when in [H] going to do a review of bad aXe2

turned off the not so marvel (lous) controller and working on hdd sound for now. i dislike its load segment.
apart from that... i mean, its an Intel board w/ an Intel cpu.

you could install a Mercedes engine in another car but ...it just wouldn't be a Mercedes.

anyways, lol

happy holidays and to a new year full of surprises (nvidia <=>Intel) ??
 
dp0001 said:
turned off the not so marvel (lous) controller and working on hdd sound for now. i dislike its load segment.
apart from that... i mean, its an Intel board w/ an Intel cpu.

you could install a Mercedes engine in another car but ...it just wouldn't be a Mercedes.

anyways, lol

happy holidays and to a new year full of surprises (nvidia <=>Intel) ??
Click to expand...

It almost seems like every onboard NIC I test gets worse and worse with each generation of motherboards I test. The older onboard NICs had better performance than the newer ones seem to.

Basically the only decent onboard NICs I've ever tested were all integrated Intel NICS like those on the i875P chipset boards. The NVIDIA LAN controllers always lagged behind, and now everyone has switched to Marvell, and Realtek, and they just aren't as good. If I had more PCI slots, I might be tempted to drop a Killer NIC or some other traditional higher performing network card.
 
InorganicMatter said:
I use Intel Viiv 965 boards. They all have Intel 100/1000 NICs on them.
Click to expand...

Not all of them. The ECS PX1 Extreme does not and it has the Viiv sticker on it.
 
dp0001 said:
...you could install a Mercedes engine in another car but ...it just wouldn't be a Mercedes....
Click to expand...
True, it could be a Maybach, or a Pagani... or even a Chrysler....

-bZj
 
Down8 said:
True, it could be a Maybach, or a Pagani... or even a Chrysler....

-bZj
Click to expand...

and i agree.

needless to say that the Zonda is one of the greatest cars ever built - i think Mercedes manufactures the Maybach.

all this to say that Intel knows its processors, and how they operate better than anyone else and so the board they design for it will naturally fit.
 
Not sure why people are saying the BA2 needs to be modified for overclocking. They are confused and need to do some research before they state the 'facts'. This board rocks and it DOES overclock very easily. There is no downward multi adjustment yet and the hard drive light always being on when the marvell controller is disabled are the only negatives to this board. Hopefully both will be fixed in a future BIOS update. It's the best board on the market imo and best of all it's made by Intel so you don't have to deal with Asus or Abit and all of their QC issues.
 
Astrodave said:
Not sure why people are saying the BA2 needs to be modified for overclocking. They are confused and need to do some research before they state the 'facts'. This board rocks and it DOES overclock very easily. There is no downward multi adjustment yet and the hard drive light always being on when the marvell controller is disabled are the only negatives to this board. Hopefully both will be fixed in a future BIOS update. It's the best board on the market imo and best of all it's made by Intel so you don't have to deal with Asus or Abit and all of their QC issues.
Click to expand...

I've run into plenty of abit QC issues, but never any out of ASUS. I've owned alot of ASUS boards and reviewed a great deal of them with no problems that a BIOS update didn't or couldn't cure.
 
Yeah well a BIOS update can always fix a problem, but who wants to wait 1-6 months for that to happen when they are having a major problem with their system due to a design flaw on their board? Certainly not me. I have had many a problem with asus and abit in the past and effectively stopped using both. Some of the problems were fixed in BIOS updates and some were never fixed. My old abit bh6 had a few ram slots that didn't work and that was a huge known problem in those days that they never did fix. Mine and my office coworker's asus p4s8x had all kinds of problems but instead of fixing the board, asus just released the p4s8xv2 a few months later and left all the suckers that bought the v1 dangling in the wind. I washed my hands of asus after that. Judging by what I've been reading of their more recent boards it appears that many are still having problems but most are working ok. Nvidia 680i boards on the other hand are just plain awful right now with all the sata issues. The BA2 is the safe bet these days. Problems are all individual as you well know so everyone's mileage may vary.
 
Astrodave said:
Yeah well a BIOS update can always fix a problem, but who wants to wait 1-6 months for that to happen when they are having a major problem with their system due to a design flaw on their board? Certainly not me. I have had many a problem with asus and abit in the past and effectively stopped using both. Some of the problems were fixed in BIOS updates and some were never fixed. My old abit bh6 had a few ram slots that didn't work and that was a huge known problem in those days that they never did fix. Mine and my office coworker's asus p4s8x had all kinds of problems but instead of fixing the board, asus just released the p4s8xv2 a few months later and left all the suckers that bought the v1 dangling in the wind. I washed my hands of asus after that. Judging by what I've been reading of their more recent boards it appears that many are still having problems but most are working ok. Nvidia 680i boards on the other hand are just plain awful right now with all the sata issues. The BA2 is the safe bet these days. Problems are all individual as you well know so everyone's mileage may vary.
Click to expand...

The P4S8X was a pile of shit. Why the hell would you have made that choice to begin with? A non-Intel chipset for an Intel processor? Bad move. Today the only reason people are buying the 680i based boards is for SLI. If it weren't for that, almost no one would be.
 
I, like many of the 680i victims, bought it the day that it was released.....

I know, I know about that but still my point is that a consumer shouldn't get raped by buying a product the day it's released. I held out for 6 months on core2 because asus was the only real player around for boards and i will NOT ever buy asus again. I bought as soon as xbx2 came on the scene.

After this nvidia 8800 driver debacle i will never buy them again either if i find that r600 supports triplehead 3d rez's. I have a long memory when it comes to being burnt by companies.
 
Dan_D said:
Not all of them. The ECS PX1 Extreme does not and it has the Viiv sticker on it.
Click to expand...
Then that is false advertising, as a Viiv-certified PC requires on of these NICs:

Intel PRO/1000 PM, PRO/100 VE, or PRO/100 VM
 
I love my so far; had it for 2 days.

e6600 with a tuniq tower 120 (and arctic silver 5)...

CPU is at 1.4v, 3.5GHz, and runs 28-30C idle,55C load (orthos 1 hour).

POSTed on first attmept, not a single problem, the latest bios even lets you go back and fix your settings if your OC settings fail to POST.

I just love this thing. As someone not going SLI, I really don't think I could've gotten a better board. VERY PLEASED.

P.S., got mine from tigerdirect, for $200, $20 2day shipping.
 
uberwurst said:
I love my so far; had it for 2 days.

e6600 with a tuniq tower 120 (and arctic silver 5)...

CPU is at 1.4v, 3.5GHz, and runs 28-30C idle,55C load (orthos 1 hour).

POSTed on first attmept, not a single problem, the latest bios even lets you go back and fix your settings if your OC settings fail to POST.

I just love this thing. As someone not going SLI, I really don't think I could've gotten a better board. VERY PLEASED.

P.S., got mine from tigerdirect, for $200, $20 2day shipping.
Click to expand...

First post drumroll....

I'm planning what to get and today the BA2 caught my eye, and so far I'm thinking of the magic 6600/400FSB/3.6GHz 1:1 overclock spec. I see you have the Tuniq Tower as I am planning to get, did you try to reach 3.6 or did you have temperature/stability issues? I realize that maybe the CPU wont want to go that high, but at this 'benchracing' stage of my planned build, I'd like to see what those that are acually running a machine to my planned spec's are seeing. Thanks!
 
uberwurst said:
I love my so far; had it for 2 days.

e6600 with a tuniq tower 120 (and arctic silver 5)...

CPU is at 1.4v, 3.5GHz, and runs 28-30C idle,55C load (orthos 1 hour).

POSTed on first attmept, not a single problem, the latest bios even lets you go back and fix your settings if your OC settings fail to POST.

I just love this thing. As someone not going SLI, I really don't think I could've gotten a better board. VERY PLEASED.

P.S., got mine from tigerdirect, for $200, $20 2day shipping.
Click to expand...

Sorry if this has been answered before but is the tigerdirect bx2 the blk or box version?
 
plinx0r said:
Sorry if this has been answered before but is the tigerdirect bx2 the blk or box version?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's the box based on the sku. You can also get it from amazon for the same price as they ship directly from tigerdirect. Half the time you can get free two day shipping with amazon as well. I did on my z5450s that shipped from tigerdirect but bought through amazon. Kind of hard to find on their site, but here's the link.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
The Intel Bad Axe 2 board is a great board, it is an excellent overclocker compared to other 975X boards available. Example of this is I have a week 27 E6600 that I am able to get up to 3.8 ghz Prime95 stable on the BA2. Now with the same setup except for a P5W DH Deluxe, I was only able to get up to 3.6 ghz Prime95 stable. Both boards are volt modded so no discrepencies there and both 975X chipsets were watercooled.

Here are my E6300 overclocking results, these will be higher once I watercool the SB, allows more MCH voltage stably. Proof is I didn't have a fan over the SB heatsink and was only able to run 2.1 volts MCH and SB was HOT! Put a fan over it and am able to run 2.35 volts now, haven't tried more, thought that was enough til watercooling is in place. Therefore proves my theory that watercooling is a must to punch out a stable 500 fsb :) By the way 500 fsb is all the bios allows.

1MBSuperPiE6300at3.jpg

E6300at500FSBBIOS.jpg
 
Hi to everyone on the best HW site forum in the world.

Pardon my spelling, as i`m Norwegian and did not find a spellchecker :eek:

I make most of my HW related purchases based on [H]ard OCP reviews, and have done so for quite a while, allthough the EVGA 680i brought me nothing but sorrow.
( I wont go into detail, suffice to say, MY sample was utterly useless)

So now im looking at the BA2 to host my C2D 6600 and im in dire need of a [H]ard analysis....

Maybe some of you afficandos can help me with a few questions regarding my swap to Intel:

1. I need higher rated ram with the BA2 as I cannot OC the Ram and FSB independenly?

2. Is there a performance degredation running Nvida non SLI GPU?

3. Do you think it will be at all posible, I.E in a future bios revision, to run SLI on the BA2 ?


Any well founded thoughts is greatly appreciated,

Yours Rune
 
1) Not with a 6600 you don't. El cheapo DDR2-800 is plenty to get you to 3.6Ghz, which is about as much as the 6600 will do with air cooling.

2) Huh? Yes, SLI is faster than non-SLI.

3) Anything is possible. But don't count on it. If you have two nvidia cards and want to run SLI, your only choice is the 650i or 680i.
 
RuneRuler said:
Hi to everyone on the best HW site forum in the world.

Pardon my spelling, as i`m Norwegian and did not find a spellchecker :eek:

I make most of my HW related purchases based on [H]ard OCP reviews, and have done so for quite a while, although the EVGA 680i brought me nothing but sorrow.
( I wont go into detail, suffice to say, MY sample was utterly useless)

So now im looking at the BA2 to host my C2D 6600 and im in dire need of a [H]ard analysis....

Maybe some of you afficandos can help me with a few questions regarding my swap to Intel:

1. I need higher rated ram with the BA2 as I cannot OC the Ram and FSB independenly?

2. Is there a performance degredation running Nvida non SLI GPU?

3. Do you think it will be at all posible, I.E in a future bios revision, to run SLI on the BA2 ?


Any well founded thoughts is greatly appreciated,

Yours Rune
Click to expand...

in the beginning i was thinking the same as you- i wanted a board the supports sli.

i hadn't had a build in over 3 yrs, so i really wanted a good rig.
i spent months before finally choosing the bx2.

IMO - sli is not worth it.

i'm running a 24" @ 1920 x 1200 on a e6300 stock (temp. waiting for q6600) and a 8800 gtx run perfectly w/ 90% of all the eye candy - i'm sure if i oc a bit it would do the job. now the reason i'm saying sli is not worth it is that with this board you have the freedom to choose the best card on the market at any given time. nvidia or ati - unless yr brand loyal :eek:

btw- anyone tried an ati on a nvidia chipset?

the cards that are released @ 6months interval are usually in the same range than an old dual gpu setup.

now i'm really happy with this card, but i think i rushed it because for a dx10 card its dx10 performance is somehow unknown. so a few months down the line if a new card is released that outperforms it in real dx10 games and benchmarks- get it

(hardware manufacturers are happy that software writers are far behind- because i think we base our judgment on a card's performance mostly in games. problem is, theses game are usually not optimized for the variety of hardware out there, thats actually why consoles can sometimes hold up to pcs)

plus - you can also get a quad core later on since the board is optimized for it - and software companies are looking into it too.
finally, intel boards are usually know for their reliability (bx2 is making itself a reputaion as a good oc'er too)

hope this helps, for me this is the last thread of 2006 -
best of luck to everyone
 
I see i already made a blunder in question 2.

What i meant to ask, is there a performance degredation running one non SLI Nvidia GFX card on a CF ready mobo ?
> Im neither red nor green, Im just wondering if a CF mobo "prefers" ATI cards ...

Im feeling confident that the Badaxe 2 is my new mobo, but i may have gone for overkill on the ram as i already bought kingston KHX8000D2K2/2G DDR2 1000MHz :rolleyes:

Annyways thank you for your input, im looking forward to the build!
 
RMA èd my "bugfest" EVGA 680i and got my hardware pusher to agree to a Badaxe 2 as replacement board _and_ a Scythe CPU cooler to make up for the price difference.

First time I bought a Mobo without reading a [H]ard|OCP review first! :eek:

Now as a punishment to Kyle for not reviewing the board i will ignore [H]ard|OCP for one day :p

/Rune
 
"See, the thing is that Intel has created a bad name for themselves in the enthusiast motherboard segment"


That's not necessrily a bad thing as far as brand marketing goes. When people think of an Intel Mobo they think of something conservative and stable. If Intel tried to do the enthusiast thing they are cutting into their brand ID. Most manufacturers would use Intel boards for stability and uniformity why would they want to try to look like a niche markerter?

I might switch over to the Intel Myself. I bought ASUS P5WDH just after it got great reviews - and just before general public bought it to find it wouldn't boot with retail C2D's (ASUS said they tested board on "engineering" cpu's and didn't test with retail cpu's). It's been ok board for me so far but I don't push it and only have one drive hooked up.

I have read of a few people who had drive recognition issues (including a Tom's Hardware review) with the P5WDH but Im not sure how representative posts in forums are. But in my own mind I have shadow of doubt that don't think I would have with Intel board. That may just be markerting but then that goes back to my first point.
 
Lol "bugfest"

"See, the thing is that Intel has created a bad name for themselves in the enthusiast motherboard segment"

That's not necessrily a bad thing as far as brand marketing goes. When people think of an Intel Mobo they think of something conservative and stable. If Intel tried to do the enthusiast thing they are cutting into their brand ID. Most manufacturers would use Intel boards for stability and uniformity why would they want to try to look like a niche markerter?

I might switch over to the Intel Myself. I bought ASUS P5WDH just after it got great reviews - and just before general public bought it to find it wouldn't boot with retail C2D's (ASUS said they tested board on "engineering" cpu's and didn't test with retail cpu's). It's been ok board for me so far but I don't push it and only have one drive hooked up.

I have read of a few people who had drive recognition issues (including a Tom's Hardware review) with the P5WDH but Im not sure how representative posts in forums are. But in my own mind I have shadow of doubt that don't think I would have with Intel board. That may just be markerting but then that goes back to my first point.
 
i just got my bad axe 2 after a nightmare with the EVGA 680 frying my Corsair Dominator memory and after a few days have a [-][-] post code (dead board)

i got my bad axe 422x9 with a swiftech water kit ran orthos stablr over night a lot more than i can say for the EVGA board.

anyway i decided to get the bad axe after reading this forums and i am so glad i did
 
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