![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, March 07, 2007
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Commando
ASUS has expanded their line of Republic of Gamers branded motherboards with the ASUS Commando based on Intel’s proven P965 Express chipset. Does it compete with what’s on the market and offer features beyond current P965 motherboards?
ASUS Utilities
ASUS has made its first changes to their utilities I’ve seen in awhile. The new ASUS Utilities suite is a single launcher type utility that has AI GEAR, AI Booster, AI NAP, Q-Fan and AI NOS. The board also comes with the usual My Logo and PC Probe II software. Fortunately most of the changes seem to have been made for the purpose of making things easier to use and understand. By centralizing multiple utilities in one application, it would seem that ASUS has managed this at least in part.
As I have already mentioned, the ASUS utilities have finally been changed and the new version looks quite different from the ASUS Utilities we are used to seeing bundled with their boards. The functions are still similar but this time they sport a new more modernized look. The main utility window displays the AI Suite logo or name of the utility you are currently using in the top left hand corner. Below that are the controls that allow you to switch modes. Temperatures, voltages and fan speeds in the top right hand corner. The FSB speed, CPU speed and multiplier are in the bottom right hand corner. Also in this location is a CPU usage graph showing load on each CPU core.
AI NOS is ASUS’ utility for overclocking the system based on the demand placed on the machine by various user executed programs. Basically this feature runs with four sensitivity modes: Auto, Standard, Sensitive, and Heavy load. Depending on the mode chosen, the utility will dynamically overclock the system according to predefined values within the software. These values are percentage based. Unfortunately, this program is fairly conservative, and super high overclocks will not be achieved in this manner. Next is ASUS Q-Fan. This utility is used to control fan speeds while in Windows. To control fan speed, simply select the fan to control via the drop down menu and choose Optimal, Silent, or Performance pre-sets. These will alter the speed of your fans either by thermal condition, low speed, or maximum speed. This allows you to quickly make fan speed adjustments within Windows to suite your needs at the time.
AI Booster is completely redesigned, but maintains its familiar functionality. There six buttons on the AI Booster menu. Written from left to right they are: Default, Performance, Advanced, User Profile, and Save. The first button has two options, Auto or Standard. The Performance button has but one option and that is Auto. The advanced button actually gives quite a few options. Once clicked, three tabs appear in a new menu. The first is CPU frequency which is used for overclocking in Windows. You can choose a new frequency from the drop down. Unfortunately, you can not simply input your desired values. I would have really liked to have seen this rather than having to scroll down through the drop down menu to set your desired frequency. Below the CPU frequency field is the CPU ratio. This will only be adjustable downward unless you are using an Extreme Edition CPU. Next, we have the Memory Tab. Here you can set DRAM voltage and frequency. This tab works by choosing an option from the drop down menu just like with the options in the CPU Tab. The final Tab in this section is the PCI-E tab. Here you can adjust your PCIe frequency. One thing I found very annoying is that once a drop down menu is selected, you MUST choose a frequency or you can not exit the drop down menu. This was really irritating and something I hope to see changed in the future. We also have AI NAP, which puts your PC to sleep, but not before a popup dialogue window asks if you are sure you want to put the machine to sleep. Also when you bring the PC out of “Nap” mode, the software again asks if you are sure. The first part is fine, but asking if I really want to wake the PC up just seems silly to me.
The ASUS PC Probe II utility looks exactly the same as it always does. (Which is not necessarily a bad thing.) The ASUS PC Probe II utility allows the user to monitor voltages, temperatures of the CPU and other monitored temperature zones. By default, power, chassis, and CPU fans are monitored. Voltage status for VCore, and all 3v, 5v, and 12v, voltage ranges are all monitored. CPU and motherboard temperature ranges are monitored within this utility just as you would expect. Voltages and thermal readings are displayed in rectangular boxes that resemble LCD readouts. They have tiny magnet icons in their corners and when they are clicked, they disconnect and the status displays can be re-arranged or moved around in any way you desire.
The main part of the PC Probe application is displayed in a hexagonal window and when the green arrow tab is clicked, the hexagon expands to allow the configuration of the utility itself. Just to the right of that is where all the DMI, WMI, and PCI information is displayed. The usage information is displayed in the form of pie charts that are almost exactly like the Windows drive space usage pie charts. Under the ASUS logo is a reporting tool. This tool shows detailed system information for the purpose of assisting ASUS tech support should they need more information concerning your systems configuration. There is also log reporting as well as alerts that show any kind of errors reported by the motherboard such as abnormal thermal and fan control readings.
ASUS Update remains unchanged as well. The utility is basic and offers several methods of performing a BIOS update. You can browse to it manually on your hard drive, you can connect to ASUS’ FTP site and download it. You can also update the BIOS via the web or browse to a downloaded file, and then update from that. One thing that really bothers me is that every time I have actually tried to use this tool to perform a BIOS update, it always gives me an error message saying that the FTP server is busy, or unavailable. Rarely has this ever changed. The Striker Extreme was no different.
ASUS online BIOS support inside of Windows is hideous at best. Our thoughts are they should not even offer this software feature on their motherboards till they fix their broken web infrastructure.
ASUS My Logo provides a simple method for customizing your BIOS. The most difficult part of using this utility is that you must download a copy of the BIOS you would like to use in advance in order for this utility to edit that BIOS file and output usable BIOS that you can flash your board with that contains the logo you have added to it. You can actually use ASUS Update to save a copy of your existing BIOS, and then use that BIOS for this utility if you desire. (Good luck downloading a new one if you are in a hurry!) The logo gives the end user or OEM's the ability to customize the motherboards boot logo with any bitmap they choose, provided the images are formatted correctly. Only images no greater than 640x480 in 256 colors can be used. Using this utility is child’s play at worst. It really is one of the most intuitive software applications that I’ve seen developed by ASUS or nearly any other motherboard vendor. It really is that easy.