![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, December 05, 2007
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Maximus Formula
ASUS brings us Intel’s X38 chipset in the form of the ASUS Maximus Formula. This is also ASUS’ latest in the Republic of Gamers lineup. ASUS touts the Maximus Formula as “The Top of Game Board Today.”
ASUS Utilities
ASUS has been including the same basic software bundle in their motherboard packages for some time now. The ASUS boards ship with AI Suite which includes AI Gear, AI Booster, AI NAP, Q-Fan and AI-NOS. Also included are PC Probe II and My Logo. Though the version numbers creep up here and there little ever seems to change. Version 1.03.09 came with the board but I was unable to run the program. Despite my best efforts I could not get the program to run. It constantly crashed before I could even make screen captures of the software. Finally I downloaded version 1.03.15 from ASUS’ website. This worked better, but still gave me several stability issues. I am not sure of the cause for this as the system was stable otherwise while in Windows. The ASUS Utilities suite is a single launcher for multiple applications. Within the ASUS Utilities launcher, you choose the application you want to use, and it will launch in a separate window alongside the main ASUS Utilities launcher window.
AI NOS is ASUS’ application for dynamic overclocking in Windows. The overclocking adjustments can be defined in profiles or you can set the software for automatic overclocking the system can alter the board settings based on the load placed on the PC at a particular given time. Basically software works based on sensitivity modes. Auto, Standard, Sensitive, and Heavy Load. Depending on the chosen mode, the utility will dynamically adjust the system settings according to predefined values within the software. These values are percentage based. Unfortunately the program like all similar software is rather conservative and therefore you’ll not break any speed records this way. However it is nice for overclocking beginners to get their feet wet. ASUS Q-Fan is a utility that allows fan speeds to be controlled within Windows. To control fan speed, the fan in question to be controlled needs to be selected, and via a drop down menu, three modes of operation are available for selection. You may choose from Optimal, Silent, and Performance. These alter the speed of your fans based on your cooling needs at the time.
AI Booster is for manual overclocking. There are several buttons in 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 cannot input your desired values. Below the CPU frequency lays the CPU ratio, and of course there is the memory tab where you can set DRAM voltages and frequencies. The final tab in this window is the PCI-E tab. Here you can adjust the PCIe clock frequency from 100-150MHz.
The ASUS PC Probe II utility allows the users to monitor voltages and temperatures. The power, chassis, system, and auxiliary fan headers are all monitored with this utility. Also monitored are the CPU temperature and voltages. Voltages for the south and north bridges can be viewed in the utility also. Voltages and thermal readings are displayed in rectangular boxes that resemble LCD readouts. They have tiny magnet icons in their corners that when clicked allow you to move each individual display around and rearrange them as you choose.
The main part of the PC Probe application is found in the form of a hexagonal window. The Hexagon comes by default expanded. When the large arrow tab is clicked, the hexagon can be expanded or contracted 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 is a utility designed for updating the system BIOS within Windows. You can browse to the BIOS files manually if you’ve downloaded them in advance or you can locate the BIOS update via the utility automatically. If the utility is outdated, the program will automatically update itself to the new version. Unfortunately this utility rarely works. Basically this program only works if you download the BIOS file to your machine in advance. Even then there are no guarantees as I’ve seen that fail plenty of times. ASUS needs to update this software or at least the infrastructure behind it so that it works. All too often the FTP servers are too busy to allow you to update your BIOS via the FTP site.
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. We could not even access their website when editing this article to configure proper links to the product discussed.
ASUS My Logo provides end users and OEM’s a simple method for customizing the BIOS. To use it you must download a copy of the BIOS you would like to use in advance in order to use 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. 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. When BIOS is altered and a bitmap of the OEM or end user’s choice is used, the motherboards boot flash screen will be replaced with any bitmap they choose, provided the images are formatted correctly. At present this utility is limited and only images no greater than 640x480 in size that have 256 colors or less can be used.