![[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?
BIOS
ASUS used the American Megatrends Inc. BIOS with the Commando. Version 0601 was used for testing.
The main BIOS screen has time and date settings, floppy drive and language settings. Also you will find hard drive information, and the IDE Configuration sub menu and System information page. The system information page has BIOS version and build date information as well as CPU and memory information. The IDE configuration page allows you to set RAID mode, AHCI or IDE modes.
ASUS has made a change to their BIOS’ recently and have started using the Extreme Tweaker menu instead of the JumperFree menu they used to use. (At least on the Republic of Gamers branded boards.) The first setting here is AI Tuning. This has several modes, Auto, Standard, AI NOS and Manual. The first setting allows the motherboard to automatically set most of the settings on this page. Standard sets non-overclocked defaults. AI NOS allows dynamic overclocking values based on preset percentages and manual allows the end user to set all their variables on this page. The motherboard CPU frequency can be set in a range of frequencies from 100-650. DRAM Frequency can be adjusted from DDR2 533 to DDR2 1067MHz. PCI Express frequency can be adjusted from 90MHz to 150MHz. PCI Clock synchronization gives you two choices, By CPU and locked at 33.3MHz. The latter obviously being the wise choice most of the time. Spread Spectrum has Enabled and Disabled settings. There is a sub heading in this section called Over voltage.
Here you can adjust CPU VCore Voltage from 1.1v to 1.85v. While not the highest VCore setting I’ve ever seen, it should be more than adequate for most CPUs. Also contained here are the FSB Termination Voltage, NB Core Voltage, Memory Voltage. The Memory voltage is adjustable up to 3.375v. That would probably fry most memory modules, but I have to give ASUS credit for letting us take that risk. Typically ASUS is a little conservative with some of their BIOS settings even on enthusiast boards. I am pleased to see them get away from this a little bit. Also the DDRII Reference voltages and SB VCore/chipset voltage settings are present here as well. A new setting I’ve never seen before was included on the Commando. Nearly the last setting in the ASUS Extreme Tweaker menu is the ASUS C.G.I. setting. This is the Cross Graphics Impeller. This technology improves performance when a Crossfire graphics card solution is used according to ASUS. It is enabled automatically when a second Crossfire compatible video card is installed.
The next BIOS section is the Advanced section. Here you will find a list of six options all leading to submenus. The are LAN Cable Status, USB Configuration, CPU Configuration, Chipset, Onboard Devices Configuration and PCI PnP. The LAN Cable Status is a virtual cable tester. There is the usual legacy USB configuration settings and not much else in the USB Configuration submenus. CPU Configuration has the multiplier ratio, C1E Support, MAX CPUID Value Limit, Vanderpool Technology, CPU TM function, Execute Disable Bit, PECI, and Intel® SpeedStep™ tech. settings. The Chipset settings menu takes you to another submenus called North Bridge Configuration. This section is simple containing the Memory Remap Feature, Intiate Graphic Adapter, (Graphics card PCIe/PCI initialization order.) PEG Port Configuration for forcing the secondary PEG slot into x1 mode. Onboard Devices Configuration is next. Here you can disable the HD Audio Controller, adjust the Front Panel Support Type, enable or disable the IEEE1394 controller, Onboard PCI GbE LAN 1, Onboard PCIe GbELAN 2 and their boot ROMs. The JMicron PATA controller can also be enabled or disabled here, as can the backlighting for the LCD Poster. PCI PnP is the last submenus in the advanced section and really contains nothing of major interest and certainly nothing you can’t find on just about any other board.
The next item of importance is in the Power Menu. The Hardware Monitoring section is found here. For some unknown reason the system always hangs for 15-20 seconds or so when you try to enter this options menu. I’ve seen this problem on multiple ASUS boards and I don’t recall ever seeing this behavior on any motherboards other than ASUS boards. As always, CPU Temperature, motherboard temperature and CPU Fan Speeds are controlled here. ASUS has Q-Fan control over various fan headers found on the surface of the motherboard. Each controlled fan header allows for Optimal, Silent or Performance modes. Voltage warnings are also found here and can be enabled or disabled.
Lastly, there is the ASUS Tools menu. Here you can find ASUS’ EZ Flash 2 and ASUS O.C. Profile settings. The ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility allows you to flash the BIOS using a file from a number of locations. This is helpful as it eliminates the need for a floppy drive and is much easier to use than the DOS based utilities like AWDFLASH and so on. The ASUS O.C. Profile menu is the same as it is for all their boards that feature it. You can save your OC to one of two stored profile slots not unlike those of a game console memory card, and then load from those stored profiles. The Start O.C. Profile launches a menu based file browser that will allow you to browse to and load profiles stored on the hard drive. This screen looks nearly identical to the EZ Flash 2 screen that serves the same basic purpose.