X-bit labs

Intel DX38BT Overclocker Mainboard Review (page 13)

Category: Mainboards

by Doors4ever

[ 01/31/2008 | 05:55 PM ]

Additional Information

I would like to dwell separately on the quality of informational materials for this board that turned out surprisingly unsatisfactory. Intel DX38BT mainboard comes with no user’s manual booklet, the manufacturer suggests that you should use an electronic version on a DVD disk. From the environmental standpoint it definitely makes sense, but in this case we would expect them to be a little bit more consistent, however there is the whole bunch of absolutely useless marketing leaflets inside the box. We believe it is essential to always include a paper user’s manual with any mainboard, because if the user doesn’t have a second computer system available, then he will have to assemble and setup his system almost blindfolded.

So, let’s assume we can use the user’s manual from the DVD disk, however, there are still quite a few unclear things about it. If we download “Intel DX38BT mainboard technical specifications” from the company web-site it will be pretty much the same thing but with certain things explained in more detail despite smaller document size. However, this one also hardly has any description of the BIOS features and settings. It turns out that there is a glossary on Intel’s official web-site that contains all the BIOS terms with a brief description of each of them. Moreover, it is even available in two versions: with terms grouped according to the BIOS sections and in alphabetical order. However, this glossary works for a few dozens of Intel mainboards, i.e. there is a lot of extra info in it. At the same time, a few things specific for Intel DX38BT mainboard are missing from it, although they last updated it in December 2007.

The availability of numerous uncoordinated informational materials makes it hard to find what you need. Besides, different manuals sometimes use different terms for the same things and contradict one another. For example, the user’s manual mentions that Intel DX38BT will switch into Recovery mode for BIOS restoring if you remove the configuration jumper. However there isn’t a word about how the BIOS is actually being restored. If the BIOS gets corrupted it will be too late to look for answers. It turns out that before restoring the BIOS you need to create a restoration floppy disk. Very nice, considering that Intel DX38BT mainboard doesn’t support FDD. And only if we keep looking through these technical specs we will learn that the BIOS can also be restored using a CD-ROM or USB-flash drive, while USB-FDD, USB-HDD or just FDD will not do. But again there are no details and we are referred to another manual on the site.

Take another question, for instance: what temperatures does Intel DX38BT mainboard measure? The CPU temperature is pretty clear, but what do Internal Temp and Remote Temp stand for in the BIOS? Utilities mark them as Zone 1 and Zone 2, so where are these zones located? According to the technical specifications, Intel DX38BT mainboard measures not only the processor temperature, but also the chipset North and South Bridge temperatures. Great if this is really so. However, there is a note below saying that the minimal North Bridge temperature the thermal diode can register is 66ºC. The diode will always read 66ºC until the temperature exceeds this rate. As you could see from the BIOS screenshots in this article, none of the values there is even close to 66ºC. So the question remains open: what temperatures does Intel DX38BT actually measure?