TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[The red spirit]

We're onto sound systems now? If so, this is one of the "DIY" projects I've been working on.

Oh gosh, I still use some old ass AIWA Hi-Fi from 80s or 90s as my daily speakers. Audio stuff never gets obsolete, the stuff's figured out, perfected and forgotten. The only thing that changes is the input connector. I would rather if we weren't posting about audio gear in retro hardware thread.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Nothing wrong in using them, they look nice. (I mean your AIWA Hi-Fi unit)

Meanwhile, I've finally got hold of the Samsung tweeters for my Creative DIY project. So far, I may have to rewire the rear inputs, as I seem to have no audio coming out of those. Front and center work fine though.

 

[Bones]

In case you guys are wondering, one of these works in Linux.
If you need a sound card and you're running linux, one of these will do - I know it works with Peppermint 10 Linux just fine in my daily but the only thing is it's an older PCI slotted card so there's that to know about it in case you plan on using it with a newer setup.

If you have or can find one, it's still in working order and it works with your system due to the slot it's made for, you should be OK.

 

[Greenslade]

Mine isn't set correctly either if I sync it via internet.

Do you do yours manually then?
So it is nothing to worry about. I won't mention it in my feedback then,

 

[Red_Machine]

In case you guys are wondering, one of these works in Linux.
If you need a sound card and you're running linux, one of these will do - I know it works with Peppermint 10 Linux just fine in my daily but the only thing is it's an older PCI slotted card so there's that to know about it in case you plan on using it with a newer setup.

If you have or can find one, it's still in working order and it works with your system due to the slot it's made for, you should be OK.

View attachment 267361

They're still selling these, bridged to PCIe x1. Wild.

 

[Ruru]

Do you do yours manually then?
So it is nothing to worry about. I won't mention it in my feedback then,

Yea, manually. Never even researched that why it's like that, but it's not a big deal.

 

[Greenslade]

You can buy slot covers to fill any that you need you need to cover...I had a few cases that had those.

If I needed to do that I would put the ones I took out back in. Of course, the CF card one does not use a PCI slot anyway. I have got to put a sound card in.

Yea, manually. Never even researched that why it's like that, but it's not a big deal.

Thanks for that, I will try it manually.

 

[MachineLearning]

I present to you: the Intel D975XBX2KR, AKA the Bad Axe 2.

As you can see, this is primarily an electrolytic capacitor ordeal. Capacitor brands used here include:
- Rubycon
- Nichicon
- Nippon Chemicon
- SamXon
- Fujitsu
- Sanyo

I didn't notice any manufacturing date listed on the PCB itself, nor a layer count. I can safely assume that it's either a 4- or 6-layer design, probably 4. In all likelihood, this board's OEM is Foxconn (or maybe Pegatron).

The northbridge's production code is Wk39/2007, and the southbridge's is Wk29/2007. This leads me to believe that it was produced in Q4 2007, and probably sold in H1 2008 - very late production! i975X would have been over 2 years old at that point. Its revision reflects this, being the latest I know of - 509 - as well as the -KR designation (which I'm still unclear as to what exactly it means).

The board has similar markings to nVidia reference motherboard PCBs, in that there are graduated markings which organize the board into segments: alphabetically on the left and right, and numerically on the top and bottom (as oriented above).

Example:

EVGA 750i SLI FTW for comparison:

Audio is handled by the Sigmatel STAC9274, branded as IDT.

Networking is, naturally, with Intel, my preferred choice for both WAN & LAN. This is the 1Gbit/s 130nm Intel 82573L.

The VRM controller is the Analog Devices ADP3189, a true 5-phase controller operating in the aforementioned configuration.

VRM cooling is done by those five small blue aluminum heatsinks surrounding the LGA775 socket area. They were stuck on using thermal adhesive at the factory, and since I don't have any of my own, they will stay as-is for the forseeable future. Therefore, I cannot tell which MOSFETs lay beneath, but I can figure out the number of them.

This is the same phase in both pictures. 2 high-side, 1 low-side MOSFET. You can see the mounting pads for the second low-side capacitor in the second photo.

The NB & SB are both cooled by aluminum heatsinks, which attach to the motherboard via soldered metal hooks. I believe that both heatsinks are using single-side adhesive fiberglass-reinforced phase-changing thermal pads ( lol ). It takes some more serious stuff than isopropyl alcohol, so I cleaned the actual chips as much as I could and applied some new MX-2. Unfortunately, what's left on the aluminum is not coming off without gouging it out.

Now... overclocking.

479.66MHz on D975XBX2KR
--- #2 for i975X overall!
CPU-Z Validation

This required 1.7v vMCH, 1.4v vFSB, and PCIe clock of 140MHz. The board is actually capable of over 150MHz PCIe when in-OS (SetFSB PLL SLG505YC56DT), and increasing it seemed to make higher FSBs go a bit easier. Without increasing PCIe, the maximum FSB is about 3-5MHz lower. In order to get any higher, I either need:
- New Conroe samples
- Wolfdale; Supported processors only include 65nm - no 45nm CPUs are supported. This requires a BIOS mod, which I currently don't have the skills to do - and I've read that this BIOS is unmoddable (whether or not that's actually true)
- vMCH volt mod. The resources for this are currently lost to me, all dead links.

Before the board came in, I read 124 pages of this Xtremesystems thread so I could be as familiar as possible with it (I will finish the rest, don't worry ). One person even made it to 500MHz FSB (phase-change) on this board, and I noticed another running @ 1200MHz DDR2. There's also a lot of repeated or known information, but it's the absolute best real-life-user thread that I could find on this motherboard. And I'm glad I read it, because I would have torn all of my hair out otherwise. There are a ton of quirks, too many for me to list them all. I bolded the most important issues IMO, alongside other observations:
- A Watchdog Timer that can only be disabled by going into a special diagnostic BIOS (enabled=system goes on the fritz when straying from stock)
- The inability to change multipliers on non-Extreme CPUs, in any direction(!!!)
- Failed POST recovery (i.e. during OC) is not in Intel's lexicon
- Only can adjust tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS in-BIOS
- vCore vDroop @ 1.4v: -25mV set @ idle, another -9mV under load (very good actually!); Advanced Power Slope set to Enabled
- vMCH vDroop -20mV set (not bad, at least it's consistent)
- Flaky onboard USBs (unknown if due to age), using VLI USB3.0 AIC & PS/2
- MCH needs >1.6v past 460MHz
- CLR_CMOS solder points on the board, yet not installed(??), shown below

- After a legitimate CMOS clear (=battery removal or death) or CPU swap, default BIOS settings are 800MHz @ SPD timings & 1.84v. This will not boot with most kits!
- A result of the previous two issues is another problem: the only surefire way to get into BIOS after failed OC is to switch the jumper into Diagnostic mode.
- vCore maximum is 1.6v without vMods as a limitation of the VRM voltage controller
- vMCH maximum is 1.7v without vMods (lost to time AFAIK )
- Single BIOS chip soldered to the motherboard

I want to express my huge love for Intel's documentation. It's quite possibly second to none. The manual for this board is 78 pages of beautiful, painstaking detail, and that's just English (except for regulatory translations toward the end). The only thing you could really ask for is a Boardviewer file. Whoever makes the documentation at Intel loves their job, and I love them...

I'm really rusty since I haven't done one of these posts in a while.

 

[Ruru]

Those older Intel's high-end boards look awesome.

 

[MachineLearning]

Those older Intel's high-end boards look awesome.

They were very early to the black PCB party (as was Foxconn itself for that matter).

DX58SO2 is on my hunting list

Also look at the DX58SO if you want to be confused as to wtf they were thinking... 4-DIMM slots

 

[Ruru]

They were very early to the black PCB party (as was Foxconn itself for that matter).

DX58SO2 is on my hunting list

Also look at the DX58SO if you want to be confused as to wtf they were thinking... 4-DIMM slots

I remember wondering that 4 RAM slot solution back when the board was released. Need to do some research that why they went with 4 slots.

edit: Checked the manual

 

[Canned Noodles]

The NB & SB are both cooled by aluminum heatsinks, which attach to the motherboard via soldered metal hooks. I believe that both heatsinks are using single-side adhesive fiberglass-reinforced phase-changing thermal pads ( lol ). It takes some more serious stuff than isopropyl alcohol, so I cleaned the actual chips as much as I could and applied some new MX-2. Unfortunately, what's left on the aluminum is not coming off without gouging it out.
View attachment 267506

I've seen that thermal pad solution on many older heatsinks. Is it better to leave it as-is or remove it and apply thermal paste?

Beautiful board btw. It looks awesome

 

[Greenslade]

Our old mate Clint.

 

[MachineLearning]

I've seen that thermal pad solution on many older heatsinks. Is it better to leave it as-is or remove it and apply thermal paste?

Beautiful board btw. It looks awesome

If you have an nVidia chipset, it should have a temperature diode - if that hits 80⁰c under regular usage, repaste. But you probably don't, so I'd do it as long as you're comfortable. My goal is to at least get all the paste off of the northbridge itself. MX-2 is a great paste for this application, cheap and long-lasting. Sometimes I use 0.5-1.0mm thermal pads when dealing with weak push-pins to heighten mounting pressure.

 

[stinger608]

Dang @MachineLearning , that was almost like a motherboard review!!!!!!!! Awesome post bro!!!!

 

[GreiverBlade]

I present to you: the Intel D975XBX2KR, AKA the Bad Axe 2.

View attachment 267494
View attachment 267495
View attachment 267513

As you can see, this is primarily an electrolytic capacitor ordeal. Capacitor brands used here include:
- Rubycon
- Nichicon
- Nippon Chemicon
- SamXon
- Fujitsu
- Sanyo

View attachment 267499
View attachment 267501

I didn't notice any manufacturing date listed on the PCB itself, nor a layer count. I can safely assume that it's either a 4- or 6-layer design, probably 4. In all likelihood, this board's OEM is Foxconn (or maybe Pegatron).

The northbridge's production code is Wk39/2007, and the southbridge's is Wk29/2007. This leads me to believe that it was produced in Q4 2007, and probably sold in H1 2008 - very late production! i975X would have been over 2 years old at that point. Its revision reflects this, being the latest I know of - 509 - as well as the -KR designation (which I'm still unclear as to what exactly it means).
View attachment 267507
View attachment 267508

The board has similar markings to nVidia reference motherboard PCBs, in that there are graduated markings which organize the board into segments: alphabetically on the left and right, and numerically on the top and bottom (as oriented above).

Example:
View attachment 267497

EVGA 750i SLI FTW for comparison:
View attachment 267498

Audio is handled by the Sigmatel STAC9274, branded as IDT.
View attachment 267502

Networking is, naturally, with Intel, my preferred choice for both WAN & LAN. This is the 1Gbit/s 130nm Intel 82573L.
View attachment 267503

The VRM controller is the Analog Devices ADP3189, a true 5-phase controller operating in the aforementioned configuration.
View attachment 267504
View attachment 267505

VRM cooling is done by those five small blue aluminum heatsinks surrounding the LGA775 socket area. They were stuck on using thermal adhesive at the factory, and since I don't have any of my own, they will stay as-is for the forseeable future. Therefore, I cannot tell which MOSFETs lay beneath, but I can figure out the number of them.
View attachment 267510
View attachment 267511
This is the same phase in both pictures. 2 high-side, 1 low-side MOSFET. You can see the mounting pads for the second low-side capacitor in the second photo.

The NB & SB are both cooled by aluminum heatsinks, which attach to the motherboard via soldered metal hooks. I believe that both heatsinks are using single-side adhesive fiberglass-reinforced phase-changing thermal pads ( lol ). It takes some more serious stuff than isopropyl alcohol, so I cleaned the actual chips as much as I could and applied some new MX-2. Unfortunately, what's left on the aluminum is not coming off without gouging it out.
View attachment 267506

Now... overclocking.
View attachment 267512

479.66MHz on D975XBX2KR
--- #2 for i975X overall!
CPU-Z Validation

This required 1.7v vMCH, 1.4v vFSB, and PCIe clock of 140MHz. The board is actually capable of over 150MHz PCIe when in-OS (SetFSB PLL SLG505YC56DT), and increasing it seemed to make higher FSBs go a bit easier. Without increasing PCIe, the maximum FSB is about 3-5MHz lower. In order to get any higher, I either need:
- New Conroe samples
- Wolfdale; Supported processors only include 65nm - no 45nm CPUs are supported.
- vMCH volt mod. The resources for this are currently lost to me, all dead links.

Before the board came in, I read 124 pages of this Xtremesystems thread so I could be as familiar as possible with it (I will finish the rest, don't worry ). One person even made it to 500MHz FSB (phase-change) on this board, and I noticed another running @ 1200MHz DDR2. There's also a lot of repeated or known information, but it's the absolute best real-life-user thread that I could find on this motherboard. And I'm glad I read it, because I would have torn all of my hair out otherwise. There are a ton of quirks, too many for me to list, the most notable being:
- a Watchdog Timer that can only be disabled by going into a special diagnostic BIOS (enabled=system goes on the fritz when straying from stock)
- the inability to change multipliers on non-Extreme CPUs(!!!)
- Failed POST recovery (i.e. during OC) is not in Intel's lexicon
- Only can adjust tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS in-BIOS
- vCore vDroop @ 1.4v: -25mV set @ idle, -9mV under load (very good!)
- vMCH vDroop -20mV set
- Flaky onboard USBs, using VLI USB3.0 AIC
- MCH needs >1.6v past 460MHz
- CLR_CMOS solder points on the board, yet not installed(??), shown below
View attachment 267514

I'm really rusty since I haven't done one of these posts in a while.

nice board but for readingness sake ... please use thumbnail? (if more than 1 pic obviously) i have a 3k 32" screen and i found scrolling and reading quite a hassle

 

[MachineLearning]

nice board but for readingness sake ... please use thumbnail? (if more than 1 pic obviously) i have a 3k 32" screen and i found scrolling and reading quite a hassle

Got it, next time will be much neater

edit: Fixed! Much more compact now

 

[GreiverBlade]

Got it, next time will be much neater

edit: Fixed! Much more compact now

much appreciated, much more readable, still bad ass huge post but totally feel like a motherboard reviews, proper and all

 

[Mr.Scott]

I present to you: the Intel D975XBX2KR, AKA the Bad Axe 2.

View attachment 267494
View attachment 267495
View attachment 267513

As you can see, this is primarily an electrolytic capacitor ordeal. Capacitor brands used here include:
- Rubycon
- Nichicon
- Nippon Chemicon
- SamXon
- Fujitsu
- Sanyo

View attachment 267499
View attachment 267501

I didn't notice any manufacturing date listed on the PCB itself, nor a layer count. I can safely assume that it's either a 4- or 6-layer design, probably 4. In all likelihood, this board's OEM is Foxconn (or maybe Pegatron).

The northbridge's production code is Wk39/2007, and the southbridge's is Wk29/2007. This leads me to believe that it was produced in Q4 2007, and probably sold in H1 2008 - very late production! i975X would have been over 2 years old at that point. Its revision reflects this, being the latest I know of - 509 - as well as the -KR designation (which I'm still unclear as to what exactly it means).
View attachment 267507
View attachment 267508

The board has similar markings to nVidia reference motherboard PCBs, in that there are graduated markings which organize the board into segments: alphabetically on the left and right, and numerically on the top and bottom (as oriented above).

Example:
View attachment 267497

EVGA 750i SLI FTW for comparison:
View attachment 267498

Audio is handled by the Sigmatel STAC9274, branded as IDT.
View attachment 267502

Networking is, naturally, with Intel, my preferred choice for both WAN & LAN. This is the 1Gbit/s 130nm Intel 82573L.
View attachment 267503

The VRM controller is the Analog Devices ADP3189, a true 5-phase controller operating in the aforementioned configuration.
View attachment 267504
View attachment 267505

VRM cooling is done by those five small blue aluminum heatsinks surrounding the LGA775 socket area. They were stuck on using thermal adhesive at the factory, and since I don't have any of my own, they will stay as-is for the forseeable future. Therefore, I cannot tell which MOSFETs lay beneath, but I can figure out the number of them.
View attachment 267510
View attachment 267511
This is the same phase in both pictures. 2 high-side, 1 low-side MOSFET. You can see the mounting pads for the second low-side capacitor in the second photo.

The NB & SB are both cooled by aluminum heatsinks, which attach to the motherboard via soldered metal hooks. I believe that both heatsinks are using single-side adhesive fiberglass-reinforced phase-changing thermal pads ( lol ). It takes some more serious stuff than isopropyl alcohol, so I cleaned the actual chips as much as I could and applied some new MX-2. Unfortunately, what's left on the aluminum is not coming off without gouging it out.
View attachment 267506

Now... overclocking.
View attachment 267512

479.66MHz on D975XBX2KR
--- #2 for i975X overall!
CPU-Z Validation

This required 1.7v vMCH, 1.4v vFSB, and PCIe clock of 140MHz. The board is actually capable of over 150MHz PCIe when in-OS (SetFSB PLL SLG505YC56DT), and increasing it seemed to make higher FSBs go a bit easier. Without increasing PCIe, the maximum FSB is about 3-5MHz lower. In order to get any higher, I either need:
- New Conroe samples
- Wolfdale; Supported processors only include 65nm - no 45nm CPUs are supported. This requires a BIOS mod, which I currently don't have the skills to do - and I've read that this BIOS is unmoddable (whether or not that's actually true)
- vMCH volt mod. The resources for this are currently lost to me, all dead links.

Before the board came in, I read 124 pages of this Xtremesystems thread so I could be as familiar as possible with it (I will finish the rest, don't worry ). One person even made it to 500MHz FSB (phase-change) on this board, and I noticed another running @ 1200MHz DDR2. There's also a lot of repeated or known information, but it's the absolute best real-life-user thread that I could find on this motherboard. And I'm glad I read it, because I would have torn all of my hair out otherwise. There are a ton of quirks, too many for me to list them all. I bolded the most important issues IMO, alongside other observations:
- A Watchdog Timer that can only be disabled by going into a special diagnostic BIOS (enabled=system goes on the fritz when straying from stock)
- The inability to change multipliers on non-Extreme CPUs, in any direction(!!!)
- Failed POST recovery (i.e. during OC) is not in Intel's lexicon
- Only can adjust tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS in-BIOS
- vCore vDroop @ 1.4v: -25mV set @ idle, another -9mV under load (very good actually!); Advanced Power Slope set to Enabled
- vMCH vDroop -20mV set (not bad, at least it's consistent)
- Flaky onboard USBs (unknown if due to age), using VLI USB3.0 AIC & PS/2
- MCH needs >1.6v past 460MHz
- CLR_CMOS solder points on the board, yet not installed(??), shown below
View attachment 267514
- After a legitimate CMOS clear (=battery removal or death) or CPU swap, default BIOS settings are 800MHz @ SPD timings & 1.84v. This will not boot with most kits!
- A result of the previous two issues is another problem: the only surefire way to get into BIOS after failed OC is to switch the jumper into Diagnostic mode.
- vCore maximum is 1.6v without vMods as a limitation of the VRM voltage controller
- vMCH maximum is 1.7v without vMods (lost to time AFAIK )
- Single BIOS chip soldered to the motherboard

I want to express my huge love for Intel's documentation. It's quite possibly second to none. The manual for this board is 78 pages of beautiful, painstaking detail, and that's just English (except for regulatory translations toward the end). The only thing you could really ask for is a Boardviewer file. Whoever makes the documentation at Intel loves their job, and I love them...

I'm really rusty since I haven't done one of these posts in a while.

Post at W9 in reviews please.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Nice catch on that 975. Intel did make some cool boards for a while. I've thought about grabbing an X48BT2 because the Abit IX48-GT3 is unobtanium.

 

[Audioave10]

Retro Hardware...

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Those big heavy Swiftech heatsinks will always have a spot in my heart. Massive slab of copper, brute force cooling.

 

[Bones]

Yesterday I was told there is a guy over in Victoria Australia that makes these:



I can get further details if anyone wants them.

 

[MachineLearning]

Small tease for the custom BIOS I'm trying to get working for the Bad Axe 2...

First motherboard BIOS mod ever for me. Intel made some of it easy with the Integrator Toolkit v4.0 . Can fix a couple of their mistakes. Loading Optimal Defaults is now 5-5-5-18 @ 2.2v instead of 4-4-4-12 @ 1.84v, turns off Serial/Audio/Ethernet/etc. now too. Custom splash screen as well. I can set the CPU Multiplier adjustment to Manual in ITK, but it's still greyed out in-BIOS... so this BIOS doesn't fully POST with Netburst as a direct result (MP glued & 6x manual). Will have to fix. Also added German and Spanish languages.

Trying to add Xeon & Penryn support but Intel uses proprietary .BIO files, and this board can't convert BIO2AMI .ROM ... More testing needed.

 

[Greenslade]

Is the CP Card holder to near the soundcard? I originally put the Soundcard underneath the CF Card holder ,but had to change it it over because it did not give me a lot of space to put the IDE Cabal in.I don,t know why the other two IDE drives did not work in there.I am not paying £20 pound plus for that for a docking station, just to find out they are dodge drives. You never know ,i might see one at my local flea market ,you never know what you can find there.