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

[hotchoc]

I want to try bios 2333 as some have said that it's better in terms of Oc. Currently have the latest bios. How do i reflash it back? Do i need to revert everything to stock speed again? Am running on RAID 1 btw

Btw, i just disable the C1E thingy via installing the inf file in the previous thread (pg. 135). Should i worry about it when i reflash my existing bios of 2674 to bios 2333?

What are the cons of bios 2333?

Thks

[cryptocat]

Well most of my problems with this board have been fixed. I can now OC much further with less VCORE. Before I struggled to get anything over 3GHz but now I'm on 3.2GHz on stock VCORE. I have also managed to disable C1E. I am very happy again. How did I do it you ask? I bought an Asus P5W64-WS Pro!

The Axe2 has potential to be a killer board but Intel refuse to make a decent OC BIOS for this board. I should have never strayed from Asus, but I have learn my lesson. So... The Axe2 will be retired to my server to do what it does best, run at stock speeds!

You managed to disable C1E in the BIOS? How?

[shimmishim]

You managed to disable C1E in the BIOS? How?

I have also managed to disable C1E. I am very happy again. How did I do it you ask? I bought an Asus P5W64-WS Pro!

that's one solution. hahaha.

[Lome]

I want to try bios 2333 as some have said that it's better in terms of Oc. Currently have the latest bios. How do i reflash it back? Do i need to revert everything to stock speed again? Am running on RAID 1 btw

Btw, i just disable the C1E thingy via installing the inf file in the previous thread (pg. 135). Should i worry about it when i reflash my existing bios of 2674 to bios 2333?

What are the cons of bios 2333?

Thks

it does not care what bios you have it would disable c1e on any cpu that has c1e on any mobo with any bios version

[hotchoc]

I'll wait for a couple of more replies to find the best way to flash it without compromising the current settings and my raid

many thks lome i'll take the C1e advise into mind

p.s. Heard bout the hdd led with the bios 2333. Am using an Antec p180 with the bx2 and i don't recall inserting the led pins into the board. How will it affect the rig?

[mezcal]

Have you tried a file copy with the external SATA? It seems like all you need is a file over 100MB, at least on my ThermalTake Max4 external SATA enclosure. Not sure if it is the enclosure, the cables, or the BadAxe2 that is causing the problem. I keep having to use the USB interface to move large fiels around.

Sorry, I forgot ya-tails can do that to a guy!

Just copied a .nrg of 2003 Server over from terastation to play with.
XP reports it as 542 MB.
From tera to esata box on bx2 over wireless G-about 7 minutes (samba 2 + wireless = sloooow)
From esata box to single drive on ich7r-about 10 seconds.
From single drive on ich7r to different partition on esata box-same.
From different partition on esata box to raid 1 partition on ich7r-same.
From...well, you get the picture. Works fine for me.

BX2 has xp pro sp2. Updated and clean-haven't loaded anything but testing apps on it yet.
The esata box in my sig is on the red port of the marvell.
There are no other drives connected to the marvell.
I loaded the marvell drivers via floppy when I installed the os.
I have not loaded the marvell control panel (apache thing) in windows.

Anything else you want me to try?

Maybe someone else who has vista can try it to see if it's OS specific.

[MuttonFlanks]

I would becareful on the vdimm..it seems as you increase over 2.2v...many are reporting D9 chips can die...it seems on the badaxe2 it is the stick in slot 3 or 4...so I am not sure if this becasue different slots can more vdimm

Interestingly...if I recall correctly at 1:1 my latency is better than at 4:5 and I see almost no difference in performance running 3500 with ram at DDR780 4-4-4-12 vs 3500 and ram DDR 975 5-5-5-18

test and see what feels better

Yea, I have read many posts about that which is why I don't want to go over 2.20. I'll try 2.20 if it will allow me a good OC, but I don't want to go over. Right now I'm limiting myself to 2.16 just to be safe.

[Lome]

recomend you measure the volts with dmm cause nothing in the bios comes very close to whats realy going on the board atleast on mine

[nealh]

recomend you measure the volts with dmm cause nothing in the bios comes very close to whats realy going on the atleast on mine

what revision is your board..mine is board is 505..loaded with bios 2333

look back on my early posts on this issue, the sensor on my board is way off too.....Gtj boards have better sensors than mine

My bios reports an idle vcore of 1.535v when set to 1.525v with powerslope on....2 separate DMMs read 1.50 idle and load 1.50v(after 24hrs of P95)

my vdmm measured at 2.01v(I can recall no if this was idle or load voltage) for 2.0v setting in bios(the bios doesnt report this value at least not where i have seen...so this was odd that it delivers the voltage I set when vcore did not)

BTW I have installed the OS, if I install the marvel drivers now will I be able to use eSATA???

[MuttonFlanks]

Hmm, anyone with Revision 505 have their vDIMM set at 2.20 or higher on this board? Someone with Ballistix DDR2-800 would be even better

I just tried to boot at 233 reference frequency and 667 memory frequency, but nothing worked. I tried 5-5-5-15 from 2.16 up to 2.24 volts. I don't want to go over 2.24 just to be safe for now. None of them booted.

Also tried 3-4-4-12 on 233/533 frequency from 2.16 to 2.24 volts. None of them work as well.

I'm running at 4-3-3-4 on 233/533 frequency for now at 2.16 volts. I can't decide between the current setting or 4-3-3-5. I keep refreshing in Everest and the 4-3-3-4 scores seem all over the place while the 4-3-3-5 scores seem more constant and often times higher. Guess I will have to run a few SuperPi tests to see.

[nealh]

Hmm, anyone with Revision 505 have their vDIMM set at 2.20 or higher on this board? Someone with Ballistix DDR2-800 would be even better

I just tried to boot at 233 reference frequency and 667 memory frequency, but nothing worked. I tried 5-5-5-15 from 2.16 up to 2.24 volts. I don't want to go over 2.24 just to be safe for now. None of them booted.

Also tried 3-4-4-12 on 233/533 frequency from 2.16 to 2.24 volts. None of them work as well.

I'm running at 4-3-3-4 on 233/533 frequency for now at 2.16 volts. I can't decide between the current setting or 4-3-3-5. I keep refreshing in Everest and the 4-3-3-4 scores seem all over the place while the 4-3-3-5 scores seem more constant and often times higher. Guess I will have to run a few SuperPi tests to see.

I own Crucial 10th anniv ans was able to set my ram to 266/667 for 487mhz at 5-5-5-18 with 2.16v with fsb of 390..run 50 passes of test 5 on memtest 86+ 1.70

I can run prime95 but I need more vcore than I want to give my cpu and I found no speed improvement over 390fsb w/266/533...4-4-4-12 at 2.0v

[GamingDaemon]

Sorry, I forgot ya-tails can do that to a guy!

Just copied a .nrg of 2003 Server over from terastation to play with.
XP reports it as 542 MB.
From tera to esata box on bx2 over wireless G-about 7 minutes (samba 2 + wireless = sloooow)
From esata box to single drive on ich7r-about 10 seconds.
From single drive on ich7r to different partition on esata box-same.
From different partition on esata box to raid 1 partition on ich7r-same.
From...well, you get the picture. Works fine for me.

BX2 has xp pro sp2. Updated and clean-haven't loaded anything but testing apps on it yet.
The esata box in my sig is on the red port of the marvell.
There are no other drives connected to the marvell.
I loaded the marvell drivers via floppy when I installed the os.
I have not loaded the marvell control panel (apache thing) in windows.

Anything else you want me to try?

Maybe someone else who has vista can try it to see if it's OS specific.

Hmmm, well, gtj gave me some things to try in this thread (http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...=1#post2135173). One of the things is to try to use the red port. When I installed Vista, I used the Intel RAID drivers to get AHCI with the black ports, but I never installed the Marvell RAID drivers. But on the other hand, gtj has no trouble using eSATA on the black ports.

[shimmishim]

Hmm, anyone with Revision 505 have their vDIMM set at 2.20 or higher on this board? Someone with Ballistix DDR2-800 would be even better

I just tried to boot at 233 reference frequency and 667 memory frequency, but nothing worked. I tried 5-5-5-15 from 2.16 up to 2.24 volts. I don't want to go over 2.24 just to be safe for now. None of them booted.

Also tried 3-4-4-12 on 233/533 frequency from 2.16 to 2.24 volts. None of them work as well.

I'm running at 4-3-3-4 on 233/533 frequency for now at 2.16 volts. I can't decide between the current setting or 4-3-3-5. I keep refreshing in Everest and the 4-3-3-4 scores seem all over the place while the 4-3-3-5 scores seem more constant and often times higher. Guess I will have to run a few SuperPi tests to see.

what fsb are you trying to run?

i managed 370 4:5 4-4-4-10 463 with vfsb 1.3 vmch 1.6 vdimm 2.24

i've measured the vdimm and it overvolts by about 0.03-0.04 so be aware of that.

when i got my e6600 which is capable of 3600 @ 9x400, i tried to stabilize 400 4:5 4-4-4 and 5-5-5 500FSB with vfsb up to 1.45, vmch up to 1.75, vdimm up to 2.3 but could not get it stabilized.

this is why i'm asking what fsb you're running at.

[gtj]

I tried to find drivers for the Marvell controller and at Badaxe2 website..I saw no drivers except for RAID use, I thought you needed drivers to install the Marvell controller

HMM..did I need to install the RAID drivers to use the MArvell for nonRAID use..ie, eSATA or just single HDD..when installing the OS

It says "raid" but they're generic drivers for both raid non-raid. Grab the download that has the name STOR_ALLOS_1.2.0.24_PV_F6FLPY_MARVELL.EXE. When you run it it just extracts the drivers to a directory then you go to device manager and update the drivers.

[gtj]

I'll wait for a couple of more replies to find the best way to flash it without compromising the current settings and my raid

many thks lome i'll take the C1e advise into mind

p.s. Heard bout the hdd led with the bios 2333. Am using an Antec p180 with the bx2 and i don't recall inserting the led pins into the board. How will it affect the rig?

Yep, lome's c1e driver works just fine without regard to bios or motherboard. You should be able to go back to 2333 using the windows BIOS installer. When it's done, you'll get the 3 beeps when it tries to reboot so just completely power off and power on again. Windows is then going to reinstall a driver or 2 and require a restart. Should be fine after that.

The HDD led isn't a big deal. If you didn't connect it then you won't notice the problem.

[aamsel]

I just picked up a BX2, haven't unboxed it yet.

As for this inability to turn off C1E, should this be considered a possible "deal killer" as far as BX2 use is concerned?
Yes, I do understand that there is software that turn it off after Windows boots.
Just wondering.

Is it expected that Intel will resolve this?

Also, as for Intel leaving the HDD light on, would you not think that they would acknowledge this, and simply fix this a day or so after releasing this version?

What is your general opinion of Intel's BIOS team vs. ASUS for example. Less or more responsive?

Andrew

[theonlybabyface]

I just picked up a BX2, haven't unboxed it yet.

As for this inability to turn off C1E, should this be considered a possible "deal killer" as far as BX2 use is concerned?
Yes, I do understand that there is software that turn it off after Windows boots.
Just wondering.

Is it expected that Intel will resolve this?

Also, as for Intel leaving the HDD light on, would you not think that they would acknowledge this, and simply fix this a day or so after releasing this version?

What is your general opinion of Intel's BIOS team vs. ASUS for example. Less or more responsive?

Andrew

C1E can be turned off with the patch that was uploaded a page or two ago. The HDD light on issue has been fixed for several BIOS versions now. ASUS support is possibly some of the worst ever.

Why not just read this thread to find your answers anyways? Seems a tad lazy if you ask me...

[mezcal]

Why not just read this thread to find your answers anyways? Seems a tad lazy if you ask me...

+1 There is a TON of info in this thread. Much of it is repeated 50 times as newcomers are not using the neat search feature prior to posting.
That said, it is kind of overwhelming to try to read the whole thing at one sitting
SupertimOr should change the thread name. It surely has nothing to do with the P5B at this point!!

[aamsel]

I HAVE BEEN reading threads about this (and every other) board, and I am far from lazy, thank you very much. There are thousands of posts about this board.

Was just asking a couple questions, sorry if they seemed ignorant to you.
I am an informed PC user, but a BX2 noob.

You see....
The polite thing is either answering or ignoring a post.

Andrew

C1E can be turned off with the patch that was uploaded a page or two ago. The HDD light on issue has been fixed for several BIOS versions now. ASUS support is possibly some of the worst ever.

Why not just read this thread to find your answers anyways? Seems a tad lazy if you ask me...

[theonlybabyface]

I HAVE BEEN reading threads about this (and every other) board, and I am far from lazy, thank you very much. There are thousands of posts about this board.

Was just asking a couple questions, sorry if they seemed ignorant to you.
I am an informed PC user, but a BX2 noob.

You see....
The polite thing is either answering or ignoring a post.

Andrew

Sorry Andrew. Didn't want to seem rude or anything but these particular questions get asked ALOT and the answers are throughout the thread. I can't ignore, I want to help as so many others have done for me. Again, my apologies.

[hotchoc]

When it's done, you'll get the 3 beeps when it tries to reboot so just completely power off and power on again. Windows is then going to reinstall a driver or 2 and require a restart. Should be fine after that.

The HDD led isn't a big deal. If you didn't connect it then you won't notice the problem.

Why the beep? I didn't know flashing into 2333 requires a reinstallation of drivers by Windows. What drivers are they anyway ?

C1E can be turned off with the patch that was uploaded a page or two ago. The HDD light on issue has been fixed for several BIOS versions now. ASUS support is possibly some of the worst ever.

Why not just read this thread to find your answers anyways? Seems a tad lazy if you ask me...

i read all 120 of tem in 2 days. My head of spinnign after that. LOLZ

[cryptocat]

Whoa, at the IDF they announced a new BIOS-Update thats gonna bring us "Auto-Overclocking", making the BIOS capable of finding out the max stable OC.

Does anyone have another source for that? I found it on a german site, but id like to see some other sources.

http://www.computerbase.de/news/hard...-overclocking/

[theonlybabyface]

Whoa, at the IDF they announced a new BIOS-Update thats gonna bring us "Auto-Overclocking", making the BIOS capable of finding out the max stable OC.

Does anyone have another source for that? I found it on a german site, but id like to see some other sources.

http://www.computerbase.de/news/hard...-overclocking/

"Intel will be within two weeks by an BIOS update „bath Axe 2 “- Main board (D975XBX2) with i975X-Chipsatz by a feature to extend that the Overclocking process automated and independently determines the maximally possible attitudes.

The user can specify thereby in three stages the aggressiveness, with which operating voltages for processor, chip set and memory are to be raised. Subsequently, the Main board will try automatically with the help of the new BIOS to take the respective maximum out of the system."

Bad translation but it sounds good to me...if it works.

[cryptocat]

Thats what it says, kind of, lol. (I'm glad i dont need google to translate English into German xD)

Really looking forward to it, if it works right we wouldnt have to crash Windows anymore because of unstable OC

[aamsel]

That's cool, no worries.

Andrew

Sorry Andrew. Didn't want to seem rude or anything but these particular questions get asked ALOT and the answers are throughout the thread. I can't ignore, I want to help as so many others have done for me. Again, my apologies.