** OFFICIAL ** Intel DX38BT & DX48BT2 BoneTrail Thread

[Randy]

Well, I ran into a bit of a problem trying to get the latest BIOS installed before I loaded the OS onto my RAID config ... so I am at the moment just going ahead and loading the OS with the original BIOS and will update AFTER I get WinXP64 loaded.
Can you tell me where in the BIOS is the setting for the voltage for vDIMM? I can't seem to find it ... and as well for the NB. Is it the vMCH? Never heard of that before ... this is my first Intel board ... so please be nice ...

Hey,
just wondered if you got your crossfire going on any games smoothly. I'm curious because I had mega issues, but I am running Vista and you said you were using XP64.

[AKHandyman]

Hey,
just wondered if you got your crossfire going on any games smoothly. I'm curious because I had mega issues, but I am running Vista and you said you were using XP64.

I haven't yet had the time to do that, but will do so once I get this baby stable ... I am still learning about this board ... it's a tad different to what I am used to ... and I don't have a lot of experience with Intel BIOSes ...

[AKHandyman]

Just curious if anyone can comment on my last post regarding the voltages ... thanks in advance!

AK

[gtj]

Just curious if anyone can comment on my last post regarding the voltages ... thanks in advance!

AK

They looked OK until I saw "CPU Voltage Offset Enabled". That's WAY too much vCORE IMHO. Check Everest and see what it actually is.

[Mr Steveo]

A. Has anyone used the eSATA ports with an eSATA drive / device? If yes, how was file transfer integrity, speed, and smoothness (even speed vs choppy) on file transfers?

B. What brand controller chip handles the eSATA ports?

C. If its not the Intel Southbridge, is the thrid party chip routed through the PCI bus?

D. It seems Intel has cut some corners on this board. For those of you who have used the mobo extensively, is it a solid, stable platform with the major features? Or does it give the feel of a slightly buggy, rushed, compromise product?

[gtj]

A. Has anyone used the eSATA ports with an eSATA drive / device? If yes, how was file transfer integrity, speed, and smoothness (even speed vs choppy) on file transfers?

B. What brand controller chip handles the eSATA ports?

C. If its not the Intel Southbridge, is the thrid party chip routed through the PCI bus?

D. It seems Intel has cut some corners on this board. For those of you who have used the mobo extensively, is it a solid, stable platform with the major features? Or does it give the feel of a slightly buggy, rushed, compromise product?

A. No issues here at all.

B. Marvell

C. It's a PCIe device hung off the ICH9.

D. The BIOS is a little buggy from a usability standpoint but it doesn't compromise performance or stability. The board has been rock solid for me.

[AKHandyman]

They looked OK until I saw "CPU Voltage Offset Enabled". That's WAY too much vCORE IMHO. Check Everest and see what it actually is.

Yeah, last night I noticed that as well in Everest ... I am going to disable that ... other than that, does it look okay? I ran two instances of Orthos for over 5 hours and ran through all of Super-Pi without errors, but when I tried 3DMark01 for grins and giggles, it wouldn't run straight through ...

[gtj]

Yeah, last night I noticed that as well in Everest ... I am going to disable that ... other than that, does it look okay? I ran two instances of Orthos for over 5 hours and ran through all of Super-Pi without errors, but when I tried 3DMark01 for grins and giggles, it wouldn't run straight through ...

If Orthos runs OK but 3DMark doesn't, I'd suspect the video card or the drivers. XP64 right? Which video card?

IIRC you're building this rig for someone else but it would help if you updated your sig so we can see the components.

[AKHandyman]

If Orthos runs OK but 3DMark doesn't, I'd suspect the video card or the drivers. XP64 right? Which video card?

IIRC you're building this rig for someone else but it would help if you updated your sig so we can see the components.

I suspected the video card as well ... it's a Sapphire HD 2900XT 1 GB, Cat 7.12 drivers and XP64

I went back and put everything to default settings ... and started a little slower this time ... CPU is stock, except for one bump on both FSB voltage override and MCH voltage override ... vDIMM is 1.78v and timings are 9-9-9-24 @666MHz ... I believe things are a bit more stable now ...

[Mr Steveo]

Few other questions please:

For those of you using the Zalman 9700 HSF, is that a three or four wire fan? If three wire, what do you use to vary the fan speed if any?

I hear about the initial BIOS being buggy. Assuming I should flash to the latest BIOS ASAP (before installing Windows,) what BIOS update method do you all recommend? What kind of drive will I need to have? (I have only flashed by iFlash with a floppy or express flash from Windows, so I am a bit ignorant here.)

[gtj]

Few other questions please:

For those of you using the Zalman 9700 HSF, is that a three or four wire fan? If three wire, what do you use to vary the fan speed if any?

I hear about the initial BIOS being buggy. Assuming I should flash to the latest BIOS ASAP (before installing Windows,) what BIOS update method do you all recommend? What kind of drive will I need to have? (I have only flashed by iFlash with a floppy or express flash from Windows, so I am a bit ignorant here.)

The Zalman is a 3 wire fan. I use it on some of my other systems but I just have them run full blast.

The CD method of BIOS updating would be the one I'd recommend but it doesn't work and in fact Intel removed that capability with the last release. The original BIOS release is plenty stable enough to install Windows and run the Windows based updater. You can also make a diskette and use a USB floppy drive, make a USB bootable drive, or if you have a Windows PE CD or a Vista DVD, you can boot those and run a Command Prompt and then run the Windows Updater.

[Randy]

Yeah, last night I noticed that as well in Everest ... I am going to disable that ... other than that, does it look okay? I ran two instances of Orthos for over 5 hours and ran through all of Super-Pi without errors, but when I tried 3DMark01 for grins and giggles, it wouldn't run straight through ...

I used 3dmark06 with a crossfire set-up, and I had to use a patch from Futuremark to get it to run correctly, so possibly, you may need to use a patch with 01 as well.

[AKHandyman]

I am now getting through Memtest86+ v1.70 without any errors, so GTJ, thanks for the heads up on the vDIMM voltage ... what a difference!!!

I am going to put the second HD2900XT in later tonight and see what happens ... I have 3DMark06 and I think I downloaded the patch ... not sure, but will have to do a search on my other rig to find it ...