Intel D975XBX2 Desktop Motherboard Review :: BIOS and Overclocking

Intel uses their signature BIOS on the BadAxe2 motherboard. The BIOS is split into three different segments; Main, Advanced, and Performance, of which I'll cover in detail here. The BIOS is similar in appearance and functionality to similar ASUS branded boards, being it's easy to use and navigate. All the options on the board are laid out logically.

The Main menu on the BIOS provides detailed system information to the user including Core Multiplexing Technology (enabling multiple cores), Languages (English, French), and Desktop Board information, Onboard LAN Mac Address, System Date and System Time. Here you also get the BIOS version and the Serial number of the board.

The Advanced Submenu has the Boot Configuration and the Drive Configuration menus. The Boot Configuration menu is where you enable/disable Numlock, the CPU Fan control, System Fan control, Lowest Fan Speed (on/off), Max CPUID Value Limit (Disable/Enable), Display Setup Prompt (On/Off) The Drive Configuration menu has the use auto mode enable/disable, ATA/IDE mode Legacy/Native. There are SATA modes IDE RAID or AHCI modes and the SMART Enable/Disable choices.

The Performance Menu is where the overclocking of the board is done. The Processor overrides controls the CPU Voltage overrides with a range of 1.250V-1.500V. MCH/ICH Voltage overrides range from 1.500V-1.700V. The MHz Host Clock speed is where you can change the FSB of the CPU. The range is from 133MHz-500MHz in 1 MHz increments.

Memory Overrides is where you adjust your memory settings on the board. The Memory Correction tab is where you set either ECC or non-ECC mode. Performance Memory Profiles can be set to automatic, manual or user defined Profiles. Reference frequency can be set from 133, 200, 266 or 333MHz. Memory Frequency can be set from 800, 667, 533, or 400MHz depending on the memory being used.

The 975XBX2 board is an excellent overclocking board. The 3.8GHz Pentium 670 we use for motherboard testing was able to be straight up overclocked to 4.4GHz, the highest speed that I've seen the Pentium 670 go on ANY motherboard. I was able to over-volt the CPU and set the FSB to 230MHz. The highest stable clock I was able to reach was 220MHz, a 10% increase over the default clock. Utilizing a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 was a similar story. A 15% overclock was easily attained with the CPU. The E6700 is probably going to be part of our Vista test platform for the Intel market, and is an excellent overclocker.

BIOS Screenshots

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