Soon To Be Bad Axe 2 Owner

[Pez D Spencer]

What's up. I ordered up a new Bad Axe 2 mobo yesterday and stumbled across this forum looking for some extra info about the board in the meantime. I currently own an EVGA NF68-A1 SLI board and it's nothing but a POS. I've been building systems for about 6 years now and besides one Asus (which was also a POS), and this 680i board, all my other PC's have been built around Intel boards which never gave me a second of trouble. I think now that Intel has opened it's eyes to the enthusiast market I don't plan on buying another brand of board ever again. Before I started this lastest build I was out of the loop for about 18 months and I didn't even know that Intel made an overclocking board or I would have went Intel to begin with and avoided all the headaches I've had with the 680i. When I started this build I decided to go with a Q6600 and wanted something to overclock it and since I wanted to overclock, buying an Intel didn't even enter the equation since they've been known to be so UNoverclockable in the past.

If Bonetrail supported DDR2 then I might have held out for that, but DDR3 is just too new and too expensive right now. I was a VERY early adopter to DDR2 a few years ago and the cost just wasn't worth it. Plus, even though I saw a few sites on the net mention October as the release date, I haven't heard much else about when Bonetrail will actually hit the streets. There's not a single word on the Intel site that mentions Bonetrail or an X38 based board.

My only concern about the Bad Axe is that it's going to work with my memory. I have 3GB (2 x 1024 and 2 x 512) of Wintec Amp-X DDR2 800. I was a little leery of buying this brand of RAM but it got good reviews on the net and on Newegg so I went with it. With all 3GB installed in the 680i board it'll only run at 667 no matter what the voltage or timings. However, if I install only 2GB (2 x 1024) it runs fine at 800MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings. Hopefully all 3GB will work in the Bad Axe 2 (if it even works at all). Time will tell I guess.

Later.

[IRQ Conflict]

I would have went Intel to begin with and avoided all the headaches I've had with the 680i. When I started this build I decided to go with a Q6600 and wanted something to overclock it and since I wanted to overclock, buying an Intel didn't even enter the equation since they've been known to be so UNoverclockable in the past.

Well you may be trading one headache for another. The BX2 has it's share of problems but the OC potential is definitely there.

My only concern about the Bad Axe is that it's going to work with my memory. I have 3GB (2 x 1024 and 2 x 512) of Wintec Amp-X DDR2 800. I was a little leery of buying this brand of RAM but it got good reviews on the net and on Newegg so I went with it. With all 3GB installed in the 680i board it'll only run at 667 no matter what the voltage or timings. However, if I install only 2GB (2 x 1024) it runs fine at 800MHz with 4-4-4-12 timings. Hopefully all 3GB will work in the Bad Axe 2 (if it even works at all). Time will tell I guess.

Later.

3 GB's works fine. At least with my OCZ modules.

[Sparky]

Welcome to the forums Pez D Spencer . I've had nothing but good luck with my XBX2. All motherboards have some issue or another, but overall I am enjoying this board and hope you do too. Keep us posted on the results of your new build.

[cyclo]

Another happy Bad Axe 2 owner here. I paired it with a Q6600, 4 x 1GB Kingston RAM, 2 x 500 GB Hard Drives (using Intel's AHCI Matrix drivers) and a 8800 GTS video card.

The only quirk I encountered during the setup was that I installed the OS without setting the Intel Sata Interface to use AHCI first in the BIOS (it defaults to compatibility). I had to install the AHCI drivers after the OS was installed but thanks to a thread somewhere in this forum I was able to do so without the need to reinstall the OS.

[Pez D Spencer]

I don't know what BIOS it'll ship with, but I already downloaded the current BIOS and plan to flash it right off the bat. I'm looking to get my Q6600 up to about 3.0GHz. If I can do that I'll be happy. I see no reason at this point in time to go for an insane overclock. Besides I'm too po' to go around frying quad-core CPU's. I've got an X1950Pro 512MB to go in her right now and depending on what kind of black friday deals pop up on a 2900 series card I plan to upgrade then or wait till the R700's in Q1 of 08.

I'm pretty stoked about the new board. Ever since I bought this 680i board I've had this looming thought in the back of my mind that it's gonna go down at any time. I guess I was right because the PCI-e slots took a dump 4 weeks after I got it. Hell, before I even bought it I had a bad feeling about them and how flaky they are, but I had the ever so common mentality of "it won't happen to me". Plus I've always been a fanboy of Intel boards/CPU"s and ATI cards so maybe there was a little bit of guilt for cheating on them with this nVidia board

[IRQ Conflict]

I'd hold off on the viddy card till feb 08 Pez. DX 10.1 and SM 4.0 or 4.1 can't remember but they are gonn kick the HD's ass. Seriously.