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- Date:
- Thursday , January 17, 2008
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe
ASUS’ latest offering for the AMD camp holds much promise, designed around their latest 790FX chipset with full support for socket AM2 and AM2+ processors. Is it strong enough to stand up to its Intel counterparts though?
AiSuite
ASUS chose to include their newly redesigned AiSuite Windows based monitoring utility in with the board drivers. The version of AiSuite shown is 1.0.3.16. The AiSuite utility supports a variety of monitoring and configuration settings including real time display of system voltages, fan speeds, temperatures, CPU FSB and speed, as well as multiple supported overclocking methods. The NOS button allows you to activate the dynamic overclocking technology, which will manipulate system voltages and FSB speeds in order to push the system to the desired overclocking level when needed.
The AiBooster button gives access to the AiBooster interface, allowing for automated or full manual control of CPU FSB and multiplier, and system voltages.
The Performance screen allows for selection of a preconfigured overclocking level, where the system controls the voltages and various FSB settings, while the Advanced screen allows for full manual control. Note that for all voltage, CPU FSB and multiplier manipulation, supported options can be selected from a pull down master list.
Note that the AiBooster interface allows for selection and saving of pre-configured user profiles as well.
The Q-Fan button within the main AiSuite window allows for operational configuration of all fan headers through preset options.
AMD OverDrive
ASUS also includes the AMD OverDrive utility, designed specifically for use with the AMD 790FX chipset. Note that the app version show is 2.0.4. The application itself is split in to 4 specific areas – System Information, Status Monitor, Performance Control, and Preference. The System Information tab shows detailed information concerning speeds and settings of all onboard components, including memory and CPU settings.
The Status Monitor tab is broken in to 2 screens, System Status and Voltage/Temperate. The System Status screen shows CPU related temperatures, voltages and bus speeds both numerically and graphically, as well as GPU and board bus speeds. The Voltage/Temperature screen shows voltage and temperature output for all system monitored components.
The Preference tab contains application related settings, including a control for enabling Basic or Advanced mode within the Performance Control tab. There are capabilities for loading and saving customized profiles as well.
With the Performance Control mode set to Basic from within the Preference tab, the Basic Mode screen shows. Basic Mode allows for selection of pre-configured overclocking levels, with the maximum overclock achieved with the slider moved to the High Performance setting. Note that in this mode, the system sets all voltages and bus speeds for you.
When the Performance Control mode option within the Preference tab set to Advanced, the Clock/Voltage and Memory screen become user accessible. All system bus speeds, voltages, and multipliers (including the CPU and HyperTransport ratios) can be set via the Clock/Voltage screen. The Memory screen allows for direct user configuration of all memory related timing and speed settings.
The Benchmark screen contains controls for an AMD provided benchmarking utility, useful in gauging system performance. The Stability Test screen contains a set of tests for gauging system stability, with the ability to select individual tests as well as the overall test duration. The Auto Clock screen contains a system speed optimization tool, which will automatically set optimal overclocking parameters for your system.