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

[LoneWolf]

Hi guys,

Glad I found this thread. Just did a rebuild of my system for reference, here's the specs:

Core 2 E6600
Intel D975XBX2 (of course), rev 505, latest BIOS (6/13/2007, IIRC)
2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 @2.2v
2x Seagate 7200.10 400GB SATA hard disks
2x Pioneer DVR-212D SATA DVD writers
XFX Geforce 8800GTS, Powercolor ATI Theater 550 Pro, Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer
Antec NeoHE 550 PSU (in a modded Antec P160SW case)

I'm having a few minor problems that some people have probably already experienced, so I'm hoping for some answers. First off, my Tuniq Tower 120 heatsink's 120mm fan is not detected by the board, so I get no RPM reporting, though it is running. Fan connector is a 3-pin rather than 4-pin and has a pass-through speed controller that was included with it, but I don't believe that should make a difference. I have tried turning CPU and system fan monitoring to off, it doesn't change things. My one case fan plugged into a three-pin connector (my other case fans go into Molex) is reported correctly.

Next off, POST time is miserably slow. From turning on the system to the time it takes to get to the XP boot logo, I'd say it takes at least a minute. My Socket 938 MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum took half the time or less to go from power-on to boot logo. Once the boot logo is displayed, the system gets to the logon screen and performs the way it ought to. By the way, a side note: Does anyone know how to turn off the Intel splash logo and show a normal detailed POST, or isn't this available? I didn't see the option in the BIOS.

Finally, I can't find out how to set the command rate for my memory. CPU-Z reports that I'm running at a 2T command rate. I'm sure my memory can do 1T, but have seen nowhere in the BIOS where I can change this. Is there something I'm missing, or is there a BIOS revision that has this, and some that don't?

I don't even want to fool with overclocking until I've got all my minor issues ironed out. I've already solved a few (like the constant-on HDD light, fixed by BIOS update) but have several to go. Thanks for any help you guys can provide.