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

[ChaosMinionX]

Interesting little find.....

Penryn First Benchmarks @ PCWorld

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...1/article.html


Notes: All systems were tested under the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. The test systems were each equipped with 2GB of Corsair memory running at DDR2 800 speed, an Asus GeForce 8800 GTX graphics board, and a 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive.
1 The Core 2 Extreme system used a quad-core QX6800 chip with 8MB of cache. That chip was running at 2.93 GHz with a 1066-MHz front-side bus on an Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.
2 The dual-core Penryn prototype included 6MB of cache and ran at 3.33 GHz using a 1333-MHz front-side bus. It was installed in a preproduction Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.
3 The quad-core Penryn prototype included 12MB of cache and ran at 3.33 GHz using a 1333-MHz front-side bus. It was installed in a preproduction Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.


This meaning what? theres a new BX2 on the way? Or current BX2 will be able to use Penryn? Kinda confused

[nealh]

Interesting little find.....

Penryn First Benchmarks @ PCWorld

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...1/article.html


Notes: All systems were tested under the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. The test systems were each equipped with 2GB of Corsair memory running at DDR2 800 speed, an Asus GeForce 8800 GTX graphics board, and a 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive.
1 The Core 2 Extreme system used a quad-core QX6800 chip with 8MB of cache. That chip was running at 2.93 GHz with a 1066-MHz front-side bus on an Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.
2 The dual-core Penryn prototype included 6MB of cache and ran at 3.33 GHz using a 1333-MHz front-side bus. It was installed in a preproduction Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.
3 The quad-core Penryn prototype included 12MB of cache and ran at 3.33 GHz using a 1333-MHz front-side bus. It was installed in a preproduction Intel BadAxe2 Desktop motherboard using a D975XBX2 chip set.


This meaning what? theres a new BX2 on the way? Or current BX2 will be able to use Penryn? Kinda confused

that sure is confusing...

[ChaosMinionX]

that sure is confusing...

Your tellin Me, anyone shed some light on this?

[scottk]

tx.. i am already doing that but straight to 350 at stock volts except vcore witch is 1,4 in bios (still running orthos large for 11 h)..

P.S.: SB is very hot even at stock.. is that normal??

Have you tried raising your vFSB? 1.272 might be a bit low for 9x390. I need at least 1.4 to stabilize at 400.

Try testing with vFSB 1.4, vMCH 1.6 and see what happens. If that doesn't help, go back to your orig vFSB and vMCH settings, and try higher vCPU.

Loosen up your RAM timings to at least 4-4-4-12 to eliminate it as cause for instability while you tune vFSB, vMCH, and vCPU.

[aamsel]

Never have liked PC World as a computer mag. There is no way that I can see to try to contact the author of the article. All you can do is subscribe to PC World forums and post a comment to the article and hope for a reply from the author.

My guess is that the author got confused, and that the "pre-production Badaxe 2" is a "Badaxe 3" of some sort.

The fact that he was referring to the motherboard as "Badaxe 2" and not "D975XBX2" tells me that he was just trying to repeat what some Intel rep was saying, and probably doing a poor job of that.

My guess is that there will be a new board, and that it will not be 975X based.

Andrew

Your tellin Me, anyone shed some light on this?

[screwtech02]

Possibly X38 perhaps????

[aamsel]

That would be my guess.

Andrew

Possibly X38 perhaps????

[Nightprowler_77]

I`m having major stabilityissues trying to take my Q6600 above 350FSB on this board.

It`s like hitting a wall at 350. Up to 350 everything is stable default. Rising voltage doesnt help.

I`m at the latest bios.

BX2 / Quad = 350 Would testing an older bios be good?

[GazC]

I've been reading through this thread trying to make my mind up on the Bad Axe 2 but one of the posts confused me. Do you have limited multiplier control available in the bios with an E6600 or is this just a luxury for the EE chips?

Thanks.

[nealh]

you can not lower mutlipler despite the fact that e6600 is unlocked for lower mutliplier
ie e6600 can only be run at 9x(which is better for performance anyway..even if though you can not max fsb)..not 6x, 7x or 8x

[GazC]

you can not lower mutlipler despite the fact that e6600 is unlocked for lower mutliplier
ie e6600 can only be run at 9x(which is better for performance anyway..even if though you can not max fsb)..not 6x, 7x or 8x

Thanks for the reply and now for the next n00b question (I've not looked at upgrading in nearly 18months and I'm totally new to intel), what mobo would you recommend which allows for downward multi control?

[Circaflex]

whats the all around best bios these days? Just got my system completed is 2333 still overclocking king?

[ChaosMinionX]

whats the all around best bios these days? Just got my system completed is 2333 still overclocking king?

I use 2692 without a hitch.

[Skerlnik]

So 1 out of 4 of my OCZ Titanium Alpha modules is dead. Don't know why it happened, but it's always fun testing each one individually. I suppose it could be the "evil" slot some people have been talking about, but I don't know which slot it was in

Anyway, it's a bummer. They modules have been running at 2.3v 24/7. Yes, they're rated at 2.3v. Perhaps they overheated? Wish I knew.

Regards,
Sker

[ChaosMinionX]

So 1 out of 4 of my OCZ Titanium Alpha modules is dead. Don't know why it happened, but it's always fun testing each one individually. I suppose it could be the "evil" slot some people have been talking about, but I don't know which slot it was in

Anyway, it's a bummer. They modules have been running at 2.3v 24/7. Yes, they're rated at 2.3v. Perhaps they overheated? Wish I knew.

Regards,
Sker

What slot on the Bad Axe 2 was the dead module in? 0,1,2,3?

[nealh]

Thanks for the reply and now for the next n00b question (I've not looked at upgrading in nearly 18months and I'm totally new to intel), what mobo would you recommend which allows for downward multi control?

IMHO..these mobo are too expensive with so many "issues" and support is ok at best

I just bought 2 DFI 965-S for $150 at newegg....the board seems good and the price point is excellent

There are too many opinions on what is the best....too many variables...

Sorry I cant be more specific

[Skerlnik]

What slot on the Bad Axe 2 was the dead module in? 0,1,2,3?

That's the thing. I didn't think to note which slot they were in as I removed them I removed them all at first so that I could install some G.Skill to boot in maintenance mode (I had some other OCZ modules that stopped booting at stock vdimm).

I *think* this module was in the middle though... 1 or 2 would be my guess.

[aicjofs]

Your tellin Me, anyone shed some light on this?

I pretty sure I saw it mentioned somewhere, possibly at XS, that it was a XBX2 just like ours(and a different BIOS) but with some sort of modded voltage reg for the new VRM for Penryn.

On this memory thing. I know it's been discussed at some length throughout the thread but when I lost a Ballistix stick awhile back in slot 3 it was during a BIOS change and save and it never POSTed with that stick again. Is that what everyone is experiencing or are they just becoming unstable, or dying in the OS. Seems to me in my case and a few others I have read it appears a boot time spike. Either they are killed then or damage shortens life. I never think too much of it as cases seem isolated but the more I see others post about the more you have to wonder.

[Skerlnik]

On this memory thing. I know it's been discussed at some length throughout the thread but when I lost a Ballistix stick awhile back in slot 3 it was during a BIOS change and save and it never POSTed with that stick again. Is that what everyone is experiencing or are they just becoming unstable, or dying in the OS. Seems to me in my case and a few others I have read it appears a boot time spike. Either they are killed then or damage shortens life. I never think too much of it as cases seem isolated but the more I see others post about the more you have to wonder.

Indeed it makes me wonder. Although this is the first stick this MB has killed, my previous Asus P5W-DH killed all 4 sticks of this OCZ. Makes me question OCZ's quality - it's a good thing they are guaranteed for life.

My stick died while the OS was running. The PC was doing nothing but sitting idle, monitors in power save mode. I came to use it, and noticed the monitors wouldn't power back on, and the optical drive lights were both blinking. Of course as soon as I restarted in maintenance mode and heard the beep, I knew it was memory.

[BAR*B*Q]

dimm slot that doesnt perform well here is 2nd: very unstable on 500 4:5 4-4-4-8 eg. im using latest bios... was it better with 2333 maybe ?

[beantech]

Hey guys...
I've been a lurker around here for quite sometime, but had to register after reading this excellent thread! I'm in the process of building a new rig w/ the BX2 and have been absorbing all the great info. here.

One thing I was wondering about was the eSata on the board.
I'm relatively new to eSata, but have been playing around with it on another rig w/ an Asus board. With the Asus, it seems the eSata is NOT hot-pluggable, i.e. you have to have the external drive powered-up before you boot or it will not be seen by the OS. Is this the case with the BadAxe2 as well? I seem to recall reading somewhere that only certain Intel chipsets support hot-pluggable eSata....

[Skerlnik]

So I need some advice. I swapped out my OCZ in favor of some G.Skill HZ's because my board would no longer boot with them. I don't care which modules are installed at this point - I don't need every last % of memory performance.

My problem is this: When I run Orthos in small FFTs, it runs for 10min+ (I stop it), and when I run the large FFT test, it also runs fine. But when I run blend, it fails instantly! I don't know what the problem is here... I thought that perhaps it is the NB, so I tried upping voltage to 1.6 but that didn't solve it. I changed my memory timing to 5-4-4-12 @ 333mhz, and that didn't solve it either. What am I missing?

This PC makes me nuts

- Sker

[Skerlnik]

I think I answered my own question. I turned up the voltage on the FSB (1.4) and vMCH (1.6) and now the Blend test runs fine. Ran it for about an hour and a half to be sure.

- Sker

[gtj]

Hey guys...
I've been a lurker around here for quite sometime, but had to register after reading this excellent thread! I'm in the process of building a new rig w/ the BX2 and have been absorbing all the great info. here.

One thing I was wondering about was the eSata on the board.
I'm relatively new to eSata, but have been playing around with it on another rig w/ an Asus board. With the Asus, it seems the eSata is NOT hot-pluggable, i.e. you have to have the external drive powered-up before you boot or it will not be seen by the OS. Is this the case with the BadAxe2 as well? I seem to recall reading somewhere that only certain Intel chipsets support hot-pluggable eSata....

No issues here with hot plugging. Unplugging is a different story. Windows isn't too happy with ntfs volumes disappearing out from under it.

[Woland]

New bios out 2745, seems like minor fixes tho.