BIOS

Both ASUS and the ATI reference board use an AMI Bios.


You can pick from several BIOS languages. Nice feature, but you may end up with people in forums not knowing which BIOS option you are talking about because they only know the translation from their BIOS.


The page "Advanced" is home to all interesting tweaking options and has several subpages. I'm not sure why the nesting depth of this BIOS is so big, it would have been probably easier to list more pages right here.


The CPU Config page displays some information about your processor. You can also disable Cool&Quiet here. The HT Link speed option is available at another place in the BIOS as well. Both settings are synchronized. So if you change HT speed here, it changes everywhere else too. I think this is a pretty neat idea, maybe we see more manufacturers group options logically in their BIOS and show needed options twice.


A unique (and probably patented) feature is that you can check cables connected to the Ethernet ports for defects. There is no loopback or similar required. Just plug in the cable and the BIOS will tell you if there are any issues - in real time, without reboot. There are two sections on this page for every network port.
A similar ASUS utility is also available for Windows.


The Onboard devices page lets you enable/disable the Ethernet Ports or Firewire.


PCI/PNP settings allows you to change IRQ assignments if you have problems with Plug&Play. Usually there are no problems so this page is pretty unimportant. So are the Power Management page and the USB page.


On the Boot settings pages you can turn off the full screen logo, change the order of boot up devices and set a password for entering the BIOS or booting the PC.

Memory Timings

The Memory Configuration page displays the current timings of the system on one page, great for screenshots and to know what you are actually running when using SPD settings.


On a subpage you can change a lot of timings. The list is pretty much complete, except that a drive strength option is missing here.


Almost no enthusiasts use ECC memory for their systems so this page is less important.

Monitoring & Fan Control

The essential monitoring items are listed here, more exotic stuff is missing.


ASUS' own fan control feature is called Q-Fan. You can have the board automatically change the speeds of the CPU fan and an additional Chassis fan based on temperature.