![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , August 06, 2007
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Blitz Formula
ASUS adds another motherboard to their Republic of Gamers lineup in the form of the ASUS Blitz Formula. While the P35 chipset is intended to be a mainstream chipset, ASUS kicks things into high gear and shows us what the P35 chipset can really do.
ASUS Utilities
ASUS has included their suite of utility software as usual. The ASUS Utilities suite is a single launcher for multiple applications. It includes AI Gear, AI Booster, AI NAP, Q-Fan and AI NOS. The board comes packaged with PC Probe II and My Logo as well. Essentially nothing has changed from previous minor revisions. Within the ASUS Utilities launcher, you choose the application you want to use, and it will launch in a separate window alongside the main ASUS Utilities launcher window.
AI NOS is ASUS’ software application for dynamic overclocking within Windows. The overclocking adjustments can be made based on profiles you’ve chosen, or when set to automatic, the system dynamically alters several board and BIOS level settings for overclocking the system based on the load placed on the PC at any given time. Basically this feature runs with four sensitivity modes: Auto, Standard, Sensitive, and Heavy load. Depending on the mode chosen, the utility will dynamically overclock the system according to predefined values within the software. These values are percentage based. Unfortunately, this program is fairly conservative, and you will not likely see super-high overclocks using this feature. ASUS Q-Fan is a utility that allows fan speeds to be controlled within Windows. To control fan speed, the fan in question to be controlled needs to be selected, and via a drop down menu, three modes of operation are available for selection. You may choose from Optimal, Silent, and Performance. These alter the speed of your fans based on your cooling needs at the time.
AI Booster is for manual overclocking. There are several buttons in the AI Booster menu. Written from left to right they are: Default, Performance, Advanced, User Profile, and Save. The first button has two options, Auto or Standard. The Performance button has but one option and that is Auto. The advanced button actually gives quite a few options. Once clicked, three tabs appear in a new menu. The first is CPU frequency which is used for overclocking in Windows. You can choose a new frequency from the drop down. Unfortunately, you cannot simply input your desired values. Below the CPU frequency lays the CPU ratio, and of course there is the memory tab where you can set DRAM voltages and frequencies. The final tab in this window is the PCI-E tab. Here you can adjust the PCIe clock frequency from 100-150MHz.
The ASUS PC Probe II utility allows the user to monitor voltages, and temperatures for various board monitored locations or zones around the board. The power, chassis, system, and auxiliary fan headers are all monitored as is the CPU temperature and voltage. Voltages for CPU, NB, SB, and memory are all monitored here. Voltages and thermal readings are displayed in rectangular boxes that resemble LCD readouts. They have tiny magnet icons in their corners and when they are clicked, they disconnect and the status displays can be re-arranged or moved around in any way you desire.
The main part of the PC Probe application is found in the form of a hexagonal window that has changed very little in the last two years or so that PC Probe II has been around. The Hexagon comes by default expanded, where it didn’t use to in the earliest versions. That’s really the only major change I’ve ever seen in this utility. When the large arrow tab is clicked, the hexagon can be expanded or contracted to allow the configuration of the utility itself. Just to the right of that is where all the DMI, WMI, and PCI information is displayed. The usage information is displayed in the form of pie charts that are almost exactly like the Windows drive space usage pie charts. Under the ASUS logo is a reporting tool. This tool shows detailed system information for the purpose of assisting ASUS tech support should they need more information concerning your systems configuration. There is also log reporting as well as alerts that show any kind of errors reported by the motherboard such as abnormal thermal and fan control readings.
ASUS Update is a basic utility and offers several methods of performing a BIOS update. You can browse to the BIOS update manually on your hard drive or you can connect to ASUS’ FTP site and download it. One thing that really bothers me is that every time I have actually tried to use this tool to perform a BIOS update, it always gives me an error message saying that the FTP server is busy, or unavailable. This has been the case with nearly every ASUS review I’ve ever done for the [H].
ASUS online BIOS support inside of Windows is hideous at best. Our thoughts are they should not even offer this software feature on their motherboards till they fix their broken web infrastructure. We could not even access their website when editing this article to configure proper links to the product discussed.
ASUS My Logo provides end users and OEM’s a simple method for customizing the BIOS. You must download a copy of the BIOS you would like to use in advance in order for this utility to edit that BIOS file and output usable BIOS that you can flash your board with that contains the logo you have added. You can actually use ASUS Update to save a copy of your existing BIOS, and then use that BIOS for this utility if you desire. When BIOS is altered and a bitmap of the OEM or end user’s choice is used, the motherboards boot flash screen will be replaced with any bitmap they choose, provided the images are formatted correctly. At present this utility is limited and only images no greater than 640x480 in size that have 256 colors or less can be used.