BadAxe is the name Intel has for its own Socket 775 motherboards which is actually more of an enthusiast board than we’re used to from Intel. In our Overclocking Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 article we used a BadAxe board and this is without a doubt one out of few times anyone has been able to reach such impressive results using Intel’s own motherboards. Even if BX1 is a very good motherboard it’s time for BadAxe to be renewed; BadAxe 2. BX2 will be launched together with Kentsfield and is simply optimized for Intel’s new quad-core processor, but the question is what separares Intel’s two boards. On the surface it seems to be very little, but when you dig deeper you find more.
At VR-Zone they’ve taken it upon themselves to compare the two BadAxe models and has done so using both pictures and overclocking benchmarks. Intel has equipped BX2 with a power button on the board, a nice detail for those running without a case. To increase the overclocking potential Intel has tweaked the BIOS and improved the board’s other features so that it can reach extra high frequencies and voltages. During the overclocking sessions it was pretty obvious that BX2 works a lot better with Core 2 Quadro than the predecessor and Intel D975XBX2, Bad Axe 2, seems to be a really interesting enthusiast motherboard. The times have certainly changed.
