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

[Lome]

Im running a 4:5 @ 417 MHz and 100% stable so I dont know what the "1:1 or die" crap is all about. All my voltages are at default as well.

if your doing this then you have a one in a thousand board or greater

[chaotic646]

if your doing this then you have a one in a thousand board or greater

I'll post screenshots once my orthos runs for a few hours. Keep in mind, I'm only pushing my 2.4 to 3.0 with the default voltages. I havent tried to go any higher without upping the power. I dont know why you think it would be a "one in a thousand" board, theres not even a hundred different people posting their results on this thread.

[Prelector]

I'll post screenshots once my orthos runs for a few hours. Keep in mind, I'm only pushing my 2.4 to 3.0 with the default voltages. I havent tried to go any higher without upping the power. I dont know why you think it would be a "one in a thousand" board, theres not even a hundred different people posting their results on this thread.

You're pushing it quite a bit higher than that, if you're running 417 at stock voltages... At 417, you're running at LEAST a 64% OC (since you can't lower the multi on the BadAxe2)

Hell, I want to see what cpu you're running 417mhz on any 975 at stock voltages... that's freaking AMAZING (and a bit hard to believe).

[chaotic646]

My memory freq is 417 MHz. My cpu bus is 334. My original point was Im running my 400MHz rated memory at 417 with a 4:5 ratio at stock voltages 100% stable, something others are saying isnt possible.

[Woland]

My memory freq is 417 MHz. My cpu bus is 334. My original point was Im running my 400MHz rated memory at 417 with a 4:5 ratio at stock voltages 100% stable, something others are saying isnt possible.

Im running at those settings aswell, Xeon 3060 @ 334*9 1.35v, 266/667. Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX 4.4.4.12 2.12v @ 417MHz. All volts at stock. Never had any problems. Most stable and easily overclockable board Ive ever owned.

[STaRGaZeR]

You guys don´t understand, we are talking about 400+FSB and 4:5 divider, resulting in 500+Mhz memory speed. Not 417Mhz memory. Of course, those speeds can be reached by all of us.

[FrobinRobin]

I have a question which has been bugging me for many weeks now.

What memory should I buy to replace my current Geil sticks?
I keep getting a single dimm module die, I'm now aware that its probably the second dimm slot on my mobo but cannot test this as I'm currently running a single stick.

My main question is whether the 2nd slot is responsible for the dead dimm(s) and whether this occurs with 4x1GB sticks are used.

I now have the opportunity to buy some new ram - especially as they've become a lot cheaper recently

I'd like (in order of importance):
1. 4GB as I've got Vista installed
2. Something faster than 800Mhz would be nice to play around with OC'ing
3. Heatpipe / DHX / any other effective cooling technology.

Can anyone recommend any currently IN STOCK IN UK.

I've looked around and the best on offer is OCZ 800Mhz Gold 2x2GB @ £175.

No 2x2GB Corsair DHX in stock anywhere

[AndyM]

Ha, yeah 400+ FSB, not memory speed on 4:5. A little update on the 'will the XBX2 be retired or not' story, should anyone really care . Initial observations are 3.9 GHz my CPU doesnt like too much without going some above 1.55 vcore with the P5K Deluxe. It got over a few Orthos humps around 1.57 vcore (dont know what actual is yet, but vdroop is supposed to be really good on that Asus board). Still not Orthos stable though at 3.9 at voltages I'm comfortable with. So now if it can do 3.8 GHz with DDR2-1000+ stable, I think I'll retire the XBX2...still testing. I'll miss the seemingly better quality of construction the XBX2 has, but if it dont work for what I want it to do...

Maybe when Intel breaks out a P35 "Extreme" board of thier own that should be interesting, I kinda am feeling like I'm dumping an old friend now with this XBX2 'possible retirement' testing, lol.

[nealh]

Ha, yeah 400+ FSB, not memory speed on 4:5. A little update on the 'will the XBX2 be retired or not' story, should anyone really care . Initial observations are 3.9 GHz my CPU doesnt like too much without going some above 1.55 vcore with the P5K Deluxe. It got over a few Orthos humps around 1.57 vcore (dont know what actual is yet, but vdroop is supposed to be really good on that Asus board). Still not Orthos stable though at 3.9 at voltages I'm comfortable with. So now if it can do 3.8 GHz with DDR2-1000+ stable, I think I'll retire the XBX2...still testing. I'll miss the seemingly better quality of construction the XBX2 has, but if it dont work for what I want it to do...

Maybe when Intel breaks out a P35 "Extreme" board of thier own that should be interesting, I kinda am feeling like I'm dumping an old friend now with this XBX2 'possible retirement' testing, lol.

I am bit ignorant here P5K Deluxe ..P35 or 965 chipset

[AndyM]

P35. Looks like the XBX2 is officially retired, the P35 is a monster in comparison, nice OC'ing to new levels. The XBX2 got its revenge though, I had AHCI enabled on that, and for some reason with the ICH9R on the P5K Windows couldnt read the drive correctly, so I had to go to IDE (which was throwing some error messages about the drive in windows). Spent the day trying to get though a "repair installation" in windows, new Intel Matrix AHCI driver, now I'm trying to plow though a Windows update, fun fun fun. I'd put that copy of Vista on the machine, but dont want to kill my video performance, so I'm trying to patch up XP. I love MS!

Anyway, this threads been really helpful learning the ins and outs of the XBX2, and a big thanks to the author of the XBX2 memory calculator...it made the XBX2 so much more enjoyable with that tool.

[screwtech02]

I too am going the way of the P35/X38 chipset. With all the rumors of X38 supporting (SLI) hopefully of the desktop version, i may also join the green card team once again.. Unless ATI starts makin it easier to overclock BOTH their cards at one time... The Bx2 is a great board, but i do believe that there are more powerfull/bettter clocking ones out there.....

[chaotic646]

I too am going the way of the P35/X38 chipset. With all the rumors of X38 supporting (SLI) hopefully of the desktop version, i may also join the green card team once again.. Unless ATI starts makin it easier to overclock BOTH their cards at one time... The Bx2 is a great board, but i do believe that there are more powerfull/bettter clocking ones out there.....

I dont think anyone ever claimed it was the best overclocking board as far as extremely high OC's, but its a great board for high OC's with excellent stability. Personally, I prefer a stable board with very good OC ability to an unstable board with extreme OC ability.

[scaryogre]

Hi,

I am running Windows Vista 32 and cannot install Intel Matrix Storage Manager for some reason. I've tried downloading it several times and each time I try and double-click the .EXE to start installation nothing happens???

I am certain I am using the 32 version for Vista-32. File name is STOR_ALL32_F6FLPY32_7.5.0.1017_PV.exe.

What is the magic here?

Thanks,

-scaryogre

[Lome]

Maybe when Intel breaks out a P35 "Extreme" board of thier own that should be interesting, I kinda am feeling like I'm dumping an old friend now with this XBX2 'possible retirement' testing, lol.

intels new board is supposed to put DFI bios options to shame

[finance_coder]

Offhand, does anyone know what the typical and maximum overclocks I can expect with my XBX2 and an E6600 (all stock voltages, air cooling)?

Details: this is the first board I've really done much overclocking with. (Of course the XBX2 Memory Calculator has been immensely helpful.)

Anyway, I've got this board, 1x2 GB G.Skill DDR2-800 "HZ" memory and an E6600. Cooler is the Thermalright Ultra-120.

What's a "typical" overclock for this setup? I.e., an overclock that should be stable and attainable by 99% of people with the same hardware? Note: I'd like to keep all voltages stock.

Right now I'm running FSB=333, strap=1066 (ratio=2/3). The system seems stable (I'm running Linux, but ran Orthos under Windows XP in a virtual machine for eight hours; also running seti@home on the Linux side). G.Skill says this memory is rated for 2.0 to 2.1 Volts; I've got it set to 2.04 as of now. I just upgraded the BIOS to 2770 (from 2333; also disabled the watchdog). Memory timings are 5-5-5-15.

This seems to be a pretty popular mix of hardware; I'd like the system to be as fast as possible, but with a priority on stability. I.e., I'd like plenty of safety "headroom".

Thanks!

[STaRGaZeR]

Hi,

I am running Windows Vista 32 and cannot install Intel Matrix Storage Manager for some reason. I've tried downloading it several times and each time I try and double-click the .EXE to start installation nothing happens???

I am certain I am using the 32 version for Vista-32. File name is STOR_ALL32_F6FLPY32_7.5.0.1017_PV.exe.

What is the magic here?

Thanks,

-scaryogre

Try this one

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/down...%2032&lang=spa

[screwtech02]

Offhand, does anyone know what the typical and maximum overclocks I can expect with my XBX2 and an E6600 (all stock voltages, air cooling)?

Details: this is the first board I've really done much overclocking with. (Of course the XBX2 Memory Calculator has been immensely helpful.)

Anyway, I've got this board, 1x2 GB G.Skill DDR2-800 "HZ" memory and an E6600. Cooler is the Thermalright Ultra-120.

What's a "typical" overclock for this setup? I.e., an overclock that should be stable and attainable by 99% of people with the same hardware? Note: I'd like to keep all voltages stock.

Right now I'm running FSB=333, strap=1066 (ratio=2/3). The system seems stable (I'm running Linux, but ran Orthos under Windows XP in a virtual machine for eight hours; also running seti@home on the Linux side). G.Skill says this memory is rated for 2.0 to 2.1 Volts; I've got it set to 2.04 as of now. I just upgraded the BIOS to 2770 (from 2333; also disabled the watchdog). Memory timings are 5-5-5-15.

This seems to be a pretty popular mix of hardware; I'd like the system to be as fast as possible, but with a priority on stability. I.e., I'd like plenty of safety "headroom".

Thanks!

Probably lookin at anywhere from 3.4-3.9ish overclock, depending on your chip, ect......

[finance_coder]

Probably lookin at anywhere from 3.4-3.9ish overclock, depending on your chip, ect......

Wow, you think that range is really possible without having to increase the voltage to anything? I.e., MCH, CPU, RAM all run at stock/defined voltages? (I'm not disagreeing, just making sure I understand you ).

There's a tip on this page that says, "A 1:1 FSB to Memory ratio sounds nice but the critical comparison is FSB throughput to real-world memory throughput. Ideally, you want the 2 to be close." Going by that criteria, and using the memory calculator, the strap I'm using now (1066) seems best (across all FSB settings).

But if I set the FSB=380 (roughly 3.4 GHz), the DDR2 equivalent is 1142! Is there a good chance my F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ sticks can actually do that (without upping the voltage beyond the manufacturer's suggested range)?

I know only trial and error and luck of the draw can get the best OC. I'm just trying to ascertain the "least common denominator" OC that everyone except those with bum hardware should be able to obtain.

Thanks again!

[AndyM]

Depending on your cpu you may be able to get to 3.4 (378 fsb) on stock volts. Mine did, but some of the later cpu's are kind of balky according to reports. I had to bump mch and fsb to 1.6 and 1.3 to go beyond there. Your memory might still be able to make 1136 on stock volts using 2:3, might not also. Then you could go to the 1:1 ratio, that for sure would work, albeit 'slow' (you might not notice). Using the 4:5 ratio might uncover another can of worms as I found, but I'm not sure if that can of worms applies to this speed or not. Good luck!

[gcc]

Hello. I'm thinking about buying a D975XBX2 for a new system, and this forum seems like a good place where to ask for advice. I understand Intel will probably stop producing this board soon, but hopefully it's now more stable than a newly launched board will be for months.

Basically I wand to build a silent, cool, but reasonably fast system and the numbers for the power dissipation from the P35 chipset put me off. But I can't avoid wondering if I'm being silly for not picking the newer chipset. What would you advise? Is the D975XBX2 already outdated, and should I go for a P35-based board instead?

I still have some hope for Penryn support on the 975x based boards - someone mentioned in another thread that both these and the newer P35 follow the VRM11.0 specification. But I already got burned by Intel once, with an early D875 and no support for prescott (although in that case the VRM had changed), so I'm not really counting on it.

[finance_coder]

Depending on your cpu you may be able to get to 3.4 (378 fsb) on stock volts. Mine did, but some of the later cpu's are kind of balky according to reports. I had to bump mch and fsb to 1.6 and 1.3 to go beyond there. Your memory might still be able to make 1136 on stock volts using 2:3, might not also. Then you could go to the 1:1 ratio, that for sure would work, albeit 'slow' (you might not notice). Using the 4:5 ratio might uncover another can of worms as I found, but I'm not sure if that can of worms applies to this speed or not. Good luck!

I wasn't able to POST with FSB=360 (3.2 GHz) and 2:3 ratio. Memory voltage was 2.08. I didn't experiment with changing the multiplier or increasing voltages. I'm going to run some stability tests at 3.0 GHz (FSB=333). I was hoping for a bit more, but it doesn't look like it's going to come easily.

Thanks again!

[D_o_S]

Can someone please tell me which revision of the XBX2 is newest?

My version has 3 blue SATA ports and 1 red one, I have seen a version which has all of them in blue...

Also, where do I find fan control in the BIOS?

Thx.

[scorpion]

2770

[D_o_S]

2770

Um, thats the newest BIOS, no?

[AndyM]

I wasn't able to POST with FSB=360 (3.2 GHz) and 2:3 ratio. Memory voltage was 2.08. I didn't experiment with changing the multiplier or increasing voltages. I'm going to run some stability tests at 3.0 GHz (FSB=333). I was hoping for a bit more, but it doesn't look like it's going to come easily.

Thanks again!

The 975x might need more volts to run a multiplier, on 1:1 it should be good to 3.4ghz in my experience. The memory might be slower at that point, but you will know if it's the board, cpu or memory balking the OC. Give it a shot!