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- Date:
- Monday , December 15, 2003
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
DFI LANParty NFII ULTRA B
The NFII ULTRA B is a new revision of an old DFI favorite. The Lan Party series has a lot of extras to offer, but what about the performance and stability?
BIOS (continued)
The Genie BIOS Setting menu is your one stop shop for all FSB and voltage settings, as well as some other interesting options as well. This is definitely a major enthusiast win for DFI, even if it is reminiscent of another manufacturer’s SoftMenu interface.
The CPU Clock Setting option allows for user configuration of the CPU FSB speed, from a minimum of 100 MHz to a hefty 300 MHz max. Similarly, the AGP Clock Setting option controls the speed of the AGP bus. The allowed setting for the AGP bus ranges from 66 MHz to 100 MHz. Note that there is no mention of the PCI bus speed in the BIOS, and it is not known whether DFI chose to implement an AGP based divider for the PCI bus speed or if the PCI bus speed is statically set to 33 MHz. Therefore, be forewarned that changing the AGP bus speed could severely impact system stability as dictated by the PCI bus. The CPU Ratio option is used to manipulate the internal processor multiplier of your prized CPU, with a maximum allowable multiplier of 22x. . Note that changing the multiplier will only work correctly on a BIOS unlock-able processor, such as an AMD Tbred-b or Barton CPU. Changing the multiplier on a locked CPU can cause a non-booting board, forcing a CMOS reset. The combination of the CPU Ratio and the CPU Clock Setting selections determines the overall CPU speed. The DDR DRAM Clock option controls the RAM speed through the use of predefined ratios. On AthlonXP based systems, it is highly recommended to set the DRAM ratio to synchronous mode (1:1) for best performance.
The CPU Voltage Control option defines how much voltage is supplied to your power hungry CPU. The BIOS allows for an upper maximum of 2.0v, enough to satisfy even the meanest overclock. The AGP Voltage Control option is used to configure your video card voltage, with a maximum allowable voltage of 1.8v. Although not a ludicrous amount of voltage, the allowable AGP voltage should be more than enough to push your video card to its upper limits. Surprisingly, DFI chose to include user configurable chipset voltage as well through the CHIPSET Voltage Control option. The maximum chipset voltage allowed is 1.9v, which should be more than enough to get you to where you need to go. The last voltage option in the BIOS is the DRAM Voltage control option. This settings is the most impressive of all, allowing for a maximum of 3.3v of DRAM killing power to course through your souped up modules. Note that it is highly recommended to use active cooling for your DRAM modules when using voltages above 2.9v.
The bottom section of the Genie BIOS Setting menu is dedicated to settings controlling various onboard devices including both LAN ports, the IEEE 1394 controller, and the Silicon Image RAID controller. The Sil3114 S-ATA Controller option controls the state of the controller chip itself. The SATA option allows the tied SATA ports to act as stand alone ports, while the SATA RAID option enables the RAID hardware BIOS. Note that SATA drives will operate in both stand alone and RAID mode with the Sil3114 S-ATA Controller option set to the SATA RAID setting.