![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , February 04, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ABIT IT7-MAX2 V2.0
Will ABIT's new I845PE board live up to the high expectations of its MAX brethren? Read on to find out how much of a flagship board this is to ABITs Intel lineup...
BIOS
As you can see, the IT7-MAX2 uses the Phoenix AwardBIOS, with a standard layout compared to most other motherboard BIOS. The settings have been tweaked by ABIT to better appeal to the enthusiast market. This effort allows end users to get every last ounce of performance from the board while allowing for control over the board's ultimate stability, ideally.
Most of the control of the boards BIOS comes into play through the SoftMenu III interface which, is an ABIT exclusive BIOS technology. The SoftMenu technology allows tweaking of almost all aspects of the CPU, FSB, and DRAM speed and voltage, giving much more latitude to the end user for raw speed versus overall stability decisions. Through SoftMenu III, you are able to operate the CPU in one of two modes through the use of the pull down CPU Operating Speed menu. CPU/FSB speed predefined or user defined. In the predefined CPU/FSB mode, you are unable to change any settings within the CPU Operating Speed section. Note that using predefined settings outside of your processors factory set parameters requires an unlocked CPU.
When the CPU Operating Speed setting is set to user defined, a multitude of options becomes available to you for inflicting all sorts of torture on your hardware. The Ext. Clock setting allows you to change your front side bus settings between 100 and 250 MHz. This setting will also change the boards PCI frequency also, depending on current selection within the PCI Bus Frequency setting. Using the PCI Bus Frequency setting, you are able to select the speed at which your board PCI bus runs at. ABIT truly excels and was the first to ever do so by adding the ability to lock the bus down at 33 MHz, independent of the FSB setting selected. The Multiplier setting allows you to manually set the CPU multiplier between 8 and 32, but will only make a difference with an unlocked processor. If you are not using an unlocked processor, any attempt to change the multiplier outside of the default processor setting will result in a non booting system . This is normally correctable only by resetting the system CMOS (through the jumper on the mainboard itself). Yes, sometimes holding down the Insert key while booting will allow you back in but we have never had much luck with ABIT and this feature.
The next two settings within the CPU Operating Speed section deal with DRAM settings. The DRAM Ratio H/W Strap setting controls the speed at which the DRAM runs at by controlling the FSB that the DRAM thinks the system is using. It also affects the DRAM ratios available within the DRAM Ratio (CPU:DRAM) setting. Here is a quick run down of the possible settings and what they do:
DRAM Ratio H/W Strap | DRAM Ratio (CPU:DRAM) |
Low | 1:1 (400 MHz CPU FSB:PC1600 DDR) |
3:4 (400 MHz CPU FSB:PC2100 DDR) | |
By SPD (DDR speed determined by internal memory circuitry) | |
High | 1:1 (533 MHz CPU FSB:PC2100 DDR) |
4:5 (533 MHz CPU FSB:PC2700 DDR) | |
By SPD (DDR speed determined by internal memory circuitry) | |
By CPU | 1:1 (FSB/DDR based on actual CPU FSB settings) |
3:4 (FSB/DDR based on actual CPU FSB settings) | |
By SPD (DDR speed determined by internal memory circuitry) |
When the CPU Power Supply setting is set to User Define, the Core Voltage and DRAM Voltage settings become adjustable. The Core Voltage setting controls how much voltage goes to your CPU, and is adjustable from 1.1v through 1.85v. The DRAM Voltage setting controls how much voltage goes to your DRAM, and is adjustable from 2.5v to 2.8v. Changing the voltages above default voltage becomes useful when you are attempting to tweak every last drop of performance out of your power hungry DRAM and CPU. Just remember to use adequate cooling when setting voltages above default settings.
The Advanced Chipset menu offers tweaking of the chipset related settings, including memory timings, which can offer vast improvement in system performance when done correctly. The Differential Current setting has something to do with increasing stability of the DRAM through current manipulation, but there is actually little information provided for this setting. ABIT recommends leaving it at default in most cases, or setting it to 6x to marginally increase stability on an unstable system.
If the DRAM Timing Selectable setting is set to Manual, you are able to change the physical timings that the DRAM runs at on the board. ABIT chose to offer very aggressive settings for all timings. On all memory timings, the lower the number, the more aggressive the performance gets, but also the less stable the memory becomes. If you set the memory timing too aggressively, the system will not boot.
With the Onboard PCI Devices submenu under the Integrated Peripherals menu, you can enable or disable a multitude of PCI related devices including onboard Raid, the LAN controller, the IEEE 1394a controller, and the USB 2.0 controller. Most interesting in this tab is the S-ATA Bridge Host Mode setting, which controls at the speed of the onboard SATA connectors.
The PC Health Status menu shows all system monitored temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds (FAN1, FAN2, and FAN5 only).
You are also given the option of controlling various aspects of potential disastrous system situations. The Fan Fail Alarm Selectable setting allows system monitor of a system critical fan for failure conditions. The CPU Shutdown setting allows configuration of a forced system shutdown should the CPU temperature go beyond the selected temperature. The CPU Warning Temperature setting allows configuration of a system alert issued through the onboard speaker when the CPU exceeds the selected temperature. These settings are all great, but the one thing that really boggles me is why you are able to set your CPU warning temperature threshold much higher than the CPU shutdown temperature.