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

[nissangtr]

There's a little power button on the MB itself, down near the SATA connectors. Did you try using that? I had a similar problem when I first built mine, but I disconnected the power switch connector from the MB and turned it around and reconnected it and then it worked fine. You wouldn't think that polarity of that connector would matter, and I don't know if it did or not, but it was strange anyway.

I have the same cpu/motherboard combo running like yours, except mine needs 1.42v to run stable. Anyway, I didn't know there is a power switch on the mobo itself. When I first put my system together, I didn't touch the mobo power switch (I didn't even know it existed) and everything ran fine until the recent psu swap. I guess I might've accidentally turned the switch off without realizing it when I was moving the other cables around. Do I have to mess with the switch like you did when I change to a different psu?

[Forceman]

It's actually a little push button, not a switch. I'd try swapping the front panel switch connector and see what happens - I can't believe that it would make any difference, but I guess it can't hurt.

I have the same cpu/motherboard combo running like yours, except mine needs 1.42v to run stable. Anyway, I didn't know there is a power switch on the mobo itself. When I first put my system together, I didn't touch the mobo power switch (I didn't even know it existed) and everything ran fine until the recent psu swap. I guess I might've accidentally turned the switch off without realizing it when I was moving the other cables around. Do I have to mess with the switch like you did when I change to a different psu?

[Zucker2k]

Like I said in previous posts, I did. And this isn't the first time I've set-up a RAID-array, so I know the basics pretty well ^^. It's also an OEM-disc, no altered settings, drivers or added stuff. Just the stuff Microsoft put on there. (and yes, both Vista32 and Vista64 are the same).

I'm not pushing F6 (you don't need to in Vista), the installer itself prompts me to install drivers, way before you have to select the destination drive. That should come after you put in your productkey, this happens before I enter my productkey.

I'm going to try what Backlash said, using port 0 & 1 and disconnect every other SATA device, I'll disable the Marvell controller as well during the installation. Not the way I want to setup windows but I'll try anything at this point. I'll report back, hopefully from a functioning PC

I don't think it is a port issue. I strongly suspect it is a disk issue. Here's what I will do if I were in your position. I will use the software that comes with the disks (preferably the latest software on the the manufacturer's site) and use that to "prepare the disks" for OS installation. This has worked for me in the past with problem OS installs. Goodluck.

[Kluster]

Forget 1:1. It has no meaning other than how fast the memory clocks. Use the ratio that gets you the fastest memory throughput.

Check the guide in my sig for a memory calculator.

Hi gtj, thanks for all you've done in this thread and for your bx2 web page. Using your calculator it doesn't matter if I go from the stock 266 fsb to 300 or 333, the memory double data rate is still 12800. Even if I do go all the way to 400 fsb, the memory bandwidth is still only 12.8K.

I guess I'll just leave my office setup stable with no overclock, but when I get my bx2 and qx6700 for home next paycheck, I'll be looking forward to unlocked multi and 1:1 memory.

Thanks,
Kluster

[Hooker]

Okay, I got it to install on the Intel RAID drivers (hurray!!) Thanks everyone who tried and succeeded in helping me. Almost chucked the damn thing out of the window.

The thing that did it for me was using port 0 & 1 and using an IDE DVD-ROM. I reckon only the IDE DVD-ROM was key in this. Also disabled basically everything else (sound, Marvell, NIC: the works) Not I'm going to try turning them back on one-by-one and hope it will still work. Funny how I had to activate Windows by phone now, for just changing the DVD-ROM drive.

After that, drivers updates :S Already dreading the BSODs. Hopefully my luck has turned completely.

[gtj]

Yes i know that. What i am referring to is how do you find out the actual throughput speed i.e 5 Gb/sec etc.

Any software to monitor the changes?

The Everest Cache and Memory benchmark.
Check the Links section in my Guide.

Sandra also has benchmarks but it can also lock a BX2 that's overclocked.

[hotchoc]

there's sisoft sandra, you can look at latency through everest.

i tried to. everest hanged when reading L3 Cache.

so wat now? 1:1 or some other ratios ?

[shimmishim]

i tried to. everest hanged when reading L3 Cache.

so wat now? 1:1 or some other ratios ?

my bad on the sandra. i forgot it can lock up your comp.

(read two posts above mine @gtj's).

use everest and run the test suggested by gtj.

[gtj]

i tried to. everest hanged when reading L3 Cache.

so wat now? 1:1 or some other ratios ?

Are you sure it's hanging? It does take a long time. Longer than you'd think.

[hotchoc]

Found out it wasn't hanging after all. i have patience problems :P

What about the ram dividers now? Kinda confuse as to use 1:1 or 4:5 or 2:3Btw, what's the difference of a 3:2 or 5:4 compared to the former. Is there such a thing ?

[Last Hegemon]

OK great board so far, but I have one problem which is annoying as hell: the mic is so low (boost is on and I have it maxed out); ppl can barely hear me in ventrilo and xfire. Do any of you have this problem? what should I do....it might be a problem with the mobo and in that case I should rma it.

[Blacklash]

That's something I forgot, and it was a good point that was mentioned-

When I was using RAID, besides port 0 + 1, I did indeed use IDE DVD drives. I still use them and they are linked together on said channel.

[Hooker]

Yeah, more people stumbled upon that particular event. SATA-DVD D975BX2 with the Intel Matrix RAID Windows install = no go.

My second problem is still there though I can't update the VGA-card drivers if I don't want to see BSODs (safe mode does fine). I tried my housemates X300, it doesn't give me BSODs, it just glitches at roughly the same point and displays garbage. Mostly blue with specs of white. As if it isn't capable of displaying the BSOD.

Googling this gave me a hit with someone else with the same problem (link). Both those cards work flawlessly in his 4400X2 rig (also Vista install, but 32-bit). So is this a ATI-Intel D975BX2 driver error?

I guess I need to find someone with a nVidia card and see if that does the trick. Anyone in the area (Utrecht) with a PCI-E nVidia card who wants to sacrifice an afternoon of troubleshooting?!

Heh, and I was planning on buying a r600 as well. ATI & Intel better get their game together (if all my components are indeed not defective)

[Blacklash]

I don't know all the specifics and ATi had problems with the 7.3 driver. I know a guy on Win XP Pro x64 who doesn't get BSODs with that driver but the CCC won't load and he gets a ".mom implementation error" message.

There are details and a link to a hotfix for the 7.3s here:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2109580,00.asp

I should note that MS x64 OS have patchguard protection for the kernel, and a BSOD is usually a sign of the system rejecting something trying to mod the kernel. It simply shuts down as a security measure.

Patchguard:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver...tpatching.mspx

As far as Vista goes, I dual boot and will use it for DX 10 games only until the first service pack this fall. Then I will reevaluate. I am not impressed with it as is. I do like aeroglass and the new sound stack though. I don't see any reason to load up Vista to play DX 9 games often with degraded performance and missing features, like for example, AA + HDR in Oblivion. I won't even talk about OGL performance. People with SLi and Crossfire aren't doing well with it either.

[gtj]

I wish I could reproduce the problems you guys are having with SATA DVD installs. I just did 6 of them, 3 XP and 3 Vista Ultimate 32 and didn't have a single issue.

XP no raid
XP on RAID 1
XP on RAID 0
Vista no raid
Vista on RAID 1
Vista on RAID 0

2x Seagate 320 on ports 0,1
1x WD4000 on port 3
1x Plextor PX755SA on port 4
and I even threw a WD2500 on Marvell port 0

The only thing I can think of is the BIOS. I'm using the latest (2674).

This is all on the RALPH machine in my sig.

[Blacklash]

I haven't had a problem with a SATA DVD on the BX2 and don't own one. I was noting that I did use IDE DVD drives to Hooker. Personally, I haven't had any problems with RAID installs using Vista or MCE 2005 on the BX2.

The only thing I hate about the board is the finicky watchdog service and that can easily be disabled. I do wish they would make an express BIOS update .exe that worked properly under a x64 OS too.

[Speederlander]

For those people getting the highest 24/7 FSB numbers with quad cores, what kind of chipset voltages are you using? Pretty sure I won't get it, but making a play for 400.

Also, for this board, what is the upper limit on safe 24/7 volts for the chipset? I have good cooling for the NB.

[Chas_The_Man]

I top out at 340 :-( 341 and POOF!

[Speederlander]

I top out at 340 :-( 341 and POOF!

Well, I know the chip will boot into BIOS at least at 401 FSB as I did it mistakenly once. I thought I had reset my BIOS on a different board (975 chipset again) and I hadn't, so it booted into my 6600 settings, which were very high. So I just need to figure out what to do to make that happen on this board as well as what the safe chipset limits are for 24/7.

[Ajfina]

ok im trying to setup a RAID0 and is just not working
i enter the BIOS enable RAID save and exit i create(ctrl i) the raid0 everything fine i save the raid that i just created and exit go back to bios and raid is there good so i exit again and load windows XP pro sp2 on it and when it comes to hit F6 is just not going in after pressing F6 no no windows just go ahead normally and tells me that i need the drivers for the intel matrix so i press S (windows option) i insert the floopy and hit enter seens like is installing the drivers and all that but after a few secs the blue screen of death comes
im using a QX6700
4gig of ram
2 sata dvd
and 2 seagate 500gb
hd's on 0 and 1 port and dvd's on the3 and 4 of the intel matrix (black ones)
im using the latest bios
ANY IDEAS?
native or legacy? native right , ive tried the dvd's on the marvell and same thing i changed the hd's port and same no matter what i do is the same crap

[aicjofs]

For those people getting the highest 24/7 FSB numbers with quad cores, what kind of chipset voltages are you using? Pretty sure I won't get it, but making a play for 400.

Also, for this board, what is the upper limit on safe 24/7 volts for the chipset? I have good cooling for the NB.

\


I couldn't get over 370 with any voltage up to 1.65v but I only worked the 10x multi for that, and that was unstable. Prime95 stable right around 350(again only testing with 10x)

Haven't read enough about max 24/7 NB voltage to answer your question properly. But seeing how the 975 is the larger technology(in comparision to the 965 for example) and the Intel datasheets I have seen posted I personally would be comfortable around 1.6 maybe 1.65 with good cooling and would be able to sleep at night with no worries. I'm sure someone will have a much better answer since people have been overclocking the 975 for a long time.

[gtj]

ok im trying to setup a RAID0 and is just not working
i enter the BIOS enable RAID save and exit i create(ctrl i) the raid0 everything fine i save the raid that i just created and exit go back to bios and raid is there good so i exit again and load windows XP pro sp2 on it and when it comes to hit F6 is just not going in after pressing F6 no no windows just go ahead normally and tells me that i need the drivers for the intel matrix so i press S (windows option) i insert the floopy and hit enter seens like is installing the drivers and all that but after a few secs the blue screen of death comes
im using a QX6700
4gig of ram
2 sata dvd
and 2 seagate 500gb
hd's on 0 and 1 port and dvd's on the3 and 4 of the intel matrix (black ones)
im using the latest bios
ANY IDEAS?
native or legacy? native right , ive tried the dvd's on the marvell and same thing i changed the hd's port and same no matter what i do is the same crap

You don't get an immediate response from F6 so that's normal.
Things to try...
Remove 2 sticks of memory.
Remove the 2nd SATA DVD drive
Make sure you're selecting the first entry in the driver list when it comes up
Disable "Secondary SATA Controller" in BIOS.

What's the info on the BSOD?

[Ajfina]

You don't get an immediate response from F6 so that's normal.
Things to try...
Remove 2 sticks of memory.
Remove the 2nd SATA DVD drive
Make sure you're selecting the first entry in the driver list when it comes up
Disable "Secondary SATA Controller" in BIOS.

What's the info on the BSOD?

Thanks Gtj
good news i was able to do the whole thing with an IDE dvd , is formatting right now
i have another question bro
im planning on doing another raid setup the next one is a raid 1 (waiting for the hd) is it anyway i can do the raid 1 on the marvell without loosing everything im doing today? (raid0) i mean can add a raid 1 later on and having raid0-1?

[Hooker]

Ajfina, I had the exact same problem (almost the exact same build as well.) And in my case, using a IDE disc-drive solved the install "bug". But you had already found tha tout yourself.



As for my VGA-card problems. ATi acknowledged the problems and issued a hot-fix which solved it for me. You can get it here:
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/K...estionID=26900

So now with everything in working order, it's OC time

[Ajfina]

Ajfina, I had the exact same problem (almost the exact same build as well.) And in my case, using a IDE disc-drive solved the install "bug". But you had already found tha tout yourself.



As for my VGA-card problems. ATi acknowledged the problems and issued a hot-fix which solved it for me. You can get it here:
http://support.ati.com/ics/support/K...estionID=26900

So now with everything in working order, it's OC time

didnt found it myself it was one of your post THANK U i saw u fix the problem using an IDE drive so i did the same