![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , May 08, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P4C800 Deluxe
ASUS’ i875P based board looks to be a worthy contender as it has some nice features, but will it do what we enthusiast want it to do. And that is be a worthy Pentium 4 2.4C mate.
BIOS
The P4C800 uses an AMI based BIOS. ASUS has added their own performance enhancements to the BIOS to make it a bit more enthusiast friendly.
The Advanced screen contains submenus for a variety of system related performance settings. The most interesting performance related settings are located within the Jumper Free Configuration submenu, the Chipset submenu, and the Onboard Devices Configuration submenu.
The JumperFree Configuration submenu contains frequency and voltage related performance settings. The CPU External Frequency (MHz) option allows for manual manipulation of the CPU FSB, ranging from 100 MHz to 300 MHz. This setting only affects the speed of the CPU bus. The other bus speeds, DRAM and PCI/AGP, are controlled through the DRAM Frequency and AGP/PCI Frequency (MHz) options. Note that the DRAM bus frequency selections available depend on the CPU FSB set. For example, with the CPU FSB set at 133 MHz, only the Auto, 266 and 333 options are available from within the DRAM Frequency option box.
The system voltage settings are located just below the bus frequency options. Through the CPU VCore Voltage option, you are able to set the CPU voltage to a maximum of 1.6000v. Not too much for a crazy overclock, but enough to squeeze a bit of extra speed from you CPU. (ASUS has now posted version 1006 of their BIOS that allows Vcore of up to 1.95v!) The DDR Reference Voltage option allows for setting of the system DRAM voltage, with a maximum of 2.85v. This voltage should be more than sufficient when paired with the right set of DRAM sticks. The AGP VDDQ Voltage option allows for manual manipulation of the voltage delivered to your AGP card, with a maximum setting of 1.8v. Not too shabby. The last option on the page is the Performance Mode option. The Performance Mode option defines how aggressively system related timing settings, other than memory, are handled by the BIOS.
The Chipset submenu allows full control over chipset related settings, including a variety of memory timings. Changing memory related timing settings can improve system performance but can also lead to major stability nightmares.
With the Configure DRAM Timing by SPD option set to Disabled, all five memory timing options become changeable. Settings available include CAS latency, RAS precharge delay, RAS to CAS delay, Active to precharge delay, and burst length. For all memory timing related settings, the lower value is more aggressive.
There are three other memory related settings that are independent of the state of the Configure DRAM Timing by SPD option. The Memory Acceleration Mode option controls how aggressively the system sets the communication channel between the CPU and DRAM buses. Both the DRAM Idle Timer and DRAM Refresh Rate settings determine how aggressively the memory is read from and written to by the system. In both cases, a lower value is more aggressive.
The Onboard Devices submenu contains settings for enabling and disabling various integrated system devices. The Promise based SATA and IDE connectors are controlled through the OnBoard Promise Controller option. With the OnBoard Promise Controller option set to Enabled, you are able to determine in what mode the promise controller operates. Note that Windows XP requires loading of separate system device drivers for both the RAID and IDE modes. If the mode is switch from one to the other through the Operating Mode option, than a new device driver must be loaded or the connected drives will not be accessible to the OS.
The Hardware Monitor submenu, located as an option from the top level Power screen, offers monitoring of various system temperature, voltages, and fan speeds. Note that only fan headers with connected fans are enabled in the submenu. The Q-Fan Control option enables system regulated fan speed. With the Q-Fan Control option Enabled, the Fan Speed Ratio option displays allowing for manual setting of the default fan speed in 1/16 gradients.
The Boot screen contains various system boot up related options, including setting device boot up priority. Through the Boot Device Priority submenu, you can assign the order of the system boot devices. The most interesting setting available in this submenu is the MBA UNDI (Bus2 Slot5) menu option. This option allows for booting from a USB 2.0 connected device, such as a USB based Kingston Data Traveler. Very cool stuff, indeed.