Legit Reviews

I'm new to overclocking, sorry if this is a stupid question:

Does the BX2 comes with temperature sensors? Intel seems like they dont want to say too much about their overclocking features. If so, how many are there and where are they located? Is the temp sensor arrangement what you'd expect from a good board?

Thanks

AARRGGHHH wrote:I'm new to overclocking, sorry if this is a stupid question:

Does the BX2 comes with temperature sensors? Intel seems like they dont want to say too much about their overclocking features. If so, how many are there and where are they located? Is the temp sensor arrangement what you'd expect from a good board?

Thanks

#1, its a lot more than temp. if the processor is locked, you have to raise the FSB, and raise voltages on CPU and memory. if the CPU is unlocked, its easier but CPU speed inst the bottleneck, its system memory.

#2, this board has two onboard thermal diode sensors and also reports the CPU temp. it also reports the CPU fan speed, and all the voltages.

unless you get 1066 or faster memory, and push the FSB hard, I wouldnt bother overclocking. Just buy a GeForce 8800GTX.

I would wait for bearlake chipset, nothing you can do with a 975X chipset can touch a bearlake/P35.

mickrussom wrote:#1, its a lot more than temp. if the processor is locked...

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the processor being locked, is this a function of the motherboard, or the processor itself? If it's the motherboard, is the processor locked or unlocked on the BX2?

mickrussom wrote:#2, this board has two onboard thermal diode sensors and also reports the CPU temp. it also reports the CPU fan speed, and all the voltages.

That's good to know, I want to be able to get a good feel for what's going on as far as temperature, even before I start overclocking.

mickrussom wrote:unless you get 1066 or faster memory, and push the FSB hard, I wouldnt bother overclocking. Just buy a GeForce 8800GTX.

Wouldn't 1066 memory pretty much make overclocking the memory unnecessary? Or were you saying that 1066, since it's already fast, is a good candidate for overclocking?

mickrussom wrote:I would wait for bearlake chipset, nothing you can do with a 975X chipset can touch a bearlake/P35.

That thought crossed my mind, too. But, I'd be dealing with 1st generation CPUs and motherboards, the headaches might outwiegh the performance gain.

Thanks

AARRGGHHH wrote: ...

- The processor decides if it will allow the front side bus multiplier to be changed or not. Extreme processors from Intel and FX from AMD are unlocked, the rest are locked and overclocking only happened by overclocking the FSB.

- I generally don't get too concerned with temp. The main things that make your computer hot is the ambient air. I don't have AC here in north CA, and on very hot days, the components are considerably hotter.

- 1066 memory has a higher rated frequency, but comes with higher latencies. So its a competition between bandwidth and latency. I chose to use DDR2 800 ECC memory, because I want to know about memory errors, but I pay the price in latency, 5-5-5-16. However, my 3dmark 2006 scores (11,500) are so high I don't mind the "slower" memory.

If you want to overclock by cranking the FSB, having memory that tolerated higher operating frequency generally helps. I am imagining that the 975X chipset it a bit of an old dog and don't know how far you can push the FSB. I'm quite happy with 800MHz operation, and since I have an extreme processor, I can easily change the multiplier but don't care because I feel the CPU makes little difference these days for frame rate.

The biggest way to increase frame rate is to buy the best GPU (8800GTX), second is to lower the multiplier on the CPU (most CPUs allow down-clocking the multiplier) and crank the FSB. This allows the CPU to remain in relatively acceptable operating frequencies but give a lot more memory bandwidth. This is where having 1066 will help. Right now the main bottleneck is memory. Third is to crank the CPU and do nothing else. I find it does little.

I think the 975X (XBX/XBX2) is a tired dog and the Bearlake will be just what the doctor ordered. It will have DDR3 support which massively increases bandwidth and doesn't introduce more latency over DDR2.

All in all, an E6700, QX6700 or X6800 with 800MHz memory at the stock frequencies with a 8800GTX is so "retarded fast" I don't see the need for OC, but , if you bought a E6600 and lowered the multiplier and jacked the FSB clock, you could outrun others for a lot less money, but you would still have to buy an 8800GTX to be competitive.