![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , December 29, 2008
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution
The ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard has six PCIe x16 slots and delivers true x16 bandwidth for 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX, but does it work? Overall performance looks to rival that of the current reigning X58 chipset champs while delivering none of the features you don’t want.
BIOS
ASUS used an AMIBIOS style template for the P6T6 WS Revolution’s BIOS, with the BIOS version used in testing being 0208.
The Storage Configuration submenu, accessed from the link within the Main menu, contains settings for configuring the ICH10R controlled SATA ports. The SATA Configuration option determines the system port access type in conjunction with the Configure SATA as setting. With the Compatible mode setting selected for the SATA Configuration option, the system is restricted to accessing to a total of 4 SATA 2 devices. The Enhanced mode setting allows for use of 6 devices in standalone IDE, AHCI, or RAID mode, configured via the Configure SATA as option. This option becomes user configurable only when the SATA Configuration set to Enhanced mode. Note that the Intel RAID boot BIOS will only show with drives connected to the onboard ICH10R’s SATA 2 ports.
The Ai Tweaker menu contains numerous submenus and options directly controlling the system performance settings. The Ai Overclock Tuner option determines the level of user control over system configuration, with settings for BIOS controlled and manually controlled overclocking available. All available settings become user configurable with this option set to Manual. The DRAM O.C. Profile and eXtreme Memory Profile options set BIOS controlled memory voltage, speed and ratio settings. Note these options are mutually exclusive, showing when the tied setting is selected from the Ai Overclock Tuner option. The CPU Ratio Setting option configures CPU multiplier setting, which is used in determining the physical CPU speed and multiplied by BCLK Frequency setting. The BCLK Frequency setting controls the base clock frequency, with a maximum 500MHz setting available. Note that most other component frequencies are determined by the BCLK setting. The PCI-Express bus frequency is set via the PCIE Frequency option, with a maximum of 200MHz allowed. The board DRAM frequency is controlled via the DRAM Frequency setting, which itself contains a series of ratio options that change based on the current BCLK Frequency setting selected. The UCLK Frequency option controls the speed of the Uncore clock, which determines the speed of the link connecting the internal memory controller and the DDR3 DRAM modules. This link speed varies depending on the BCLK Frequency selected, with the settings shown based on BIOS controlled static ratios. The QPI Frequency setting controls the speed of the QuickPath Interconnect, which is similar in function to the HyperTransport bus found on other boards. Similar in nature to the UCLK Frequency setting, the QPI Frequency settings shown vary based on the BCLK Frequency setting selected, with the options shown representative of static BIOS controlled ratios.
The CPU Voltage option sets the base CPU voltage, with a maximum of 2.10V available with the CPU over volt jumper enabled. The CPU PLL Voltage options, with a maximum setting of 2.50V, controls the voltage supplied to the CPU power regulation circuitry. The QPI/DRAM Core Voltage option controls the voltage for the QuickPath Interconnect and Uncore buses, with a ceiling of 1.90V settable with the QPI over volt jumper enabled. The Northbridge chipset is split between the IOH Voltage and IOH PCIE Voltage settings, which have a 1.70V and 2.76V maximum respectively. Similarly, the Southbridge voltage is split between the ICH Voltage and ICH PCIE Voltage with 1.40V and 1.80V maximums. The DRAM Bus Voltage setting configures the base DRAM voltage, with a 2.46V allowed maximum when the DRAM over volt jumper is enabled. 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 REF Voltage and DRAM CTRL REF Voltage options control the memory reference voltage settings for the board on a per channel basis, with the settings shown corresponding to voltage ratios based on the base DRAM Bus Voltage setting. For all DRAM reference voltage settings, the maximum ratio value settable is 0.630x. The Load-Line Calibration option configures the CPU VDroop regulation, with the Enabled option allowing for more aggressive control. The CPU Differential Amplitude setting controls the CPU base clock driving control voltage, with a 1000mV maximum setting allowed. The CPU Clock Skew option sets the CPU base clock delay, with a maximum delay of 1500ps available. Similarly, the IOH Clock Skew sets the Northbridge clock delay also settable to a maximum 1500ps delay value.
The DRAM Timing Control submenu, accessed via the DRAM Timing Control link from within the Ai Tweaker menu, contains all configurable memory timing related settings, including the following: CAS latency; RAS to CAS delay; RAS precharge delay; active to precharge delay (DRAM RAS# ACT Time); RAS to RAS delay; row refresh cycle delay; write recovery delay; read to precharge delay; four activate window delay; write to read delay; command rate (DRAM Timing Mode); per channel latency; write to read delay across DIMMs; read to write delay across DIMMS; read to read delay across DIMMS; and write to write delay across DIMMS. The write to read delay across DIMMs, read to write delay across DIMMS, read to read delay across DIMMS, and write to write delay across DIMMS settings are broken in to three categories: different DIMM modules (DD); same memory chip placement between modules (SR); and different memory chip placement between modules (DR).
The Advanced menu contains submenus for configuring the onboard integrated devices.
The CPU Configuration submenu contains real-time statistics on the current CPU in use, in addition to internal CPU function settings. The user configurable CPU functions include the following: CPU multiplier (CPU Ratio Setting), C1E support, hardware prefetcher support, adjacent cache line prefetch support, Intel virtualization technology, CPU Thermal Module function (CPU TM Function), Execute Disable Bit, HyperThreading operation control, core operational controls (Active Processing Cores), A20M support, Intel SpeedStep support, Intel Turbo Mode support, and CPU idle C-state support. Note that the Turbo mode option only displays with SpeedStep enabled.
The Onboard Devices Configuration submenu contains several options for configuring the onboard integrated devices, including the Marvell eSATA controller, the Marvell SAS RAID controller, the Realtek GigE LAN controllers, and the ADI HD audio subsystem.
The USB Configuration submenu contains all settings for configuring the onboard USB ports. The USB Mass Storage Device Configuration link shows with an active USB drive device connected to the system. This submenu allows you to configure device specific options, including the device emulation settings.
The Advanced PCI/PnP Settings submenu contains the user configurable plug and play and PCI bus related configuration options. Unfortunately, ASUS chose to no allow direct manipulation of the IRQ interrupt or pool assignment related settings on this board.
The Hardware Monitor submenu, access from within the top level Power menu, displays real-time statistics on BIOS monitored fan speeds, temperate, and voltages. The CPU and Chassis fan headers can also be configured for BIOS controlled functioning via the respectively Q-Fan Control settings.
The Hard Disk Drives submenu, accessed from within the top level Boot menu, displays all hard drive devices connected to the system at system boot time including properly detected USB 2.0 type devices.
The Tools menu contains the proprietary ASUS BIOS utilities, including the EZFlash2 BIOS update utility, a BIOS profile storage mechanism, and configuration options for Express Gate. Express Gate is ASUS’ proprietary startup screen, which allows access to various applets without the need to access the system OS. The ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility is accessed via the ASUS EZ Flash 2 link in the Tool menu. The application allows you to update the system BIOS from any connected drive device, including properly detected USB 2.0 devices.
The O.C. Profile Configuration submenu allows for storage of 2 BIOS profiles, which are full snapshots of all BIOS settings at the time of profile creation. These profiles can be saved or loaded. The Start O.C. Profile option from within the submenu allows for file based storage of the current BIOS settings for storage. The interface is very similar in design to the EZ Flash 2 interface, with access to all attached system storage devices for save and load operations, including attached USB 2.0 devices.