![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , February 28, 2005
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Shuttle SB95P V2
Shuttle’s latest member of their XPC lineup, the SB95P V2, packs a lot of power into its small form factor frame. Read on to find out how well this i925XE-based solution performs.
BIOS
Shuttle chose to use the popular Phoenix AwardBIOS template in designing the SB95P V2’s BIOS. The BIOS shown is version 20h.
The Advanced BIOS Features menu contains system initialization options, including those for configuring drive boot order. With a USB 2.0 hard drive-type device connected at system start up, the device will show as a viable boot device in the Hard Disk Boot Priority submenu.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains a series of submenus with options for configuring all of the system integrated and onboard devices. The OnChip IDE Device submenu contains options for configuring the IDE and SATA ports. The SATA Mode option controls the state of the SATA ports, with selectable options of IDE, RAID, and AHCI. The Intel RAID boot BIOS only shows on startup with this setting set to RAID, and hard disks connected to the SATA ports. With the SATA Mode option set to IDE, the On-Chip Serial ATA option becomes accessible. This determines how the SATA ports interact with the IDE port. With this option set to SATA Only, the IDE port is disabled, and the 4 SATA ports act as the primary and secondary master and slave devices. With Enhanced Mode selected, the system supports a maximum of 6 devices across both the IDE and SATA ports. The Onboard Device submenu contains options for controlling the onboard USB 2.0, audio, and LAN ports.
The PnP/PCI Configurations menu contains options for configuring the system IRQ and PnP-related settings. Through the INT Pin X Assignment options, where X is an integer between 1 and 8, you are able to select a custom IRQ number for each of the available system interrupt lines. You can further configure the individual IRQ pool assignments through the IRQ Resources submenu. The submenu becomes accessible after setting the Resources Controlled By option to Manual.
The PC Health Status menu contain options for controlling the active state of the CPU and System fan headers, as well as real time statistics on all monitored system voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. The CPU Fan Speed Control controls the speed of the fan connected to the FAN1 header, with both automatic and manual control options available. With the CPU FAN Sped Control option set to Smart Fan, the setting selected within the CPU Temp Tag option controls the fan speed. If the CPU temperature goes above the selected temperature, the connected fan runs as full speed. The CPU Temp Tag option allows for a more than adequate maximum temperature threshold setting of 80C. The SYSTEM Fan Speed Control option dictates the operation of the fan connected to the FAN3 header, with both automatic and manual options available. While the Smart Fan setting is available, the temperature threshold is not customizable for this option.
The Frequency/Voltage Control menu contains all available options for configuring system memory timings, bus speeds, and voltages. Note that at the very bottom of the menu is the LED bright setting option that is used to control the luminosity of the integrated front panel LEDs.
With the DRAM Timing Selectable option set to Manual, all system memory timing and frequency-related options become user configurable. The following memory timing options are available for configuration: CAS latency; RAS to CAS delay; RAS precharge delay; active to precharge delay (shown as Precharge delay (tRAS); and refresh mode. For all listed memory-timing settings, the lower value is the more aggressive setting. The System Memory Frequency option controls the system memory bus speed with ratios based on the currently selected CPU FSB. The settings available show the memory speed based on selection of the default 200MHz CPU bus speed. The settings available map to the following ratios, with ratios listed in the format CPU bus:DDR2 bus: 400MHz – 1:1; 533MHz – 3:4.
The CPU Clock Ratio option is for setting the CPU multiplier. However, it will only show multipliers available for your specific CPU and will not appear at all when using a multiplier locked CPU. The CPU Ratio Fixed 14x option sets the CPU multiplier to 14x. However, this option is only supported on the 3.4GHz, 3.6GHz, and 3.8GHz+ processors. The CPU Clock option controls the CPU FSB, with a maximum selectable speed of 355MHz. The CPU running speed is determined by multiplying the set CPU FSB by the current CPU multiplier. While no options are available to lock the PCI or PCI Express bus speeds, neither bus seemed problematic in overclocking. The CPU Voltage set option controls the amount of power supplied to your CPU, with a not too hefty 1.5875V maximum setting. While a higher voltage threshold would have been a nice to have, the provided voltage maximum should be adequate for overclocking. The DDR2 Voltage set option controls the memory voltage, with a maximum settable voltage of 1.90V. Again, the maximum voltage is adequate but nothing to get really excited about. The Chipset Voltage set option controls the Northbridge chipset voltage, with a not too shabby 1.70V maximum allowed. While this voltage setting is in no way extreme, it should provide some additional oomph to propel your CPU FSB to an acceptable level.