BIOS Walkthrough

ASUS set out to create the ultimate SKT2011 overclocking motherboard, so there are a truly staggering number of options available in the BIOS. Add to that all the low-level voltage options for installed CPUs and memory, with settings for clock and timing, and all the included hardware features and their options, and how well-laid-out everything is impresses. The built-in profiling option is really amazing for first-time X79 Express users, although there are some caveats to the hardware you use, specifically memory. This board doesn't seem to like it when you combine 8 GB-based memory kits, but you really should not be combining XMP-rated kits in the first place.

Everything else worked incredibly well. Getting this board to run with a high overclock was pretty simple. The built-in screenshot functionality allowed me to take screenshots of pretty much every option within the BIOS, including a few of the tools in it, like the BIOS flashing utility, its SPD tool, and the SSD Secure Erase function you can get to with a couple mouse clicks. Every option is pretty well labeled. Some of the more obscure timing and voltage options still have no descriptions. but those are the options most users had best leave alone. Those you will want to adjust have a simple description that appears on the right side of the screen after you highlight it – all in the interest of providing everything you need and then some.