Intel Shows D975XBX2 BIOS and QX6700 Overclocking

It’s the little things that matter to enthusisats

Intel enthusiasts around the world either love or hate the Intel D975XBX ‘Bad Axe’ motherboard, but one thing is a fact – everyone knows the board. Intel has not said if the current D975XBX revision 304 and lower boards will support quad-core processors and there might be something behind that. Here at IDF every single quad-core processor that was seen running on Intel chipsets used the upcoming Intel D975XBX2 ‘Bad Axe 2’ motherboard. We managed to attend, get this, an overclocking/performance workshop here at IDF and were able to get an up close and personal look at the D975XBX2 motherboard.

Looking at Bad Axe 2 not too many differences can be seen from the outside, but for those looking for a challenge take a look at the image above and see if you can find any differences. If you’d like to compare the above picture to the original take a look at this thread in the forums with Intel D975XBX pictures. The major component change that stood out for LR was the fact that Intel moved from a Silicon Image (SiI) 3114 chipset to the Marvell 88SE6145 controller. (The black chip on the left hand side of the board with an M on it.) With that said all the other important changes that will impact enthusiasts can be found in the BIOS and we got a chance to take it for a test drive.

The system we were able to use consisted of the Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700 processor on the Bad Axe 2 Rev 400 motherboard using BIOS version 1446, which is all the latest and greatest parts and versions that Intel can offer today. Looking at the main menu we notice that not much has changed from the original Bad Axe other than the BIOS version.