![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , June 28, 2005
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Based on a tried and true design, ASUS delivers a winner with this i955X-based motherboard. Read on to find out just how much this board may change the current motherboard landscape.
BIOS
ASUS chose to couple the P5WD2 with an AMI-based BIOS. The BIOS version shown and used in testing is version 0206.
The IDE Configuration submenu within the Main screen contains options for configuring the ICH7R IDE and SATA ports. The SATA mode of operation is configured using the Configure SATA as option. Note that the Intel RAID boot BIOS will only show with this option set to RAID and when drives are connected to the SATA ports. Drives can be used in RAID and standalone mode with this option set to RAID.
The Advanced screen contains various submenus for configuring board voltages and bus speeds, as well as the state of the numerous onboard devices.
The USB Configuration submenu contains options for controlling various aspects of the operation of the onboard USB 2.0 ports, while the CPU Configuration submenu contains options for setting CPU specific options. Through this submenu, you have the choice of disabling Hyper Threading, enabling the Execute Disable Function for supported CPUs, customizing the CPU multiplier for unlocked CPUs, as well as disabling the CPU thermal stepping control.
The Chipset submenu contains settings for controlling memory timing options, as well as PCI-Express related operational and performance settings.
When the Configure DRAM Timing by SPD option is set to Disabled, all user configurable memory timing options become accessible. The following memory timing options are available for configuration: CAS latency; RAS precharge delay; RAS to CAS delay; active to precharge delay (shown as DRAM RAS# Activate to Precha); and write recovery time. For all listed memory timing settings, the lower value is the more aggressive setting. The Hyper Path 3 option is an ASUS specific memory related setting that is supposed to improve performance.
The Onboard Devices Configuration submenu contains configuration settings for controlling the various onboard devices. The Onboard PCIEX GbE LAN option controls the Intel-based Ethernet port, while the Onboard PCI LAN option controls the Marvell-based Ethernet controller. The state of the Silicon Image controller is set via the Silicon 3132 controller option. Note that the Silicon Image boot BIOS will only load with this option set to RAID mode.
The PCIPnP submenu contains options for configuring the system IRQ and PnP related settings. While individual IRQ numbers cannot be manually tied to specific interrupts, individual IRQ pool assignments can be set through this submenu for IRQs 3 to 15.
The Hardware Monitor submenu, accessed through the top-level Power screen, contains real time voltage, fan speed, and temperature statistics for the various monitored devices. How the fans are monitored and their speed can be configured through this submenu as well. The Q-Fan Mode option configures the target fan header for 3 or 4-pin operation, with the PWM option used for 4-pin header operation. The fan speed for a given header can be customized using the FAN PROFILE MODE option for the targeted header.
The top-level Boot screen contains submenu for controlling various aspects of system boot up, including hard drive boot order and access priority. With multiple hard drive type devices connected at system startup, the Hard Disk Drives submenu shows in the Boot screen. With a USB 2.0 hard drive type device connected at system start up, the device will show as a viable boot device in this submenu. The order of the drives listed within the Hard Disk Drives submenu can modified using the + or - keys.