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- Date:
- Monday , August 17, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P6T7 WS SuperComputer
ASUS' latest X58 chipset motherboard from its extremely popular workstation board series, the P6T7 WS SuperComputer is poised to impress many folks looking for more PCIe lanes than the next guy.
BIOS
ASUS used an AMIBIOS designed template for the P6T67 WS SuperComputer’s BIOS, with BIOS version 0210 being used in testing and shown below.
The Storage Configuration submenu, accessed from the link within the Main menu, contains configuration settings for the onboard Intel ICH10R controlled SATA 2 ports. The SATA Configuration option works in conjunction with the Configure SATA as setting to configure the SATA port operational mode. With the Compatible mode setting selected from within the SATA Configuration option, the system is restricted to accessing to a total of 4 SATA 2 devices. The Enhanced mode setting allows for use of all SATA 6 ports in standalone IDE, AHCI, or RAID mode. These operation modes are configured via the Configure SATA as option. This option becomes user configurable only when the SATA Configuration set to Enhanced mode. Note that the Intel RAID boot BIOS will only show on startup with drives connected to the onboard ICH10R’s SATA 2 ports.
The System Information submenu, accessed via link from the Main menu as well, displays read-only information about the current BIOS revision, CPU, and memory related settings.
The Ai Tweaker menu contains submenus and settings for configuring the various system performance settings. The Ai Overclock Tuner option determines how much control the user has over system performance configuration, with settings for BIOS controlled and manually controlled overclocking available. All available settings become user configurable with this option set to Manual. The DRAM O.C. Profile and eXtreme Memory Profile options set BIOS controlled memory voltage, speed and ratio settings. Note these options are mutually exclusive, showing when the tied setting is selected from the Ai Overclock Tuner option. The CPU Ratio Setting option configures CPU multiplier, which is used in determining the physical CPU speed when multiplied by current speed setting from the BCLK Frequency option. With the Intel(R) SpeedStep(TM) Tech setting enabled, the Intel(R) Turbo Mode Tech option becomes configurable. This Turbo Mode setting allows for the use a multiplier +1 over the default CPU multiplier when enabled. So if your CPU base multiplier is 20x, enabling this setting gives you access to a 21X multiplier setting. The BCLK Frequency option configures board the base clock frequency, with a maximum 500MHz setting available. Note that most other component frequencies are determined by the BCLK setting. The PCI-Express bus frequency can be set to a maximum of 200MHz through the PCIE Frequency setting. The DRAM Frequency option controls the memory module speed through the use of predetermined ratios based on the current BCLK Frequency speed setting. The UCLK Frequency option controls the speed of the Uncore clock, configuring the link speed of the interconnecting bus between the internal CPU memory controller and the DDR3 DRAM modules. This link speed varies based on the BCLK Frequency selected, with the settings shown based on BIOS controlled static ratios. The QPI Link Data Rate setting controls the speed of the QuickPath Interconnect bus, which is similar in function to the HyperTransport bus found on other boards. Similar in nature to the UCLK Frequency setting, the QPI Frequency settings shown vary based on the BCLK Frequency setting selected, with the options shown representative of static BIOS controlled ratios.
The CPU Voltage setting allows for a maximum of 2.10V with the CPU over volt jumper enabled. The CPU power regulation circuitry power can be set to a 2.5V maximum, controlled through the CPU PLL Voltage setting. The board QuickPath Interconnect and Uncore bus voltages are set through a single setting, the QPI/DRAM Core Voltage. Using this setting, you have the ability to set the bus voltages to 1.90V maximum when the QPI over volt jumper is enabled. The Northbridge chipset is split between the IOH Voltage and IOH PCIE Voltage settings, which have a 1.70V and 2.76V maximum respectively. Similarly, the Southbridge voltage is split between the ICH Voltage and ICH PCIE Voltage with 1.40V and 1.80V maximums. The DRAM Bus Voltage setting configures the base DRAM voltage, with a 2.46V allowed maximum with the DRAM over volt jumper enabled. Note that due to the fact that the memory controller is internal for the Core i7 processors, using more than 1.65V could cause permanent internal damage to your sensitive processor internal circuitry. The DRAM DATA REF Voltage and DRAM CTRL REF Voltage options control the memory reference voltage settings for the board on a per channel basis, with the settings shown corresponding to voltage ratios based on the base DRAM Bus Voltage setting. For all DRAM reference voltage settings, the maximum ratio value allowed is 0.630x. The Load-Line Calibration option control CPU VDroop regulation, with the Enabled option allowing for automated BIOS control of the voltage setting. The CPU Differential Amplitude setting controls the CPU base clock driving control voltage, with a 1000mV maximum setting allowed. The CPU Clock Skew option sets the CPU base clock delay, with a maximum delay of 1500ps available. Similarly, the IOH Clock Skew sets the Northbridge clock delay also settable to a maximum 1500ps delay value.
Accessed via the DRAM Timing Control link from within the Ai Tweaker menu, the DRAM Timing Control submenu contains all configurable memory timing related settings, including the following: CAS latency; RAS to CAS delay; RAS precharge delay; active to precharge delay (DRAM RAS# ACT Time); RAS to RAS delay; row refresh cycle delay; write recovery delay; read to precharge delay; four activate window delay; CAS to CAS delay; command rate (DRAM Timing Mode); per channel latency; write to read delay across DIMMs; read to write delay across DIMMS; read to read delay across DIMMS; and write to write delay across DIMMS. The write to read delay across DIMMs, read to write delay across DIMMS, read to read delay across DIMMS, and write to write delay across DIMMS settings are broken in to three categories: different DIMM modules (DD); same memory chip placement between modules (SR); and different memory chip placement between modules (DR).
The Advanced menu contains submenus for configuring the onboard integrated devices.
The CPU Configuration submenu contains real-time statistics on seated CPU, as well as quite a few internal CPU function settings. The user configurable CPU functions include the following: CPU multiplier (CPU Ratio Setting), C1E support, hardware prefetcher support, adjacent cache line prefetch support, Intel virtualization technology, CPU Thermal Module function (CPU TM Function), Execute Disable Bit, HyperThreading control (Intel(R) HT Technology), core operational controls (Active Processing Cores), A20M support, Intel SpeedStep support, Intel Turbo Mode support, and CPU idle C-state support. Note that the Turbo mode option only displays with the SpeedStep setting enabled.
The Onboard Devices Configuration submenu contains configuration settings for the various board integrated devices, which include the Marvell eSATA controller, the Marvell SAS RAID controller, the Realtek GigE LAN controllers, and the ADI HD audio subsystem.
The USB Configuration submenu contains settings for configuring the onboard USB ports and devices. The USB Mass Storage Device Configuration link shows with a USB device connected to the system. This submenu allows you to configure device specific options, including the device emulation settings.
The Advanced PCI/PnP Settings submenu contains the user configurable plug and play and PCI bus related configuration options. Unfortunately, ASUS chose to no allow direct manipulation of the IRQ interrupt or pool assignment settings from within the BIOS.
The Hardware Monitor submenu, accessed via a link from within the Power menu, displays real-time statistics on BIOS monitored fan speeds, temperate, and voltages. The CPU and Chassis fan headers can be configured for BIOS controlled fan speed setting via the respectively Q-Fan Control and Fan Profile settings.
The Hard Disk Drives submenu, accessed from within the top level Boot menu, displays all hard drive type devices connected to the system at system boot time including properly detected USB 2.0 devices.
The Tools menu is a centralized repository for all of the ASUS created BIOS utilities, including the EZFlash2 BIOS update utility, a BIOS profile storage mechanism, and configuration options for the Express Gate startup screen. Express Gate is ASUS’ proprietary startup screen, which allows access to various applets without the need to access the system OS. The ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility is accessed via the ASUS EZ Flash 2 link in the Tool menu. The application allows you to update the system BIOS from any connected drive device, including properly detected USB 2.0 devices.
The O.C. Profile Configuration submenu allows for storage of up to 2 BIOS profiles, which are full snapshots of all BIOS settings at the time of profile creation. These profiles can be custom named, and then saved or loaded. The Start O.C. Profile option from within the submenu allows for file based storage of the current BIOS settings for storage. The interface is very similar in design to the EZ Flash 2 interface, with access to all attached system storage devices for save and load operations, including attached USB 2.0 devices.