Intel DX48BT2 @ [H]

Does this board have the "watch dog" feature? If it does and you didn't disable it, that would seriously gimp your OC. You likely need to set the CMOS jumper to configure in order to see this "feature" in the BIOS.

My old BX2 drove me crazy trying to OC until I killed that feature. Then I could do 3.9GHz with an E6600 or 390 x 9 on a 1333 strap with a Q6600 G-0. Of course it's i975x which simply doesn't do that well with quads.
 
Blacklash said:
Does this board have the "watch dog" feature? If it does and you didn't disable it, that would seriously gimp your OC. You likely need to set the CMOS jumper to configure in order to see this "feature" in the BIOS.

My old BX2 drove me crazy trying to OC until I killed that feature. Then I could do 3.9GHz with an E6600 or 390 x 9 on a 1333 strap with a Q6600 G-0. Of course it's i975x which simply doesn't do that well with quads.
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The board does have the watchdog feature. However I have NEVER seen the watchdog feature gimp overclocking on a board. The D5400XS has the same feature and its' disabled by default. Nothing changed by enabling or disabling that setting. On the board in question anytime the board fails to POST it's a pain in the ass to set the jumper to configure and reset all the settings.
 
What's wrong with a $250 motherboard? If I plan on buying something I want it to last for ages. Every cheap, chinsey little mobo i've ever bought has given me shit fits. When I ponied up and spent the big bucks on my motherboards they've survived me for YEARS (Asus P2BD-S and MSI NEO-FISR spring to mind) with no problems.

If you are gonna drop $700 on components and then get a $50 mobo then you got no room to complain. Reliability and stability do sometimes come with a price. I can't wait for my Gigabyte X48 board, it'll crush worlds as it should for the $$$ i paid for it. If i would've known this one was coming out I would've waited for it and bought it without another tought. Such is life.
 
Bigdady92 said:
What's wrong with a $250 motherboard? If I plan on buying something I want it to last for ages. Every cheap, chinsey little mobo i've ever bought has given me shit fits. When I ponied up and spent the big bucks on my motherboards they've survived me for YEARS (Asus P2BD-S and MSI NEO-FISR spring to mind) with no problems.

If you are gonna drop $700 on components and then get a $50 mobo then you got no room to complain. Reliability and stability do sometimes come with a price. I can't wait for my Gigabyte X48 board, it'll crush worlds as it should for the $$$ i paid for it.
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The point is that you could go with a similar priced and solid offering from MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS or another company that will provide excellent overclocking for the same money. In light of that it doesn't make sense to buy the DX48BT2.
 
I find this conversation interesting. Anyone who has been doing this for any length of time knows the Intel boards, while stable, are notoriously overpriced and vanilla. I don't know too many enthusiasts who OC that turn to Intel boards. I also find it interesting that members here will debate the results of a review without providing sufficient evidence to back their claims. My gf's DX48BT2 runs great is not a valid argument. Run comparable tests, document your results and the we have a discussion.

As an enthusiast product, the Intel is an Epic Fail. Not enough for the $$
 
USE 1782 BIOS!!!!!!! PERIOD.

I have this board since May 3rd. 1554 BIOS was OK, up to finding RAM that can run correctly.

With pc3-1600 (G.Skiill 7-7-7-60) I could not run the timmings on this board. I was able to run at 7-7-7--22-74 alright. With 1782 BIOS I can run the ram at the timings the DDR3 is able to run at purchased values.

There are more changes that what is listed, has to be. I am using BIONIC on all four cores AND my ATI 4780 is folding FOR TEAM [H], 24x7, my room in the day gets to a 100 deg often in summer with door closed and it is running when I get home to open up the place.

I run my cpu (QX9700) at 3.6Ghz, RAM at 1600 7-7-7-18-60, if you want to know sub-timings PM me.
-Ron
 
Dan_D said:
The point is that you could go with a similar priced and solid offering from MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS or another company that will provide excellent overclocking for the same money. In light of that it doesn't make sense to buy the DX48BT2.
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there's an X48 chipset motherboard with DDR3 for $250? Where?

Calling this mobo an "enthusiast" is a bit of a stretch. "Professional Workstation Motherboard" I'll go with.
 
Bigdady92 said:
there's an X48 chipset motherboard with DDR3 for $250? Where?

Calling this mobo an "enthusiast" is a bit of a stretch. "Professional Workstation Motherboard" I'll go with.
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=2010200280+4018+107172333&name=Intel+X38/X48

You can get plenty of X48 boards for either just under $250 or just over $250. The prices are close enough that if you are in the market for an X48 chipset based board then there are plenty of better choices for the enthusiast.
 
What a shame. :( How they have fallen from their Badaxe 2 days. If you couldn't tell from my sig, that's probably my favorite motherboard of all time next to the SE440BX2.

*hugs all his Badaxe 2s*
 
Bigdady92 said:
there's an X48 chipset motherboard with DDR3 for $250? Where?

Calling this mobo an "enthusiast" is a bit of a stretch. "Professional Workstation Motherboard" I'll go with.
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i dont know any "Professional Workstation Motherboards" that come with a door tag saying "Fraggers Only" >.>
 
InorganicMatter said:
What a shame. :( How they have fallen from their Badaxe 2 days. If you couldn't tell from my sig, that's probably my favorite motherboard of all time next to the SE440BX2.

*hugs all his Badaxe 2s*
Click to expand...

My favorite Intel boards are:

Intel PR440FX "Providence" (Dual socket 8 Pentium Pro) -This one hangs on my wall as was my Quake I and II rig.
Intel SE440BX2 -Still have this one.
Intel D875PBZ -Gave this one away.
Intel D865PERLK -Built a ton of systems with this board. Nothing but solid.
Intel D5400XS -My favorite Intel board thus far.

I've got an Intel DP35P motherboard in my HTPC and a couple of DX48BT2's. All are solid, but they don't stand out as favorites for me. I never worked with the D975XBX or the D975XBX2 so I can't comment on them.
 
Speaking of BIOS, where the hell are all the boards with uefi? MS already gave us uefi support with vista 64sp1, now its up to the idiots making the boards who complained about lack of efi support in Windows. I would have expected every single motherboard over $150 to have uefi by now.
 
I ordered this without thinking assuming it would be the successor to the 975xbx2
I spent 250 dollars for 975 back then and was well pleased with it.

The 48 however was a big disappointment not so much in the performance dept. as it did what I expected but what really got me was all the missing features from the 975.
No floppy no ps2 ports no lpt 1 only 6 onboard sata ports 1 ethernet port and no manual.
Its almost like I spent 250 dollars on a budget board.


After setting up the machine and looking at the cost and performance I was unsatisfied and sent the board back for a gigabyte that had all the above missing features plus a manual!! All for the same price. and just to add a lil salt to this sad tale
The gigabyte board scored a second faster in super pi!!..

Oh well hopefully Intel will learn from this
 
idividebyzero said:
Speaking of BIOS, where the hell are all the boards with uefi? MS already gave us uefi support with vista 64sp1, now its up to the idiots making the boards who complained about lack of efi support in Windows. I would have expected every single motherboard over $150 to have uefi by now.
Click to expand...

Just so happens..... This board has UEFI. However, I turned it off. :p

Because UEFI hands over various aspects of the system to the OS, I lost Legacy USB support during the POST process and had to use the configuration jumper to enter the BIOS configuration screen. Once Windows x64 SP1 Vista took over, the USB ports would all be functioning again.

I turned it off, resuming Legacy USB support during POST, while waiting for a compelling reason to use UEFI. But it's there.
 
5 years for a motherboard is a lot?? What are you smoking?? I have over 40 machines at work with ASROCK!! motherboards that are going to be 5 years old in a few months.... :rolleyes:
 
chaos4u said:
The 48 however was a big disappointment not so much in the performance dept. as it did what I expected but what really got me was all the missing features from the 975.
No floppy no ps2 ports no lpt 1 only 6 onboard sata ports 1 ethernet port and no manual.
Click to expand...

I was pleased to see all that legacy crap gone, in my opinion. Didn't have to go into BIOS and disable those items. There is no floppy or IDE stuff on my box, so all the better. In time, you'll eventually see all those features disappear. The reason is that MB manufacturers will have to add extra cost just to provide those as the chipsets are removing those features.

The only one that I do miss is the second ethernet port. But actually I've never used the second, so it would be unused anyways.

As for the manual, it's on the CD-ROM rather than print. I agree, it would be better to have a printed one included as it's hard to read the electronic one while setting up your system for the very first time. The quickstart guide though covers the majority of needs though.
 
QwertyJuan said:
5 years for a motherboard is a lot?? What are you smoking?? I have over 40 machines at work with ASROCK!! motherboards that are going to be 5 years old in a few months.... :rolleyes:
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Seriously. I've got an SE440BX2 board in a box right next to me that still runs like a champ. That's what, 10 years old? And still chugging. Our FTP server at work is a dual socket P2 that has been running almost 24/7 since we bought it 11 (?) years ago.
 
idividebyzero said:
Speaking of BIOS, where the hell are all the boards with uefi? MS already gave us uefi support with vista 64sp1, now its up to the idiots making the boards who complained about lack of efi support in Windows. I would have expected every single motherboard over $150 to have uefi by now.
Click to expand...

Intel and MSI are the only two motherboard manufacturers who consitently offer UEFI support at present.
 
Just had to:
1214262045kUe3cXX38i_9_1.jpg
 
chaos4u said:
I ordered this without thinking assuming it would be the successor to the 975xbx2
I spent 250 dollars for 975 back then and was well pleased with it.

The 48 however was a big disappointment not so much in the performance dept. as it did what I expected but what really got me was all the missing features from the 975.
No floppy no ps2 ports no lpt 1 only 6 onboard sata ports 1 ethernet port and no manual.
Its almost like I spent 250 dollars on a budget board.


After setting up the machine and looking at the cost and performance I was unsatisfied and sent the board back for a gigabyte that had all the above missing features plus a manual!! All for the same price. and just to add a lil salt to this sad tale
The gigabyte board scored a second faster in super pi!!..

Oh well hopefully Intel will learn from this
Click to expand...

If you expected PS/2, LPT, and dual ethernet ports you should have done your research a bit more. On the other hand very few people need more than one LAN port and very few people need PS/2 ports or LPT ports any more. I actually applaud Intel for ditching legacy support. They just need to take it further and drop floppy and IDE support now. Though many will argue that dropping those items would be premature. Perhaps that's true but I think the time to drop PS/2 ports and LPT ports came a long time ago.

While I don't agree that missing LPT, and PS/2 ports reeks of a budget board I do agree that only six SATA ports and only one LAN port do in fact sound like the feature set of a budget board. Though do not forget that the DX48BT2 has two eSATA ports which means the board can in fact support up to 8 SATA drives. Few people are going to need more than six internal SATA ports either so Intel's decision to put two ports on the outside of the backplane makes sense.

Personally I still think that the DX48BT2 would be a fine successor to the DX975XBX2 if the overclocking were better.
 
Dan_D said:
The board does have the watchdog feature. However I have NEVER seen the watchdog feature gimp overclocking on a board. The D5400XS has the same feature and its' disabled by default. Nothing changed by enabling or disabling that setting. On the board in question anytime the board fails to POST it's a pain in the ass to set the jumper to configure and reset all the settings.
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My experience does not reflect your own and I've never met an overclocker who recommends leaving this service enabled. With later BIOS releases the service is now listed without having to move the jumper to configure.

Gtj @ XS also recommends disabling watchdog when overclocking and this fellow knows his stuff when it comes to Intel.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3170362&postcount=1378

Complete source thread-

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=166289
 
I got my Q6600 running at 3GHz on a DX38BT. I know it could go further, but for some reason I can't push the fsb past 333. I'm sure cooling the NB, better cpu cooling, and better memory would help. That's alright though, I'm happy with where it's at. I picked up the whole system for a great deal.
 
bholstege said:
What settings are you using? I can't overclock my CPU at all
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Currently @ 3.7. Still tweaking a bit I think and I could keep going but I'm gonna stay here for awhile. ;)

1782 bios
cpu voltage: 1.35
fsb voltage: 1.225
mcs voltage: 1.275
9.5 multiplier @ 390

1333 mhz (mem frequency)
reference memory set at 400 mhz (not stable on default or any lower then 400 mhz)
latency set @ 7-6-6-20 @ 1.82v, going to try for 6-6-6-18

Ran Prime95 for a few hours and got 0 errors and 0 warnings.

btw, if it matters for anyone have troubles OCing with the board, cpu voltage offset is disabled, enhanced power slope is enabled, and C1E is disabled.
 
I'm going to give another try on one of my DX48BT2's with the new BIOS, an E8400 and some decent Corsair DDR3 modules. Hopefully I'll see some improvement over my initial results with my E6600 and the DX48BT2.
 
yeah, rereading that, it sounded way more vague and ominous than I had intended. My bad.
 
bholstege said:
I have an e8400 on a dx48bt2 with corsair RAM, and I can't overclock it at all.
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We'll see what I can do with it. I'm just now setting this system up and running. It's going to be an additional work computer. I'm out of Vista copies and I'm being cheap so Windows XP x64 Edition will have to go on it since I've already got a copy of that.
 
demonx said:
That's unfortunate... Are you trying to OC with that ddr3-1066 ram you have posted in your sig? That may be the problem.
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The RAM I'm using is 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 with DHX heat spreaders. CAS 9,9,9,24 1.8v. I've got some DDR3-1333MHz OCZ stuff I can try too if that doesn't work. One odd thing is that the Intel DX48BT2 doesn't support 1.8v. It can do 1.79v and 1.82v. but I can't set it for 1.8v. Fortuantely at 1333MHz speeds I don't need 1.8v for stability. At 1600MHz or anything close to it I probably will.

I haven't flashed the BIOS and I'm installing Windows XP now. I couldn't find my Windows XP Professional x64 Edition disk so I'm using Windows XP Professional SP2. I'll probably update it to SP3 when I get it all setup. I'd normally use my Nautilus or another watercooling setup for my overclocking venture but I'll be using the Thermaltake Big Typhoon (not that crappy VX model, but the original) as that's what I'll use to cool the system once it goes inside the case.
 
demonx said:
That's unfortunate... Are you trying to OC with that ddr3-1066 ram you have posted in your sig? That may be the problem.
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The RAM dividers on the board should support FSB 1600 with RAM at 1066, according to the memory calculator that was in the thread linked to earlier. I figured that 400*9 should make for an easy 3.6ghz, but I wasn't able to get it even with increased voltage to both the north bridge and CPU.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm going to give another try on one of my DX48BT2's with the new BIOS, an E8400 and some decent Corsair DDR3 modules. Hopefully I'll see some improvement over my initial results with my E6600 and the DX48BT2.
Click to expand...

Good job Dan, maybe we can get a definite answer here then!
 
djBon2112 said:
Good job Dan, maybe we can get a definite answer here then!
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Well bear in mind that I'm using the newest BIOS which wasn't available when the original article was written. Also my system configuration will be vastly different from the configuraitons used by Kyle and Morry. I will also say that using the same BIOS version that Morry used I duplicated his results. I wasn't able to do any better on my E6600 which I know for a fact reaches 3.6GHz fairly easily.

Here are the specifications of my test setup:

Motherboard: Intel DX48BT2 (X48 chipset)
BIOS 1782
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Wolfdale)
CPU cooling: Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 1Kw SR
Memory: Corsair 2x2048MB DDR3 1600MHz (9,9,9,24,2T)
Video Card: BFG Geforce 8600GTS OC2
OS: Windows XP Professional SP2
HDD: Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300GB SATA 150

Nothing special about that box. It's made up of parts I had laying around. I picked up the memory and processor tonight. I needed another box anyway, so putting this together was something I was going to do already. Though I probably won't leave it overclocked as I won't be gaming on this box.
 
HighTest said:
Here's a link to one example, please ignore the disrespecting portion as I'd asked in a post previous to please keep it polite. Just focus on the CPU-Z information.
Click to expand...


Your trusted source followed up with this as well.


wasn't Kyle the guy that forged some CPU-Z validations to make an overclock of his look bigger than it was and then banned the members of his forum that called him on it?
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People that just make shit up are not good sources for anything in my book. Fail.
 
sorry to report I had to return a dead motherboard to fry's but the second one works pretty much without a hitch.
 
Dan_D said:
My favorite Intel boards are:

I've got an Intel DP35P motherboard in my HTPC and a couple of DX48BT2's. All are solid, but they don't stand out as favorites for me. I never worked with the D975XBX or the D975XBX2 so I can't comment on them.
Click to expand...

LOL....I have a DP35DP as well. As much as I'm hoping for it to fail so I can tinker with a new board.....This thing has not taken a coffe break for the year I've had it! (on 24/7 except when I moved) I had an Asus P5K-DLX previous to this, which would sometimes recognize the SATA HD...and sometimes not. :( Great features....but that bug was a headache!

Anyways.....can you control individual fan speeds inside BIOS on the DX48BT2? Like the Abit IP35 Prop for example.
 
Cliff Couser said:
LOL....I have a DP35DP as well. As much as I'm hoping for it to fail so I can tinker with a new board.....This thing has not taken a coffe break for the year I've had it! (on 24/7 except when I moved) I had an Asus P5K-DLX previous to this, which would sometimes recognize the SATA HD...and sometimes not. :( Great features....but that bug was a headache!

Anyways.....can you control individual fan speeds inside BIOS on the DX48BT2? Like the Abit IP35 Prop for example.
Click to expand...

I'd have to look. I don't think so. That's the largest problem with the Intel boards as enthusiast parts. They have a BIOS that is more like the BIOS you'd get on an HP or Dell than something an enthusiast would use.

Speaking of I've got an update on my overclocking adventures with the DX48BT2. I've upgraded to BIOS 1782 and thrown in my Core 2 Duo E8400. I've been unable to get the system to post with the FSB set above 402MHz. I have tried all kinds of combinations of MCH and FSB voltage adjustments with no improvement. In fact I reached 402MHz with minimal adjustments. Though if I go too high or too low with the voltages I end up with driver corruption issues. Essentially I lose my video card drivers, and chipset drivers. I've had this happen several times now and its' impeded my progress considerably.

I've got the FSB set to 402MHz, the CPU clock is therefore 3.615MHz while the memory is set to 803MHz. The system isn't really stable at those speeds. I'm not sure why. With the memory set to sub-1333MHz DDR3 speeds its' just fine though.

My two cents:

The board is a terrible overclocker. While you can certainly get respectible and high speed overclocks from it you have to do this in concert with a processor that uses a higher multiplier such as 8 or 9 at the very least. Anything below that and you'll find breaking 3GHz on your Core 2 Duo a bit challenging. 402MHz is about what the stock speed is for a 1600MHz FSB processor which tells me that I'm not really overclocking the board much if at all. All I've done here is use a 333MHz FSB processor with a 400MHz FSB wich the board supports anyway. I don't even know why voltage increases were even needed to make the board stable at 402MHz given that it does support 400MHz FSB processors.

The real question is: Why would anyone buy this board? Its' overclocking options are on par with ECS motherboards (Yes I said that) and the ceiling for FSB overclocks isn't the worst I've seen but it isn't exactly the best either. In fact its' on the lower echelon of what I've seen from P35, P45, X39 and X48 motherboards. Add to that the lacking feature set and its' price buying this thing makes no sense what so ever. Even if you don't want to overclock your system I don't think this board is for you. You can just as easily pick up an ASUS or Gigabyte board that offers more features for the same or similar price and overclock that or not. If you are into overclocking then you can spend $10 more on an ASUS motherboard and get far more bang for your buck.

Intel SHOULD be able to dominate the high end motherboard market but they won't do what is necessary in order to make that happen. Intel should take a few lessons from ASUS and other companies who have been in this business for awhile. All Intel needs to do is learn to add another SATA controller, a couple more SATA ports, and provide a BIOS that isn't neutered. As much as I like Intel boards I've got to say that Kyle and Morry were right on the money. Epic FAIL.
 
If the price was lower it would be worth it. $80 for a DX38BT was sweet. I knew it wouldn't be a great overclocker, but I got my Q6600 to 3GHz, my goal, so I am happy. But I wouldn't pay $250 for the 48. Too many other good boards out there for that price range.
 
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