BIOS
The BIOS is the usual AWARD fare, offering adjustment for all the important system parameters. All the action happens in Advanced Chipset Features and Miscellaneous Control. Stupidly, I forgot to take BIOS screenshots before finishing with the board, so it's a text-only run through in this article.Advanced Chipset Features
You can adjust memory timings in this section, including the full gamut of usual timings (CL-Tras-Trcd-Trp) that you'll see in a hundred other BIOS's. AGP aperture size is adjustable, along with other AGP settings like fast writes and interface speed.Relevant to the onboard VGA core, you can set the framebuffer size for the IGP, from Disabled to 64MB, with 8MB, 16MB and 32MB the intermediate choices. 64MB was the chosen setting throughout testing.
Miscellaneous Control
Miscellaneous Control is where you set CPU and memory frequencies, voltages for CPU, memory, AGP, chipset and VTT.CPU Vcore is adjustable from 1.1V to 1.85V in 0.05V steps. You get multiplier adjustment on certain CPUs and the board unlocked the test XP3200+ processor fully. CPU host frequency is adjustable with a variety of choices between 133MHz and 250MHz with the all important 166MHz and 200MHz settings in between.
Memory clock adjust is similar, with a range of choices between 100MHz and 249MHz, but without a full resolution of 1MHz increments inbetween. It's not actually a set choice, it's just a ratio of the CPU host frequency and the chipset only supports up to 333MHz DDR memory officially. 333MHz DDR was the chosen memory frequency throughout testing.
Vdimm is adjustable from 2.5V, the JEDEC standard, all the way to a slightly scary 3.0V. With the N2VIEW not being a tweakers board by definition, the voltage range on Vdimm is a little odd, but could be useful for some modules at certain latencies.
Vagp adjust gets the standard 1.5V to 1.7V range and you get 1.6V and 1.7V as choices for the chipset voltage. There's an option to shut the board down automatically when Vdimm and Vagp draw too much current, useful for protecting the board in those rare conditions.
BIOS Overall
The rest of the BIOS remains resolutely staid, offering nothing exciting or interesting to talk about. You can adjust USB parameters, adjust power saving and hardware monitoring settings (including overheat protection on the processor) and the rest of the usual device toggles and options.The lack of onboard features and the target market are responsible for the BIOS options on show, so it was a little surprising to see the range of adjustments in Miscellaneous Control. A decent BIOS with no glaring problems, something I couldn't say about the PT800TWIN MagicTwin.
