Testing / comparing : Intel D975XBX2 / Asus P5B DX ***56K WARNING***

[Chosen.]

I currently have the system in my sig. What sort of problems am I most likely to encounter if I move to the XBX2?
I spent a couple of days reading this thread, and the things that I found so far, are the following:
- C1E cannot be disabled
- Onboard SATA need to be set to Normal/Native when using a SATA DVD drive (?)
- Something's wrong with the HDD LED in combination with the Jmicron controller (if you spend 6 months with an AW9D, this does not classify as an actual bug)
- DIMM slot #3 loves high-end RAM long-time (not verified, but some people claim that when CL=3 or 4, Vdimm>2.3V & memory frequency is relatively high, then the board tends to take a DIMM down, possibly long term issue)

Is that it or did I miss anything else? If my expectations are stability, fsb>350MHz for my QX6700, with ram and vga @defaults, how likely is this board that will make me happy?


Also, can some QX6700+XBX2 owner confirm that the board does not suffer by the multiplier bug (2 of the 4 cores affected by the upwards multiplier adjustment, while the other 2 stay @ 10x)?

gtj, I've read the whole thread, you're doing a great job here, much appreciated

[argylesocks]

last night i decide i would try to push it a little further. i was 5hrs orthos stable at 3.3ghz.... Vc is/was at 1.475 which seemd a little high for that and didnt think i would have a problem bring it up another notch to 3.4 with same voltage..

before orthos, i tried 3dmark06 and it crashed w/i a couple of minutes.

im content at 3.3 but im surprised that i would need more voltage to bring up my fsb to 378. i know 'everybody is doing it' but im getting nervous getting close to 1.5v.

thoughts? Vfsb = 1.35 Vm=1.55 (or whever one click down from 1.4 & 1.6 was.. i cant remember)

[pa9797]

I currently have the system in my sig. What sort of problems am I most likely to encounter if I move to the XBX2?
I spent a couple of days reading this thread, and the things that I found so far, are the following:
- C1E cannot be disabled
- Onboard SATA need to be set to Normal/Native when using a SATA DVD drive (?)
- Something's wrong with the HDD LED in combination with the Jmicron controller (if you spend 6 months with an AW9D, this does not classify as an actual bug)
- DIMM slot #3 loves high-end RAM long-time (not verified, but some people claim that when CL=3 or 4, Vdimm>2.3V & memory frequency is relatively high, then the board tends to take a DIMM down, possibly long term issue)

Is that it or did I miss anything else? If my expectations are stability, fsb>350MHz for my QX6700, with ram and vga @defaults, how likely is this board that will make me happy?


Also, can some QX6700+XBX2 owner confirm that the board does not suffer by the multiplier bug (2 of the 4 cores affected by the upwards multiplier adjustment, while the other 2 stay @ 10x)?

gtj, I've read the whole thread, you're doing a great job here, much appreciated

HDD LED light always on issue already resolve from bios 2507 onwards

yes Ram slot 3 is a serial killer. My Dorm C3DF was killed by this slot when i set to the rated 3-4-3-9 at 2.4v

Onboard SATA need to set to native and also SATA DVD drive need to place behind the HDD or else the bios cannot recongise

[gtj]

I currently have the system in my sig. What sort of problems am I most likely to encounter if I move to the XBX2?
I spent a couple of days reading this thread, and the things that I found so far, are the following:
- C1E cannot be disabled
- Onboard SATA need to be set to Normal/Native when using a SATA DVD drive (?)
- Something's wrong with the HDD LED in combination with the Jmicron controller (if you spend 6 months with an AW9D, this does not classify as an actual bug)
- DIMM slot #3 loves high-end RAM long-time (not verified, but some people claim that when CL=3 or 4, Vdimm>2.3V & memory frequency is relatively high, then the board tends to take a DIMM down, possibly long term issue)

Is that it or did I miss anything else? If my expectations are stability, fsb>350MHz for my QX6700, with ram and vga @defaults, how likely is this board that will make me happy?


Also, can some QX6700+XBX2 owner confirm that the board does not suffer by the multiplier bug (2 of the 4 cores affected by the upwards multiplier adjustment, while the other 2 stay @ 10x)?

gtj, I've read the whole thread, you're doing a great job here, much appreciated

C1E can be disabled easily from the OS using RMClock or Everest. Hopefully Intel will fix soon.

One other thing to remember is that the BX2 is Crossfire, not SLI. If you plan on getting another 8800 you'll need hacked drivers which I don't think exist yet for the 8800.

And You're Welcome.

[gtj]

last night i decide i would try to push it a little further. i was 5hrs orthos stable at 3.3ghz.... Vc is/was at 1.475 which seemd a little high for that and didnt think i would have a problem bring it up another notch to 3.4 with same voltage..

before orthos, i tried 3dmark06 and it crashed w/i a couple of minutes.

im content at 3.3 but im surprised that i would need more voltage to bring up my fsb to 378. i know 'everybody is doing it' but im getting nervous getting close to 1.5v.

thoughts? Vfsb = 1.35 Vm=1.55 (or whever one click down from 1.4 & 1.6 was.. i cant remember)

Ckicken.

Try going back up to 1.4 and 1.6 on the fsb and mch and see if that helps instead. What's your divider set at? If it's not 1:1 maybe you're reaching a limit there.

[argylesocks]

Ckicken.

Try going back up to 1.4 and 1.6 on the fsb and mch and see if that helps instead. What's your divider set at? If it's not 1:1 maybe you're reaching a limit there.

ahhh... the peer pressure!!

ok, ill try that tonight... yes, i am at 266/533 but im wondering if i would get more out of my system if i stayed where i am, or even down a bit, and then went to a 266/667 ratio & overclocked the ram slightly... im running the same stuff as you.. have you tried going above 800mhz??

what is the upper limit on the fsb & mch without going too extreme???

[gtj]

ahhh... the peer pressure!!

ok, ill try that tonight... yes, i am at 266/533 but im wondering if i would get more out of my system if i stayed where i am, or even down a bit, and then went to a 266/667 ratio & overclocked the ram slightly... im running the same stuff as you.. have you tried going above 800mhz??

what is the upper limit on the fsb & mch without going too extreme???

Honestly, we all get caught up in squeezing the last drop out of our stuff when in reality we should just let it go. We won't ban you or anything if you decide to stick where you are.

I wouldn't go above 1.4 and 1.6, certainly not at < 400FSB. You shouldn't have any problems with runinng your memory at DDR2-850 at least. That's where I've got it on 1 of my machines and it's solid.

[JamesAvery22]

Haven't been tweaking much, just a few days. My OC so far:

• FSB: 365
• Ref Freq: 266
• Mem Freq: 667
• e6700 @ 3.65ghz
• OCZ2N9002G @ 4-4-3-15 _ 916mhz _ 2.28v(there a measure point somewhere on the board?)
• vcore: 1.525v in Bios, ~1.48v in Everest
• vmch: 1.6v(there a measure point somewhere on the board?)
• vfsb: 1.4v(same question?)

10hours orthos stable so far(still running). FSB at 370 with vcore a little higher(1.55), 1/1 ratio(so ram at 742mhz) and timings at 5-5-5 wasn't stable at all. Memtest would pass but orthos would crash.
Looking around it seems like this is an avg OC for a e6700(where is that C2D OC DB thread? edit- eh maybe I was thinking about this but I swear there was just a general OC one, not 4ghz+ only...). guessing 3.65ghz is just my limit. Temps are good. Load the "CPU" temp in Everest doesnt go above 60c. The two "Core" temps in Everest stay below 55c. Mobo temp stays below 40c. The VRMs get pretty hot though. At load the VRM heatsinks are around 55c so Im sure the board at those solder pads are even hotter. Is that too high? Maybe put some 40mm fans on each of the VRM sinks? CPU,NB,GPU are water cooled. Storm, maze4, DD full cover + this.

I guess its a dumb question but, should I push more or just start backing down the voltages?

[badboy]

C1E can be disabled easily from the OS using RMClock or Everest. Hopefully Intel will fix soon.

One other thing to remember is that the BX2 is Crossfire, not SLI. If you plan on getting another 8800 you'll need hacked drivers which I don't think exist yet for the 8800.

And You're Welcome.

What setting is used for disabling it in Everest?

[GamingDaemon]

So based on the sound card posts from yesterday, I did a little research. It seems like having a quality sound card can free up some extra CPU cycles, making your box run games faster. Is this something worth looking into? While I am certainly happy with a 3.15 OC and the 9000+ 3DMark06, if I can get a little more juice buy spending some cash on a sound card, I'm up for that...

[argylesocks]

So based on the sound card posts from yesterday, I did a little research. It seems like having a quality sound card can free up some extra CPU cycles, making your box run games faster. Is this something worth looking into? While I am certainly happy with a 3.15 OC and the 9000+ 3DMark06, if I can get a little more juice buy spending some cash on a sound card, I'm up for that...

what do you have for a speaker/amp setup?

im using the onboard HD via an optical out. fed into a Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 amp/speaker setup. personally, i think it sounds really good.
the CSW amp is on its way out. movies automatically go into dolby digital 5.1 & sound great. games sound awesome.

i have a GTS & 2 tv tuners, so i dont think i even have room for a sound card! ha ha

[Zucker2k]

667 3-3-3-8 exactly, but yours will do the same i guess

Sticks are in slots 2&4, and I´m observing some annoying behavior. Stick in slot 4 is doing something like degrading itself. It will no longer boot at the default 1,84v, as it did before. The strange thing is that two weeks ago, when i got this board, both boot perfectly at that voltage. Same with my previous iCFX3200.

It looks like BX2 is really kiling progressively the sticks put in slots 3&4

I've only been able to boot at 1.84 on very rare occasions. I usually boot with a lower cas OCZ with a 1.8v rated voltage. My RAM will run what your running but only with high voltage, I've exceeded 2.6 volts on occasion. In any case, both the 667 and 800 are supposed to be identical but I just find my RAM needs more voltage no matter what board I use. I've actually run my lowest voltages on the BX2. I don't understand why your memory performance is degrading, luckily I have no such problems.

[aicjofs]

Also, can some QX6700+XBX2 owner confirm that the board does not suffer by the multiplier bug (2 of the 4 cores affected by the upwards multiplier adjustment, while the other 2 stay @ 10x)?

I have 2 BX2 and 2 QX6700 and I see no evidence of this on either system, with the various monitoring tools that people say they see it on the Abit.

[STaRGaZeR]

I've only been able to boot at 1.84 on very rare occasions. I usually boot with a lower cas OCZ with a 1.8v rated voltage. My RAM will run what your running but only with high voltage, I've exceeded 2.6 volts on occasion. In any case, both the 667 and 800 are supposed to be identical but I just find my RAM needs more voltage no matter what board I use. I've actually run my lowest voltages on the BX2. I don't understand why your memory performance is degrading, luckily I have no such problems.

Well the perfomance is the same, but that thing about the voltage... is really annoying

I&#180;m now 822 3-4-3-1 2,28 volts

[Speederlander]

Hey, anyone run this with 8 gig of RAM and 64-bit yet?

[jmpage2]

Hey, anyone run this with 8 gig of RAM and 64-bit yet?

If you have 8GB of RAM to send me I'd be happy to try it out for ya.

[MuttonFlanks]

C1E can be disabled easily from the OS using RMClock or Everest. Hopefully Intel will fix soon.

Details please. How is this done in Everest?

[GamingDaemon]

what do you have for a speaker/amp setup?

im using the onboard HD via an optical out. fed into a Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 amp/speaker setup. personally, i think it sounds really good.
the CSW amp is on its way out. movies automatically go into dolby digital 5.1 & sound great. games sound awesome.

i have a GTS & 2 tv tuners, so i dont think i even have room for a sound card! ha ha

I have an Altec Lansing system with two speakers and a sub.

Does using the onboard audio system steal some of my gaming cycles?

[Zucker2k]

I have an Altec Lansing system with two speakers and a sub.

Does using the onboard audio system steal some of my gaming cycles?

Onboard sound WILL steal cpu cycles, so I'd say it depends on the game you're playing - ie. if it's a cpu hogging game then get a gamers sound card like the xfi which has its own processor to process the audio; plus you get full EAX 4.0 if its supported by the game.

[GamingDaemon]

Onboard sound WILL steal cpu cycles, so I'd say it depends on the game you're playing - ie. if it's a cpu hogging game then get a gamers sound card like the xfi which has its own processor to process the audio; plus you get full EAX 4.0 if its supported by the game.

Cool, thanks Zucker2k...now to scrape together my remaining cash for the sound card

[SiGfever]

That's certainly not right, because the only time it does it is when the CPU is idling, and the voltage regulator would be having an easy time of it.

"Originally Posted by SiGfever View Post
This board features a thermal protection circuit in the processor voltage regulator area. This circuit protects the processor voltage regulator from overheating and damaging the board. The thermal protection circuit in the processor voltage regulator sensor is triggered at approximately 120C. This trigger will cause the processor to enter a throttling mode (slowing down the processor if it exceeds its maximum operating
temperature) and allow the processor voltage regulator to cool down."



Please keep in mind that those are NOT my words but the words of an Intel tech support person.

[Chosen.]

So, basically the Intel guy told you that when there is high load in the CPU, it runs at full speed/voltage/heat, but when it's idle and just sitting there, it's throttling down to protect itself from overheating?
Did he even think before he said that?

I have 2 BX2 and 2 QX6700 and I see no evidence of this on either system, with the various monitoring tools that people say they see it on the Abit.

Cheers mate

[STaRGaZeR]

I have noticed a vdroop of ~0,02v under load, what is your vdroop guys? Is there any pencil mod to avoid this?

[gtj]

What setting is used for disabling it in Everest?

Details please. How is this done in Everest?

Right click on the bottom status bar (where the Copyright statement is) and take CPU Tweakings.

"Originally Posted by SiGfever View Post
This board features a thermal protection circuit in the processor voltage regulator area. This circuit protects the processor voltage regulator from overheating and damaging the board. The thermal protection circuit in the processor voltage regulator sensor is triggered at approximately 120C. This trigger will cause the processor to enter a throttling mode (slowing down the processor if it exceeds its maximum operating
temperature) and allow the processor voltage regulator to cool down."



Please keep in mind that those are NOT my words but the words of an Intel tech support person.

Yeah, word for word, that's what I got.

[Zucker2k]

I have noticed a vdroop of ~0,02v under load, what is your vdroop guys? Is there any pencil mod to avoid this?

I think that is the lowest vdroop you're going to get with any board out there.