![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , December 17, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
BIOSTAR TPOWER I55 Motherboard Review
BIOSTAR, a company often overlooked by enthusiast users, emerges with its P55 based motherboard. The TPOWER I55 packs enough power under the hood to put some fear in to the competition. This is not the first good enthusiast motherboard we have seen from BIOSTAR.
BIOS
BIOSTAR chose to use an AMIBIOS based template in designing the TPOWER I55’s BIOS. Version P55AA905 was used in testing, and is shown below. The Main screen shows information concerning the BIOS version as well as memory capacity of the system. The IDE/SATA Configuration link opens to the IDE/SATA Configuration submenu. This submenu contains options for configuring the Intel P55 tied SATA ports. Note that the Intel RAID boot BIOS will only show on startup with drives connected to the P55 controlled SATA 2 ports and the Configure SATA as option set to RAID.
The Advanced Settings menu contains a series of submenus with options for controlling the various onboard devices and subsystems.
The CPU Configuration submenu contains various statistics on the current processor as well as options for controlling internal processor settings. The configurable settings include the following: C1E support, Hardware prefetcher support, adjacent cache line prefetch support, CPUID maxval support, Intel virtualization technology support, CPU thermal monitor support (CPU TM function), Execute Disable Bit support, and A20M support. For a supported processor, HyperThreading technology can be enabled or disabled using the Intel(R) HT Technology option. CPU cores can be selectively disabled using the Active Processor Cores setting.
The Hardware Health Configuration submenu shows real-time statistics for all BIOS monitored devices, including fan speeds, system temperatures, and board voltages.
The Smart Fan Configuration submenu contains settings for configuring automated and manual fan control. Control can be set for preconfigured thresholds based on measured temperatures, with minimum and maximum speeds configurable as well.
The Onboard PCI/PCI-E Devices Configuration submenu contains configuration settings for all onboard devices, including the operational mode for the JMicron JMB363 RAID controller, IEEE 1394 ports, the Intel GigE controller (GbE Controller), and the Realtek GigE controller (Onboard PCIE Giga LAN). Note that the JMicron RAID boot BIOS will only show on startup with the JMicron 36x ATA Controller option set to RAID+IDE Mode.
The USB Configuration submenu contains USB port related configuration settings, with an additional submenu displayed when a viable USB device is connected to the system. The USB Mass Storage Device Configuration submenu is used for configuring specific emulation options for the connected device. Specifically, the Emulation Type option controls the configuration of the device specific emulation modes.
The Advanced PCI/PnP Settings menu contains options for configuring PCI and Plug and Play related setting, including the PCI Latency Timer and PCI IDE Busmaster settings. While you are unable to directly assign interrupt numbers to specific IRQ devices and DMA channels, you do have the option of configuring tying the individual devices and channels to the BIOS control settings pool or to a specialized reserved pool.
The Hard Disk Drives submenu, located within the Boot menu, displays all hard drive devices connected to the system at system boot time including properly detected USB 2.0 type devices.
The O.N.E. menu, which stands for Overclocking Navigator Engine, contains all options related to system device speed and voltage configuration. The Over-Clocking Navigator setting determines the overclocking method in use. With this option set to Automate OverClock, the BIOS controlled overclocking mechanism activates, with preconfigured settings selectable via the Auto OverClock System option. All settings become user configurable with the Over-Clocking Navigator set to Manual OverClock. The Over Clock Retry Count controls how many times the system will attempt to boot with the configured settings, before reverting to a BIOS controlled default state. The base CPU multiplier is configured via the CPU Ratio Setting option, with the CPU speed determined by multiplying that setting with the CPU Frequency Setting option. The CPU Frequency Setting option controls the board’s Base Clock setting, with a maximum of 800MHz allowed. The QPI Frequency setting controls the QuickPath Interconnect bus speed, with its setting scaling directly with the CPU Frequency option. Similarly, the DRAM Frequency option scales directly with the CPU Frequency option is setting up the system memory speed. The Integrated Memory Test option controls the hotkey used to start the integrated memory test.
The DRAM Timing Configuration submenu houses all memory timing settings. The current system memory speed is also listed via a read-only setting, with the memory speed itself configured via the DRAM Frequency setting. Note that this setting mimics the one in the upper level menu. The following based memory timing options are user configurable with the DRAM Timing Control By setting set to Manual: CAS latency(tCL); RAS to CAS delay (tRCD); RAS precharge delay (tRP); active to precharge delay (tRAS); RAS to RAS delay (tRRD); write recovery delay (tWR); write to read delay (tWTR); read to precharge delay (tRTP), row refresh cycle delay (tRFC); four activate window delay (tFAW); and command rate.
The channel turnaround settings, which control read and write delay settings across DIMMs, become user accessible with the DRAM Round Trip Latency by option set to Manual. The individual Round Trip Latency settings are configurable on a per channel basis. As far as inter-module communication settings, delays can be configured in the following categories: different DIMM modules (Different DIMMs); different memory chip placement between modules (Different Rank); and same memory chip placement between modules (Same Rank). The Read to Read delay (R-R delay), Read to Write delay (R-W delay), and Write to Read delay (W-R delay) can all be configured for the listed categories individually.
The Clock Gen Configuration submenu contains voltage settings and delays for the device specific driving clock. The PCIE Frequency setting controls the PCI-Express bus speed, with a 150MHz maximum speed supported. The CPU Clock Swing setting controls the CPU base clock driving control voltage, with a 1450mV maximum setting allowed. The CPU Clock delay and PCH Clock delay options configure the delay between the system base clock and the CPU or PCH device clocks.
The Voltage Control submenu contains all voltage related manipulation settings. The CPU base voltage is configured via the CPU Vcore setting, with a maximum of +0.78750V able to be added to the CPU base voltage. The CPU termination voltage can be set to a 2.030V maximum via the CPU VTT Voltage setting. The CPU VTT PWR Phase Freqsel option controls the switching frequency of the CPU power circuitry, with a 80% maximum setting available. The CPU PLL Voltage setting controls the voltage for the CPU power regulation circuitry, with an upper limit of 2.730V. The CPU Phase Freq option sets the CPU clock switching frequency, with a 40% maximum value allowed. The board memory voltage can be set to a 2.530V maximum via the DRAM Voltage setting. The memory reference voltage is settable on a per channel basis via the DIMM Channel-A DQS VREF and DIMM Channel-B VREF settings, with both settable to a 62% maximum. The memory power circuitry switch frequency can be set to a 90% maximum value, via the DRAM PWR Phase Freqsel setting. The base chipset voltage is set via the PCH Voltage option, with a 2.030V maximum. The chipset termination voltage, set via the PCH PLL Voltage setting, can be configured for a 1.550V maximum. The CPU Load line setting controls the BIOS’s oversight of the CPU vDroop voltage, which is set to active with this setting enabled. The ClockGEN Voltage setting configures the voltage supplied to the board clock generator chip, with a maximum +0.120V able to be added to its base voltage.
The Intel PPM Configuration submenu contains additional CPU configuration options, specifically for configuring the processors SpeedStep and C-State support. The Intel(R) TurboMode Tech option controls an internal CPU based overclocking mechanism, automatically setting the CPU ratio to a max+1 multiplier setting regardless of the CPU Clock Ratio setting selected.
The BIOSTAR Memory Insight submenu provides a display mechanism for factory configured default memory timing settings on a per slot basis. Both default memory timing and speed settings, as well as configured XMP settings are shown.
The G.P.U Phase Control submenu displays power statistics on the CPU, as well as a visual representation of how many power phases are currently in use by the power subsystem. The CPU VTT Phase Mode setting configures the active power phase of the board, with the Full on setting allowing for full phase usage.
The BIOS profile backup mechanism is accessed via the CMOS BACKUP FUNCTION setting located in the Exit menu. The BIOS has the capability to store up to 10 customize profiles, each of which is a full BIOS setting template. These profiles can be saved and loaded via this interface.