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The
BIOS :::...
If
there's one thing I was never quite sure we'd ever see when
I used to review DFI's early motherboards, it's a BIOS like
this one. Fully featured doesn't even begin to describe
it. It also supports AMD's Cool'n'Quiet technology for advanced
power saving.
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Advanced
Chipset Features
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The
Genie BIOS settings screen is where most of the heavy tweaking
goes on. AGP frequency can be jacked up to 100MHz in single
MHz increments.
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AGP
Frequency
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AGP
voltage can be turned up to 1.80V, not that I can ever remember
needing to.
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AGP
Voltage
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DRAM
configuration is very detailed and slightly daunting at
first look.
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Cell
Menu Screen
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If
it can't be adjusted from here it's probably not worth bothering.
Everything from DQS (data strobe signal) skew to read preamble
times is here for the tweaking should the desire take you.
For those who are already feeling nauseous, all the settings
have a reassuringly simple "auto" option.
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DRAM
Configuration, Upper Screen Capture
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DRAM
Configuration, Lower Screen Capture
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Chipset
voltage has a ceiling of 1.90V though again, I can't remember
ever needing to move from stock during normal overclocking
adventures.
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Chipset
Voltage Selection
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A
20x multiplier should get you where you're going, or damned
close, unless you get a kick from running your latest CPU
on a 100MHz FSB that is.
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CPU
Multiplier
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Combined
with a maximum FSB of 456MHz, this should net you 9.1GHz!!
Good luck.
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FSB
Frequency
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Initially
it seems that the maximum CPU voltage is rather tame at
with an upper limit of just 1.55V to the CPU, but......
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CPU
Voltage
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.....tucked
away in a seperate menu that reduces the risk of accidentally
dialing in a fatal voltage is an additional set of options
that lets you pile an extra 104, 110, 113, 123, 133 or 136%
on top of the selected voltage, which in turn translates
to a healthier 2.1V limit.
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CPU
Voltage Loading
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Memory
can be juiced up to an increasingly common 3.1V limit, not
that I've ever had any extra milage from anything much above
2.9V personally.
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Memory
Voltage
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Genie
Bios Uper Screen Capture
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Genie
Bios Lower Screen Capture
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All
the usual suspects are present in the PC Health menu including
fine-tuning options for Cool'n'Quiet and the option to specify
a shutdown temperature.
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Health
Status
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The
LDT (Lightning Data Transport) to FSB ratio, or as it's
more comonly known the HyperTransport ratio, can be adjusted
using multipliers up to 5x and of course auto.
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LDT/FSB
Frequency Selection
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and
finally comes the IDE RAID setup screen with one of the
most flexible set of options ever seen in a conventional
RAID based system.
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RAID
Function Setup
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This
is by no means all that the BIOS has to offer, rather it's
just a quick wander through some of the main and more interesting
options. Let's just say there's not much more you could
want to access from a BIOS and DFI deserve all the praise
I can heap on them for this excellent implementation.
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