What do you think of the Bad Axe 2???

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Lyquist

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I am thinking about getting the Intel Bad Axe 2 motherboard because my DS3 has developed a tendency to restart itself for some reason and I don't like that at all. I'm bummed about it really. I want to go with Intel becuase from what I hear they are the most stable. Overclocking is a secondary consideration, but I know I can with the Bad Axe.

I just want to hear from some users of this board about what they think about it. Thanks in advance for your time.
 
If you don't need high FSB above 420-440ish on a stock board then this board is what you want. If you mod the board and watercool northbridge 500 FSB is no problem and the max bios allows. If there is no need for high fsb the board is stable and highly recommended.
 
Rock solid. Best motherboard experience I've ever had. First Intel board for me, and won't be the last. Very solid build quality with great components (no capacitor whine ... a big deal to me).

Highly recommended.
 
slappynutz said:
Rock solid. Best motherboard experience I've ever had. First Intel board for me, and won't be the last. Very solid build quality with great components (no capacitor whine ... a big deal to me).

Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Easiest build I've done yet.
 
good depending what chip you have and how much you wanna OC, stable as hell though at stock.
 
I have a e6300 and I would like to overclock to 400 x 7...so not a major overclock really. The next thing I need to do is to buy some DDR2-800 ram.
 
Well I was well happy with mine for the 4 days I had it up and running.
Then felt bold enough to try a little mild overclocking 334*9 and 5-5-5-15

Puff it went and never worked again, corrupted display although I can view and change the BIOS it absolutely will not boot any media.

Tried all the steps, even the bios emergency recovery flash and nothing gets it going again.

I'm now debating wether I should take a new one, or take my chances with a 680i board.
 
Excellent board! Connected my Raptor drive to sata0 port, windows saw it and loaded fine. Overclocked my E6700 (2.66Ghz) to 3.0Ghz on stock volts. Raised the chip volts up to 1.35 just for peace of mind. Be aware though that not all of the bios versions are equal. Mine came with 2333, the best overclocking bios...
 
marsofold said:
Excellent board! Connected my Raptor drive to sata0 port, windows saw it and loaded fine. Overclocked my E6700 (2.66Ghz) to 3.0Ghz on stock volts. Raised the chip volts up to 1.35 just for peace of mind. Be aware though that not all of the bios versions are equal. Mine came with 2333, the best overclocking bios...
Click to expand...
hey are you saying that windows recognized your raptor when you made a fresh new build and did a fresh new installation of windows xp on it without having to load drivers via floppy or whatever??!
 
Yes, as long as you connect to one of the four ICH7R sata ports, no floppy is needed by windows at installation. Windows sees the drive. The Marvel ports will require a floppy, but I don't use those.
 
My Raptor got recognized as well by XP without any extra driver as long you set it as IDE mode instead of AHCI. With AHCI, you need a driver for sure.

Mine is one of the most awesome boards I ever saw. Got to 3207 MHz while I have a finger in my nose :D Great layout as well.
 
wow, great news. thanks.

marsofold: you mean even without setting it to IDE/Legacy mode? or did you set it to this mode in order for windows to see the drives?


also, i notice there is only 4 sata ports for ICH7R and 4 for Marvel. i will eventually have 4 SATA HDDs and 1 SATA DVD burner. where should i plug the dvd burner? in port 0 or the last port in the chain? or does it not matter? should i save the HDDs for ICH7R controller and use Marvel for the burner because maybe i dont need drivers for the Marvel controller to see my DVD burner?

a little confused on what will be the best way to plug in my different drives, if it matters at all.
any info and details would be appreciated. thanks :)
 
I would use ICH7R sata port0 for the boot drive. Select IDE in the bios for all of ICH7R ports, not raid or AHCI. Since I installed windowsXP from an IDE burner, I can't say for sure, but I'd assume you'd need to initially use an ICH7R port (port3?) to install windows from a windows disk in the burner (so that the disk would be seen in the first place without a driver). After Windows is installed you can always change the feed port of the burner.
 
I was planning on getting the Bad Axe 2 but i'm getting really confused on all these requirements on installing a new OS on a fresh SATA (3.0GB/s) Hard Drive.

Also, i'd be using an IDE DVD/CD Burner to install the OS.

With all these terms "ICH7R", "Marvell", "AHCI";

is it as simple as just plugging in the hard drive in one of the SATA ports, and the burner into the IDE slot ?
 
Gaiden133 said:
I was planning on getting the Bad Axe 2 but i'm getting really confused on all these requirements on installing a new OS on a fresh SATA (3.0GB/s) Hard Drive.

Also, i'd be using an IDE DVD/CD Burner to install the OS.

With all these terms "ICH7R", "Marvell", "AHCI";

is it as simple as just plugging in the hard drive in one of the SATA ports, and the burner into the IDE slot ?
Click to expand...

The IDE burner is easy b/c there's just the 1 IDE connector on the board.

ICH7R is the Intel controller, the Marvell is just another SATA controller and AHCI is Advanced Host Controller Interface for certain SATA features.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/CS-012304.htm

In your case, since you seem to only have the 1 SATA drive, stick to the ICH7 Intel controller.

You can simply plug your HDD into the Intel (ICH7) ports and install Windows as usual. However, to use AHCI or RAID, you need to use F6 to load the drivers during Windows install.
 
moosey said:
The IDE burner is easy b/c there's just the 1 IDE connector on the board.

ICH7R is the Intel controller, the Marvell is just another SATA controller and AHCI is Advanced Host Controller Interface for certain SATA features.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/CS-012304.htm

In your case, since you seem to only have the 1 SATA drive, stick to the ICH7 Intel controller.

You can simply plug your HDD into the Intel (ICH7) ports and install Windows as usual. However, to use AHCI or RAID, you need to use F6 to load the drivers during Windows install.
Click to expand...

Thank you for clearing that up moosey.

One last question regarding the ICH7R & Marvell.
(going off on the mobo image: http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-121-059-04.jpg )

When you're installing the SATA drive into the mobo & into the ICH7R Controller, is it the red/blue SATA area? And is the marvell controller only activated via drivers when you install with the disc or are they the other 4 black sata ports?

Thanks.
 
Gaiden133 said:
Thank you for clearing that up moosey.

One last question regarding the ICH7R & Marvell.
(going off on the mobo image: http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-121-059-04.jpg )

When you're installing the SATA drive into the mobo & into the ICH7R Controller, is it the red/blue SATA area? And is the marvell controller only activated via drivers when you install with the disc or are they the other 4 black sata ports?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

RED/BLUE are from the Marvell controller and there is also 4 BLACK above, coming from the Intel ICH7R. You should plug in the BLACK plugs.
 
I don't think that I will getting the Bad Axe 2 anytime soon. It appears that my DS3 problems have been solved. It quit rebooting itself after I set the memory back to 667. It is normally 667 ram, but I was overclocking it to 800 and it obviously didn't like that very much. It was 100% stable except for it rebooting itself...I think I will save up for some 800 ram so that I can run my e6300 at 7 x 400 instead of 7 x 333. The only thing I want to overclock in this machine is the processor. Everything else I just want to leave at stock, and once the quad core prices come down, I will buy one of those for some real folding@home action:) I can't wait. I'm already in the top 100!!! Go team!!!

I guess the thing that really kills it for me for the Bad Axe 2 is lack of PCI slots. I currently have three PCI sound cards and I don't want to lose one, although I am saving up for one soundcard that will do everything my three soundcards are doing now, but I can't afford it just yet. Once I get just one soundcard I may be able to get by with just two PCI slots...because my only other use for a PCI slot would be a TV Card of some sort, or possibly a firewire card...so actually I would still need three if I get the tuner, firewire card and new soundcard. Oh well. I guess I'm sticking with the DS3 until AMD releases something that is better than what Intel has, or Intel goes to a new socket and I have to upgrade.
 
Isn't $250 for a motherboard kind of expensive?

Will I really be gaining that much by going with a BX2 as opposed to just a simple $90 board from Abit or Asus?

For us non extreme overclockers at least.
 
well you can find it for 200 bills at other e-tailers not ending in "egg".

But your point is still definitely valid. :D
 
moosey said:
The IDE burner is easy b/c there's just the 1 IDE connector on the board.

ICH7R is the Intel controller, the Marvell is just another SATA controller and AHCI is Advanced Host Controller Interface for certain SATA features.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/CS-012304.htm

In your case, since you seem to only have the 1 SATA drive, stick to the ICH7 Intel controller.

You can simply plug your HDD into the Intel (ICH7) ports and install Windows as usual. However, to use AHCI or RAID, you need to use F6 to load the drivers during Windows install.
Click to expand...

So using a raptor drive for windows how much are you really missing out on by not using AHCI?
 
theTIK said:
So using a raptor drive for windows how much are you really missing out on by not using AHCI?
Click to expand...

I was looking up the same question today, and at least from what I've found it seems as though AHCI doesn't matter much for the older 8gb cache Raptors (I have a 1st gen 74gb) which didn't even have some of the command queuing features of the newer 16gb Raptors. The newer 16gb Raptors will see a slight benefit but mostly in multi-user situations. As to whether or not it's worth the hassle of reinstalling your OS (I can't enable it and boot into Vista 64 after I installed in the IDE mode) is up to you.

It's not to me though ... at least until the next generation of Raptors appears and I'll have a reason to do a reinstall. I have a feeling we're due for a new Raptor revision someday soon.
 
Highly recommended. I've had four current C2D boards (AB9, AW9D-MAX, EVGA 680i & the BX2), and the Bad Axe 2 is probably the best all around board I've had in 10 years building systems. That amounts to about 3 dozen iterations of my own rigs, plus friends, family and review samples. Not to mention, my first BX2 was DOA - the one I have now makes up for that and then some. Maybe I sound like I have a [H]ard-on for this board, but I like it that much. :D

If I had to pick one flaw, it's the lack of multi adjust for non EE chips. One could also argue that it could use some additional memory timing control. The thing is rock stable and fast for sure. The BX2 also has taken many C2D's beyond their max on other boards, and that includes my 6600.


Tom
 
hemi said:
Highly recommended. I've had four current C2D boards (AB9, AW9D-MAX, EVGA 680i & the BX2), and the Bad Axe 2 is probably the best all around board I've had in 10 years building systems. That amounts to about 3 dozen iterations of my own rigs, plus friends, family and review samples. Not to mention, my first BX2 was DOA - the one I have now makes up for that and then some. Maybe I sound like I have a [H]ard-on for this board, but I like it that much. :D

If I had to pick one flaw, it's the lack of multi adjust for non EE chips. One could also argue that it could use some additional memory timing control. The thing is rock stable and fast for sure. The BX2 also has taken many C2D's beyond their max on other boards, and that includes my 6600.


Tom
Click to expand...

Can you change the multiplier to a lower one with the e6600 on this board?
 
I've been giving this board some renewed looking after reading up more on it.

Is only ATI Crossfire supported or can these motherboards do Nvidia SLI also?

In Anandtech's review of the board they were critical of several things, including the onboard audio lacking any advanced capabilities and chewing up a lot of CPU cycles just for 2D audio. They also indicated that the RAID controller that Intel chose isn't the best.

I'd be looking to do a 8X400mhz overclock of an E6400 or E6420 with this board, are there any concerns with this?

The RAID 10 support has some attractiveness so I might be swayed into using that as well.
 
For what it's worth the BX2 has updated the audio to Sigmatel 9227. The Anantech review was of the original BX board with Sigmatel 9221D.
 
divve said:
For what it's worth the BX2 has updated the audio to Sigmatel 9227. The Anantech review was of the original BX board with Sigmatel 9221D.
Click to expand...

Doh!

Still no SLI support though right?

From what I can see the Intel board isn't quite as fast as 965 offerings, but does have the advantage of being a rock in the stability department.
 
gunner1 said:
Doh!

Still no SLI support though right?

From what I can see the Intel board isn't quite as fast as 965 offerings, but does have the advantage of being a rock in the stability department.
Click to expand...

No SLI w/o hacked drivers.

What benchmarks are you looking to generalize that the BX2 (975X) isn't quite as fast at the P965? Most I've seen they trade off between benches and there's no way to generalize a winner.

Here's a review of the Gigabyte 680i but it compares with the BX2 and an Asus P965 board as well.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2936&p=6
 
moosey said:
No SLI w/o hacked drivers.

What benchmarks are you looking to generalize that the BX2 (975X) isn't quite as fast at the P965? Most I've seen they trade off between benches and there's no way to generalize a winner.

Here's a review of the Gigabyte 680i but it compares with the BX2 and an Asus P965 board as well.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2936&p=6
Click to expand...

I saw some benchmarks that showed IO throughput, etc, that seemed to indicate the 965 chipset boards really mopped the floor with the 975, but I don't know where they are. I've literally been looking at so much stuff my head is spinning.

It looks like the Bad Axe 2 is an excellent choice and rock solid stable platform as long as you don't plan on overclocking into the stratosphere. Does the board hit 400mhz pretty easily? That's really my target, 400mhz FSB on an E6400 for 3.2ghz with good stability. I know it doesn't overclock nearly as well as the 965 boards but I'm not looking to be on the bleeding edge.

I'd say I've dropped the P5B from my choices with all of the probs I've seen with support from Asus. It's down to the BX2 vs. the Gigabyte DQ6 for me. DQ6 is still going for around $200, the BX2 I can get at a local Microcenter for $177 plus tax.
 
gunner1 said:
I saw some benchmarks that showed IO throughput, etc, that seemed to indicate the 965 chipset boards really mopped the floor with the 975, but I don't know where they are. I've literally been looking at so much stuff my head is spinning.
Click to expand...
Well the 965 does have a newer SATA controller. As far as CPU benchmarks, from what I've read the 975 is faster clock per clock, but the 965 hits higher FSBs.

It looks like the Bad Axe 2 is an excellent choice and rock solid stable platform as long as you don't plan on overclocking into the stratosphere. Does the board hit 400mhz pretty easily? That's really my target, 400mhz FSB on an E6400 for 3.2ghz with good stability. I know it doesn't overclock nearly as well as the 965 boards but I'm not looking to be on the bleeding edge.
Click to expand...
It overclocks a lot better than my P5B. I have an E6600. It took my P5B 1.35v to run at 8*400=3.2GHZ and 1.475v to run at 9*380=3.42GHZ. I'm testing my BX2 now and it's running the same E6600 at 1.325v at 9*380.
 
Do you think you had a bad P5B?

From the Anandtech article linked a few posts up it looks like the BX2 had the lowest FSB performance of any of the boards in that shootout.

Obviously though, stability counts for something (or a lot in my book) so I'm still thinking that the BX2 might be the way to go.

Out of curiosity, will your BX2 not run your E6600 at 9X400mhz for 3.6?
 
gunner1 said:
Do you think you had a bad P5B?

From the Anandtech article linked a few posts up it looks like the BX2 had the lowest FSB performance of any of the boards in that shootout.

Obviously though, stability counts for something (or a lot in my book) so I'm still thinking that the BX2 might be the way to go.

Out of curiosity, will your BX2 not run your E6600 at 9X400mhz for 3.6?
Click to expand...
There seem to be mixed reports on the P5B.

Super high FSB doesn't matter for the E6600 unless you're on phase change or at least chilled water cooling.

I'm memtesting now at 1.4v at 9x400. The vcore requirements for my CPU go asymptotic around 3.4 to 3.6 GHZ.
 
feanor1024 said:
There seem to be mixed reports on the P5B.

Super high FSB doesn't matter for the E6600 unless you're on phase change or at least chilled water cooling.

I'm memtesting now at 1.4v at 9x400. The vcore requirements for my CPU go asymptotic around 3.4 to 3.6 GHZ.
Click to expand...

Can you change the multiplier on the e6600 to 8 if you want with this board?
 
theTIK said:
Can you change the multiplier on the e6600 to 8 if you want with this board?
Click to expand...

I've seen BIOS screenshots that show a CPU Multiplier Override, so I'm guessing the answer is "yes".

Well, I'm decided guys, this is the mobo for me, off to Microcenter tomorrow to pick one up for a really good price! :)
 
matt fury said:
Is that to say then that SLI *does* work on the BX2 with hacked drivers? If so, is it super shitty?
Click to expand...

SLI and Crossfire will work on any motherboard that has two x8+ PCI-Express slots, and won't run gimped at all. NVIDIA and AMD use their video card drivers to lock out anything but their own chipsets. The exception to this being the 975X chipset, which Intel mad a deal with AMD to allow Crossfire on.
 
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