![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , September 03, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
EVGA X58 SLI Classified
EVGA decided to take the Intel camp by storm with its introduction of the X58 SLI Classified on to the Core i7 scene. Boasting a vast array of overclocking features and hardware optimizations, this could very well be the board to beat…
BIOS
EVGA chose to go with a Phoenix AWARD BIOS style template for the X58 SLI Classified, with version e759S21H shown below and used in testing.
The Advance BIOS Features menu contains boot related configuration settings, including those for hard drive access order in the Hard Disk Boot Priority Submenu. USB 2.0 devices properly connected and detected by the system at initialization time will show in this list as viable boot devices as well.
The Integrated peripherals menu contains submenus with settings for configuring the various onboard devices.
The Onboard PATA/SATA Device submenu houses configuration settings for the onboard SATA 2 and IDE ports. The ICH10R SATA 2 ports are configured via the SATA Mode setting, while the JMicron JMB362 and JMB363 ports are configured through their respective named settings. Note that only the SATA 2 ports on the ICH10R and JMicron JMB263 controllers can be set for RAID operation. The respective RAID boot BIOSes for each of the controllers show on system startup with RAID selected and hard disk devices connected to the controlled ports.
The Onboard Device submenu houses all settings for configuring the various integrated devices. The configurable devices included the Realtek GigE LAN controllers, the IEEE 1394 controller, and the Realtek HD audio subsystem. When enabled, the P80 Show CPU Temp. option forces the onboard diagnostic LED display as well as the display integrated in to the EVGA Control Panel device to show the current CPU temperature after system post has completed.
The USB Device Setting submenu contains all USB device related configuration options, with device specific options showing under the *** USB Mass Storage Device Boot Setting *** section when a USB 2.0 device is properly connected and detected by the system. The settings contained in this lower section control device specific emulation options.
The PnP/PCI Configurations menu contains settings for configuring the specific device interrupt settings for the BIOS. In addition, you can configure the pool setting for the specific IRQs via the IRQ Resources submenu with the Resources Controlled By option set to Manual.
The PC Health Status menu displays real-time statistics on all BIOS monitored system voltages, temperatures and connected fan speeds. In addition, the SmartFan Function submenu allows for manual and threshold based fan speed configuration on a per fan header basis. Threshold fan speed operation is based on a selected temperature and fan speed percentage, will manual operation is based on a statically set speed percentage.
The Frequency/Voltage Control submenu contains settings and submenus controlling all user configurable bus speeds, voltages, CPU settings, and memory timing settings. The Dummy O.C setting allows for BIOS controlled overclocking via predetermined speed settings. The Extreme Cooling option can be used to stabilize CPU temperature reading ability for sub-zero temperature operation. The CPU Clock Ratio sets the base CPU multiplier, with the CPU speed determined when this setting is multiplied by the CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) option. The CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) option controls the board base clock setting, with a 500MHz maximum base clock speed settable. Note that all system bus and device speeds, with the exception of the PCI bus, are configured via ratios and multipliers based on this setting. The MCH Strap setting allows you to force the board to use memory ratios based on the speed selected rather than automatically determining the memory ratios based on the base clock setting. The CPU Uncore Frequency(Mhz) configures the bus speed for the Uncore bus connecting the internal memory controller to the DDR3 modules, with a maximum 60X multiplier setting available. The CPU Clock Skew setting allows for setting a clock delay between the CPU and Northbridge chipset bus clock speeds. The PCIE Frequency(Mhz) option is used to independently set the speed for the PCI Express bus, with a maximum allowable speed of 140MHz. The BIOS also allows for storage and retrieval of up to 10 profile slots. These profiles only store settings contained within the Frequency/Voltage Control menu and submenus though.
The Memory Feature submenu houses all user configurable memory timing related options. The Memory SPD setting allows for the use of factory configured XMP settings for you memory modules. The Memory Frequency setting controls the system memory speed based on ratio settings of base clock to memory speed, with the largest ratio available of 2:30. The following options become accessible with the Memory Control Setting set to Enabled: memory interleave; Rank Interleave; CAS latency (tCL); RAS to CAS delay (tRCD); RAS precharge delay (tRP); active to precharge delay (tRAS); row refresh cycle delay (tRFC); command rate; RAS to RAS delay (tRRD); four activate window delay (tFAW); read to precharge delay (tRTP); write recovery delay (tWR); round trip latency; write to read delay across DIMMs (txxWrTRd); read to write delay across DIMMS (txxRdTWr); read to read delay across DIMMS (txxRdTRd); and write to write delay across DIMMS (txxWrTWr). 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, with the category labels taking the place of the xx in the setting name: different DIMM modules (dd); same memory chip placement between modules (sr); and different memory chip placement between modules (dr).
The Voltage Control submenu contains all user configurable voltage related settings for the board. The EVGA VDroop Control option controls the CPU vDroop regulation, with the Enabled option allowing for direct BIOS regulation of the voltage. The base CPU voltage can be set to a maximum of 2.24V via the CPU VCore setting. The CPU PLL VCore option configures the voltage provide to the CPU power regulation circuitry, with a 2.70V maximum settable. The IOH PLL VCore setting controls the Uncore bus voltage, with a 2.70V ceiling, while the QuickPath Interconnect bus voltage is set via the QPI PLL VCore setting with a 1.875V maximum. The DIMM Voltage option controls the DDR3 module voltage, with an impressive 2.29V maximum allowed. The Northbridge chipset voltage is configured via the IOH VCore setting, with a 1.875V maximum, with the Southbridge chipset voltage is controlled through the ICH VCore option, with a 1.825V ceiling. The PCI Express bus voltage is set using the IOH/ICH I/O Voltage option, with a 2.275V maximum. The NF200 Voltage setting controls the NVIDIA video bridge chip voltage, with a 2.70V ceiling settable.
The CPU Feature submenu houses all CPU related functionality settings, including: SpeedStep, processor turbo mode, C1E support, Execute Disable Bit, Intel virtualization technology, HyperThreading operation control, and core operational controls (Active Processing Cores). The QPI labeled settings allow for direct manual control of the QuickPath Interconnect bus speed.