this unachievable memory frequency. When i did this I was able to compare how each strap would perform if it was able to scale memory frequency as a function of CPU frequency rather then FSB speeds.

i had to make the assumption that the latency changes that the board imposes when changing the divider still result in a linear relation between FSB and memory speed.

Here are my results.


As you can see from the table here. The increase in FSB speed opens up much more memory bandwidth. This is completely to be expected.


The tighter chipset latencies on the 800 strap take the cake here.

so bandwidth and latency are squaring off, who will win?




from super Pi times and 3dmark06's CPU test, it seems to say that at these CPU multipliers both straps are performing exactly the same. I will have to test more multipliers so that I can get a better feel for this, and i should extend it to the 1333 strap that most are operating at above 400 FSB for Intel chipsets. But this gives you a good idea of what is going on at least between the 2 faster straps.

be aware that at a given FSB speed, the tighter strap will always be faster. thus its possible i just happened to fall on the break even point of where the 2 end up with equal performance and I will see the 800 strap doing better then same cpu speeds on a 11x multi and worse then same cpu speeds on a 9x multi

EDIT: Thread/post merged to keep very useful info in one place. Thanks! - bachus_anonym

[Poodle]

This is why I love this forum. Cheers! Looking forward to more data.

[virtualrain]

This is why I love this forum. Cheers! Looking forward to more data.

Agreed! Keep up the great work!

[bachus_anonym]

I already send an email to the CpuZ team so that Clockgen work with XBX2, I did not have an answer yet. I will also send some to Systool and setfsb.

Also, hopefully Franck will find a moment to fix inaccurate reporting of DDR2 frequency when 1333fsb strap is used. It's stuck at default 1067fsb strap... For the time being IDCC is pretty much the only app that will show the correct memory speed on BadAxe2, when taking screenshots at 1333fsb strap...

BTW, good post Zucker2k

[deguello]

Also, a suggestion that search did not yield for me. C1E setting is in the debug menu along with the "watchdog". After a few boots with updated BIOS, read added watchdog, I realized that everytime I loaded "optimal defaults" from the BIOS, C1E was re-enabled along with watchdog. So I saved a custom default by putting the failsafe/debug/clearCMOS jumper on, booting, loading optimal defaults, turning off C1E-EIST-watchdog and saving to custom. This saved me a ton of time getting my overclock going on this board and I don't have to put the damn jumper on to know that those three critical overclocking settings are off.

I just switched back to an Intel board for my desktop/workstation from the P5W-DH because Vista 64 really likes the RealTek SPDIF output for the home theater system better than the 975XBX(1) for sound. It actually produces "bit perfect pcm" when in "exclusive" audio mode and sounds better, to me at least, than the Sigmatel did. Also, everything worked right out of the box including video drivers. I did go ahead and install the Catalyst for Vista and surprisingly, they look great on the big screen. Better than the Nvidia drivers did for the proprietary MS MPEG codec built into Vista. I will probably put an Nvidia back in that system when/if they release an MPG2 pure video codec. On another positive note for ATI and Vista 64 media Center, the whole Catalyst package seems to be there. Overclocking and ViVo etc. No 3D preview, but reverse telecine, color adjustments etc are all there. There are noticeable "greyed out" areas in all OpenGL dialog boxes though. I assume this is related to MS initial position that they would retain the openGL wrapper and OEM's should write to DirectX for calls to openGL. I am not a developer so don't take what I say about development as the gospel, but I am a senior infrastructure architect and topology, security, assest allocation/management and OS deployment are part of my core competency.

[Circaflex]

can anyone add how to slipstream the raid drivers to an xp cd? Is it similar to doing it with the old p4c800-e? I remember having to extract the files from a floppy disk and using nlite from there to import them

[gtj]

can anyone add how to slipstream the raid drivers to an xp cd? Is it similar to doing it with the old p4c800-e? I remember having to extract the files from a floppy disk and using nlite from there to import them

Exactly. Nothing special.

[AuroraProject]

I'm thinking of ditching my buggy 680i for the BX2, but I have one question, I have Corsair Dominator 1250's and I want to run them as close to 1250mhz as possible, using your ram calculator it looks like I'd have to pull off a fsb of 415mhz, set 266/800 9x multi. Is this something that is likely to work or not?

[Blacklash]

Good work. Thanks.

[nealh]

No. You can download the ISO and just burn it to a CD.

where is the .iso?

TIA

[gtj]

I'm thinking of ditching my buggy 680i for the BX2, but I have one question, I have Corsair Dominator 1250's and I want to run them as close to 1250mhz as possible, using your ram calculator it looks like I'd have to pull off a fsb of 415mhz, set 266/800 9x multi. Is this something that is likely to work or not?

I haven't tried that exact combination but I know 415 works and I know 266/800 works. I can only say "try it".

[gtj]

where is the .iso?

TIA

It's on the same page as the other XBX2 BIOS files.

[Chosen.]

Silly question: how do you download previous versions of the system BIOS?

I am currently in this page and can only see the latest; where can I find a list of all previous versions?

[Zucker2k]

Silly question: how do you download previous versions of the system BIOS?

I am currently in this page and can only see the latest; where can I find a list of all previous versions?

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scri...eng&sType=prev

[cyrixMII300]

any ideas on how the bios 2792 works on this board?

[GamingDaemon]

BUMP*

Has anyone tried BIOS 2792?

Also, any gotchas with RAID and any ofthe BIOS releases? I am thinking about doing RAID 0 with this mobo.

Thanks in advance...

[Zucker2k]

Bios 2792 has absolutely no issues for me. I have been running raid on this board since day one. Hope this helps.