![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, January 24, 2007
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P5B-E
As a mainstream style follow up to their award winning Intel 975X based board, ASUS released the P5B-E on to the market. The little brother to the P5W DH Deluxe, the P5B-E seems to be able to hang just fine with the big boys.
BIOS
ASUS chose to base the P5B-E’s BIOS on the AMIBIOS design. The BIOS version used in testing was version 0306.
The IDE Configuration submenu within the Main tab contains configuration options for the 6 onboard SATA II slots tied to the ICH8R controller. The SATA Configuration option controls the operational mode of the SATA ports, with the Compatible setting allowing for a total of 4 ports to be active in IDE emulation mode, while the Enhanced setting allows for use of all 6. Further, with the Enhanced setting selected, the Configure SATA as option becomes accessible, allowing for enabling of AHCI or RAID mode. With RAID mode active, the Onboard Serial-ATA BOOTROM option is visible. This option controls the operation of the ICH8R’s RAID BOOT BIOS. Note that the BIOS will only show with drives connected to the onboard ICH8R’s SATA 2 ports.
The Hardware Monitor submenu, located under the Power tab, contains real-time statistics on all system monitored temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds. ASUS also chose to include rudimentary automatic fan speed configuration through the use of the various Q-Fan Control options. When the header specific Q-Fan Control option is enabled, the fan header can be configured for low noise or performance operation through the header specific Fan Profile option.
The Boot tab contains various submenus for configuring boot device access order. With a properly detected USB 2.0 device attached at system startup, the device shows as a selectable boot device in the Hard Disk Drives submenu. The hard drive boot device access order is modified using the PgUp and PgDn or the (+) and (-) keys.
The Tools tab contains a series of submenus for ASUS developed BIOS tools, including a BIOS flash utility and a BIOS profile load/save utility. The ASUS EZ Flash 2 submenu runs the proprietary ASUS EZFlash2 BIOS update utility. This applet has the ability to read and write BIOS files from any connected system device, including properly detected USB 2.0 devices. The O.C. Profile Configuration submenu allows for creation of 2 backup BIOS profiles, which can be updated or restored through the profile specific Save and Load commands. The Start O.C. Profile option allows for saving or loading customized BIOS profiles from a file. The interface is very similar in design to the EZ Flash 2 interface, with access to all attached system devices for save and load operations, including detected USB 2.0 devices.
The Advanced tab contains submenus with options for configuring the various onboard devices included on the P5B-E.
The USB Configuration submenu within the Advanced tab contains all USB related configuration settings. The USB Mass Storage Device Configuration submenu shows within this screen with a properly detected USB device connected to the system. Within this submenu, you have the ability to set the emulation mode for a specific USB device using the device specific Emulation Type option.
The CPU Configuration submenu contains CPU operation related options, including those for controlling the following internal CPU settings: ratio, C1E support, CPUID value limit, Vanderpool virtualization technology, SpeedStep, and Execute Disable Bit.
The Advanced PCI/PnP Settings submenu contains all system IRQ and PnP related configuration settings. The PCI Latency Timer option controls the latency setting tied to the PCI bus, which can be used to greatly enhance system performance and stability. While this menu does not allows for direct IRQ assignment, you are able to assign specific IRQs to a device pool for automatic system interrupt value assignment.
The Onboard Devices Configuration submenu contains all options related to the non-chipset system onboard devices, such as the JMicron RAID controller, the integrated Attansic LAN controller, the IEEE 1394 ports, and audio devices. With the JMicron SATA/PATA Controller option enabled, the JMicron SATA Controller Mode option becomes accessible. This option allows for setting the JMicron controlled SATA II and e-SATA ports for IDE, RAID, or AHCI operation. Note that the devices connected to the JMicron controlled IDE port are not RAID or AHCI enabled.