![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , May 24, 2005
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
BFG BFGRNF4U
The sexily named "BFGRNF4U" is BFG Tech’s introduction to the wonderful world of motherboards. See just how well their non-SLI nForce4 Ultra solution stacks up to the competition.
BIOS
BFG chose the Phoenix AwardBIOS layout in designing the BFGRNF4U’s BIOS. The BIOS version shown is labeled VN61F21OC-00.
The Advanced BIOS Features menu contains various settings for configuring system initialization, including drive boot order and priority. A properly connected and detected USB 2.0 hard drive type device will show in the Hard Disk Boot Priority submenu as a valid device. The priority of specific items in this menu can be changed using either the + and – keys or the PageUp and PageDown keys.
The Advanced Chipset Features menu contains various options for configuring chipset related settings, including the HyperTransport bus settings. The physical speed of the HyperTransport link is controlled through the HT Frequency setting through the use of preconfigured multipliers. The setting allows for a maximum of a 5x multiplier, which translates to a 1000MHz link speed when coupled with the default 200MHz CPU FSB. When the selected multiplier is combined with the current CPU FSB, the HyperTransport speed can be determined. The HT Width option controls the bandwidth of the HyperTransport link. For maximum performance, it is highly recommended to set this to 16 up and down. Notice that you have the option of disabling the SSE and SSE2 CPU registers through this menu as well, using the SSE/SSE2 Instructions option.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains various submenus for configuring all onboard devices. The IDE Function Setup submenu contains options for configuring all onboard IDE and SATA2 ports. Notice that the SATA ports can only be enabled or disabled in groups of 2 ports. The RAID Config submenu contains options for configuring the chipset RAID controller. The RAID controller state is determined using the RAID Enable option. Notice that all IDE and SATA ports, including the IDE master and slave channels within a single IDE port, can be individually configured for RAID operation. If a port is configured for RAID operation, it will not be detected on system initialization, but it will show as available through the NVIDIA RAID BIOS. The Onboard Device submenu contains settings for configuring the USB 2.0 ports and the NVIDIA LAN controller.
The PnP/PCI Configurations menu contains options for IRQ and PnP setting manipulation. While there are no options for configuring the individual assign IRQ number settings, individual IRQ numbers can be set to a specific resource pool through the IRQ Resources submenu. The IRQ Resources submenu becomes user accessible when the Resource Controlled By option set to Manual.
The PC Health Status menu contains real-time statistics on all BIOS monitored system temperatures, voltage and fan speeds. A temperature controlled system shutdown event can be configured as well, using the Shutdown Temperature option. This option sets a threshold temperature for the measured CPU temperature, above which the BIOS initiates and immediate system shutdown.