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- Date:
- Wednesday, December 29, 2004
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Intel D925XECV2
The D925XECV2 is Intel’s newest motherboard, pairing the LGA775 socket with official support for the 1066 MHz FSB as well as DDR2 at 533MHz. Read on to find out how this new kid on the block does against its more established brethren.
BIOS
Intel chose to use an AMI BIOS design for the D925XECV2. There has been some customization for enthusiast use as well. The BIOS version tested with the board was labeled CV92510A.86A.0338.
The Advanced tab contains a series of submenus for control and configuration of all aspects of board functioning, including drive, video, memory and chipset configuration.
The Peripheral Configuration submenu contains options for controlling various integrated devices, including the onboard Marvel GigE NIC. The Marvell NIC status is controlled through the Onboard LAN option. Note the presence of an Auxiliary Power option. This setting controls the auxiliary power port (male Molex connector) near the Southbridge on the motherboard. With this option enabled, you can power up to 1.5A worth of LED and fan devices.
The Drive Configuration submenu has options for configuring hard drive operations. The functioning of the onboard SATA ports and how they interact with the IDE ports is controlled through the ATA/IDE Configuration option. With the Legacy option selected, a total of four SATA or IDE devices can be connected to the system. The Enhanced setting allows for the full 6 device maximum. The Intel(R) RAID Technology option controls the boot up RAID BIOS native to the ICH6R Southbridge chipset. The boot RAID BIOS will only show with this option enabled. Note that the ATA/IDE Configuration option must be set to Enhanced and the Intel(R) RAID Technology option set to Enabled for the Intel RAID boot BIOS to show on system startup.
The Chipset Configuration submenu contains options for controlling chipset related functions, including memory timings and voltages, as well as various system bus speeds to a limited extent.
The Burn-in Mode submenu hosts all overclocking FSB options available on the D925XECV2. With the Extended Burn-in Mode setting Enabled, you are allowed a higher degree of leeway with the overclocking parameters on the board. The Host Burn-in Mode option controls the CPU FSB, and allows for a maximum of 10% over the default FSB. There have been unconfirmed reports that Intel has been allowing up to 15% over the default CPU FSB with certain boards, but with the current BIOS, the D925XECV2 supports only up to 10%. The PCI Burn-in Mode option controls the PCI FSB, with a hefty allowed maximum of 40 MHz, which is more than 20% over the default value of 33 MHz. The PCI Express Burn-in Mode option controls the FSB speed of the PCI Express bus, with an allowed maximum speed of 109 MHz, just shy of a 10% allowed overclock. The PEG Allow > x1 option is believed to enhance the 3D performance of a PCI Express x16 based video card when enabled. The biggest shortfall here is the lack of configurable voltage options, without which many of the provided FSB overclocking options become useless.
The Memory submenu, selectable from within the main Chipset Configuration submenu, contains all memory FSB, timing, and voltage options. All timing and voltage configuration options become user configurable with the SDRAM Control option set to Manual - User Defined. The following memory timing options are user configurable: command rate (CPC Override), CAS latency (SDRAM tCL), RAS to CAS delay (SDRAM tRCD), RAS precharge delay (SDRAM tRP), and active to precharge delay (SDRAM tRASmin). For the above settings with the exception of the CPC Override option, numerically lower values force more aggressive memory operation. For command rate, the options available are Auto, Enabled, and Disabled. The SDRAM FSB is controlled via the SDARM Frequency option, with the options available corresponding to ratios based on either a 200 MHz CPU FSB or a 266 MHz CPU FSB dependant on the CPU currently in use with the board. With an 800 MHz CPU (200 MHz FSB), the options map to the following ratios, with ratios shown in the format CPU:DDR: 533 - 3:4; 400 - 1:1; 333 - 6:5; 266 - 3:2. With a 1066 MHz CPU (266 MHz FSB), the options map to the following ratios, with ratios shown in the format CPU:DDR: 667 - 4:5; 533 - 1:1; 400 - 4:3; 333 - 8:5; 266 - 2:1. Note that the 667 option results in a non-booting board when selected with an 800 MHz FSB CPU installed in the board. The DDR2 Voltage option controls the power supplied to your memory modules, with an allowed maximum of 2.08v.
The Hardware Monitoring submenu contains real time statistics for all BIOS monitored voltages, system temperatures, and fan speeds.
The Boot tab contains all options for configuring system boot up related activities. In order to use a bootable USB device, the USB Boot option must be set to Enabled. With a USB hard drive connected to the system, the device will show as a selectable option within the pull down drive list under the Hard Disk Drives submenu.