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- Date:
- Friday , December 26, 2008
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Gigabyte EX58-Extreme
GIGABYTE’s flagship X58 motherboard looks to be a champion. Its more than adequate chipset cooler, capable of both air and water operation, as well as the other bundled goodies, make it seem that this is one of the new X58 boards to beat.
BIOS
GIGABYTE chose to pair the EX58-Extreme with a Phoenix AWARD style BIOS. The BIOS shown and used in testing was version F4j.
The MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.) menu contains all settings and submenus for manipulating board memory, speed, and voltage related settings. One thing to note is that all of the options shown in the top level screen are duplicated in the available submenus.
The Advanced CPU Features submenu contains settings for internal CPU related operation. The CPU Clock Ratio controls the base multiplier for the CPU in use, with the actual values available dictated by the CPU itself. The read-only CPU Frequency option shows the current CPU speed, which is determined by multiplying the Base Clock value by the CPU Clock Ratio value. The Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech. option controls an internal CPU based overclocking mechanism, automatically setting the CPU ratio to a multiplier setting of one over the maximum default CPU multiplier setting, regardless of the CPU Clock Ratio setting. The CPU Core Enabled option allows to you disable 1 or more of the processor cores, while the CPU Multi-Threading option controls the state of the individual processor HyperThreading (with HyperThreading active for all active processors with this option enabled). The configurable CPU specific settings include the following: C1E support, C3/C6/C7 halt state support, CPU thermal monitor support, Intel SpeedStep support (EIST) , Intel virtualization technology, and thermal control circuit support (PROCHOT).
The UnCore & QPI Features submenu contains options controlling the system QuickPath Interconnect and UnCore bus speed settings. The QPI Link Speed option determines the board's QuickPath Interconnect Link speed, which comprise the data lanes connecting the CPU and Northbridge chipsets. The QPI Link Speed is set via a multiplier setting, which maxes out at a 48X multiplier. The actual link speed is listed under the setting, with the value shown as the Base Clock value multiplied by the QPI Link ratio. Similarly, the UnCore Frequency option controls the link speed between the internal CPU memory controller and the system memory, again with a 48X maximum multiplier setting available. The UnCore bus speed shown is equal to the Base Clock value multiplied by the UnCore Frequency value. The Isochronous Support option controls the lane settings between the board’s Northbridge and Southbridge controllers. Enabling this option allows for multiple data streams of equal size between the two controllers.
The Advanced Clock Control submenu contains all settings for configuring the board specific bus settings. The BCLK Frequency (in MHz) setting becomes user accessible with the Base Clock “BCLK” Control setting enabled. This option controls the system Base Clock, from which most other board device speeds are derived. The system Base Clock can be set to a maximum value of 1200MHz. The PCI Express Frequency (in MHz) option controls the PCI bus speed, with a 150MHz maximum settable. The C.I.A.2 (CPU Intelligent Accelerator 2) setting controls GIGABYTE dynamic overclocking BIOS, with the Full Thrust option giving the highest performance. The CPU Clock Drive setting controls the CPU to Northbridge base clock driving control voltage, with a 1000mV maximum allowed. The PCI Express Clock Drive controls the Southbridge to Northbridge base clock driving control voltage, again with a maximum 1000mV allowed. The CPU Clock Skew option sets the CPU base clock delay, with a maximum of 750ps available delay, while the IOH Clock Skew sets the Northbridge clock delay, also settable to a 750ps maximum.
The Advanced DRAM Features submenu contains all system memory related timing and speed settings. The Performance Enhance setting controls internal chipset related performance settings, with the Extreme option giving the best overall performance gains. The Extreme Memory Profile, “X.M.P,” option allows for the BIOS to use the manufacturer profile data present on XMP type memory modules for greater overall system memory performance. The System Memory Multiplier “SPD” options controls the physical memory speed thru the use of multipliers, with the highest multiplier available being 18X. The actual memory speed is shown in the Memory Frequency (MHz) option, with the value shown equal to the Base Clock value multiplied by the Memory multiplier value.
The memory timing settings are shown on a per channel basis via the Channel A Timing Settings, Channel B Timing Settings, and Channel C Timing Settings submenus, with all submenus showing channel specific cloned settings. The memory timing settings available include the following: CAS latency; RAS to CAS delay (tRCD); RAS precharge delay (tRP); active to precharge delay (tRAS); row cycle time (tRC); RAS to RAS delay (tRRD); write to read delay (tWTR); write recovery time (tWR); row refresh cycle delay (tRFC); read to precharge delay (tRTP); four active window delay (tFAW); command rate; and asynchronous latency (Round Trip Latency).
The channel turnaround settings, which control read and write delay settings across DIMMs, are also broken down on a per channel basis via the Channel A Turnaround Settings, Channel B Turnaround Settings, and Channel C Turnaround Settings submenus. As with the channel specific timings menus, all channel specific turnaround settings submenus contain cloned settings. The following timing settings are configurable: write to read delay; read to write delay, read to read delay; and write to write delay. Note that all timing settings are broken down in to these same three categories: different DIMM modules (Different DIMMs); same memory chip placement between modules (On The Same Rank); and different memory chip placement between modules (Different Ranks).
The Advanced Voltage Control submenu contains all voltage related configurable settings for the board. The Load-Line Calibration setting configures the CPU vDROOP value, with the vDROOP voltage handled directly by the BIOS with this setting enabled. The CPU vCore setting controls the board CPU voltage, with a 1.90V maximum. The QPI/Vtt Voltage option controls the QuickPath Interconnect Link and UnCore clock voltage, with a 2.015V maximum available. The CPU PLL Voltage setting controls the voltage for the CPU power regulation circuitry, with an upper limit available of 2.52V. The base PCI-Express bus voltage is set via the PCIE option, with a 2.14V ceiling. The QPI DLL option regulates the voltage supplied to the QuickPath Interconnect power regulation circuitry, with a 1.60V maximum allowed. The chipset voltage is determined via 3 voltage settings, IOH Core with a 2.00V maximum, ICH I/0 with a 2.50V ceiling, and ICH Core with a 2.38V allowable setting. The DRAM voltage is set via the DRAM Voltage option, with a maximum of 2.60V allowed. Note that due to the fact that the memory controller is internal for the Core i7 processors, using more than 1.65V could cause permanent internal damage to your costly processor. The DRAM Data VRef. and DRAM Address VRef. options control the DRAM reference voltage settings for the board on a per channel basis, all settings having a 1.45V maximum. The DRAM Termination option controls the memory termination voltage with a 1.705V maximum settable.
The Hard Disk Boot Priority submenu, accessed from a link within the Advanced BIOS Features menu, displays all hard drive devices connected to the system at system boot time including properly detected USB 2.0 type devices.
The Integrated Peripherals menu contains numerous settings and submenus for configuring the board’s various integrated devices including the Intel ICH10R RAID controller, the GIGABYTE RAID controller, the Realtek GigE LAN controllers, the IEEE 1394 ports, the USB 2.0 ports, and the Realtek HD audio subsystem. The SATA RAID/AHCI Mode and SATA Port0-3 Native Mode settings control the ICH10R’s SATA port configuration, with the Intel boot BIOS showing with the SATA RAID/AHCI Mode option set to RAID and an active SATA device connected to one of the onboard ports. The Onboard SATA/ID Device and Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode settings configure the GIGABYTE controller based ports. The GIGABYTE controller SATA port mode options are listed separately within the Smart Backup submenu.
The GIGABYTE RAID controller allows for RAID 0 or RAID 1 arrays across SATA port pairs only, with ports 0 and 1 making up one pair and ports 2 and 3 making up the secondary pair. Each port pair has a specific settings menu listed under the Controller 0 and Controller 1 submenus from within the Smart Backup submenu. The individual Controller submenus contain further submenus. Using the Smart Backup Config submenu, there are options for setting the RAID array type and initializing the new array settings without the need for a separate boot BIOS related applet.
The PC Health Status submenu displays real-time status on all BIOS monitored voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. There are also rudimentary options for configuring device warnings based on temperature and fan speed, as well as a temperature based CPU fan controller.
The BIOS contains a built in flash utility named Q-Flash, which is accessible from the main menu by pressing the F8 key. The Q-Flash utility allows you to load and save BIOS images from/to a local hard drive or floppy device. I could not get the utility to read from a USB device unfortunately.
The BIOS also has profile saving and load capabilities. The BIOS profile save menu is accessed by pressing the F11 key from the main menu, with the option of creating up to 8 profiles as well as the capability to save to an attached drive device. The BIOS profile load menu is accessed by pressing the F12 key from the main menu. The load menu allows for loading of any previously saved BIOS profiles, as well as loading a profile from an attached drive device.