Asus P5WDH Deluxe
3. BIOS
The BIOS is that typically found on ASUS motherboards. The first tab includes the system time/date and storage devices:
The second tab includes the Advanced configurations for the board.
Below we can see the settings under JumperFree Configuration. FSB can be raised up to 550, a rather un-realistic number as we will see later on:
The DRAM Frequency has 8 settings ranging from Auto to DDR2-1067MHz.
Each setting represents a different FSB:RAM ratio, so be careful what to select:
- DDR2-400 (4:3)
- DDR2-533 (1:1)
- DDR2-667 (4:5)
- DDR2-771 (3:4)
- DDR2-800 (2:3)
- DDR2-889 (3:5)
- DDR2-1067 (1:2)
If you decide to overclock, increasing the FSB changes the DRAM Frequency automatically, a very useful feature. Memory, CPU, FSB, NB, SB and ICH voltages can be set according to the following table.
BIOS Setting | Feature: |
---|---|
CPU bus frequency |
100 to 550MHz in 1MHz steps |
CPU voltage |
1.2875V to 1.7000V in 0.0125V steps |
DRAM voltage |
1.80V to 2.40V in 0.5V steps |
PCI Express frequency |
90 to 104MHz in 1MHz steps |
i975X MCH voltage |
1.50V to 1.80V in 0.10V steps |
FSB voltage |
1.20V to 1.50V in 0.10V steps |
ICH7R voltage |
1.05V and 1.20V only |
From the Advanced CPU settings, we can set important parameters for our processor. If you install a Core2Duo CPU, you can set the Ratio status (set Ratio Support to Enabled) and disable SpeedStep Technology (set C1 Support to Disabled):
The North Bridge chipset controls DRAM. By default, all settings are left at Auto. Of course, users can take control and adjust the memory timings. There are two settings for higher memory performance (Hyper Path 3 and DRAM Throttling Threshold):
Hardware monitor allows you to see how hot your CPU runs: