BIOS options

After the Fatal1ty post screen is displayed we entered the BIOS using the 'del'-button. People who are used to work with an AwardBIOS will recognize the layout, but maybe not the color. Notice the refreshing red background color Abit used which adds to the 'Fatality' brand name phenomenon no doubt.



The SoftMenu Setup page has detailed overclocking options, quite nice so see some of those options appear on a mainstream board. After changing some options the BIOS automatically calculates what the new CPU/RAM clock will be, the left table shows the adjusted settings and on its right side we can compare those with the settings the pc is being used at while running the BIOS.



Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP), or SLI-Ready memory as it is being called in the BIOS allows to user to auto-configure its DRAM for higher performance. This technology makes use of the unused SPD bytes where higher performance settings can be saved by the memory manufacturer. People can choose between 2 performance levels, or choose to tweak their RAM themselves. Although NVIDIA claims this option is not available on 650i chipsets, Abit did seem to be able to add it somehow.



The CPU and memory speed can be either set automatically, linked or unlinked. With our Core 2 Duo E6600 model the BIOS will choose 2400MHz as the cpu's frequency, it also sets our PC6400 DRAM automatically at 800MHz by reading the DRAM's SPD bit. In linked mode we can overclock our CPU by adjusting the Front Side Bus or by changing the Multiplier Factor (if your CPU allows it). The memory speed is set by using dividers, again auto mode can be selected here, other available options are 1/1, 5/4 and 3/2 and Sync Mode. Sync mode is nothing else then running your DRAM at 2/1 mode, keeping in mind that the FSB is Quad bumped and DDR stands for Doubled Date Rate this makes perfect sense. Dividing the FSB by 4 and DRAM by 2, this option could also been called 1/1 mode, at least that's how it is on some of the Intel P965 chipset based mainboards we've seen so far.


Unlinked mode allows the user to change both the CPU and the DRAM frequency per 1MHz, both totally independent from each other. Same goes for the PCIe clock speed. The lower part of the SoftMenu Setup screen shows voltage options for the CPU, MCH, DRAM,...



Tons of options to play around with, but there is even more ->