![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, September 09, 2009
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard Review
When Intel launches a new processor ASUS is among the first companies with products ready to go that will support it. Among the first boards based on the Intel's new LGA1156 socket is the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe. This is a feature rich design based on the Intel P55 Express chipset, supporting Intel's new LGA 1156 Core i5 and Core i7 processors.
BIOS
As is the norm with ASUS, it choses the American Megatrends Inc. BIOS with the P7P55D Deluxe. BIOS DLX0013 was used for all testing and screenshots. It is the most current BIOS at the time of testing.
The BIOS is laid out by tabs or categories listed at the top. Each contains a host of sub menus and various options pertaining to each tab. From the main BIOS screen you can set the time and date, language, and storage configuration options. Those options are found in a sub menu.
The storage options there are for configuring the native chipset SATA ports. The other controllers are handled in the Advanced section. Also in the main screen is a system information menu.
Ai Tweaker is where the bulk of the interesting settings are. These are the settings for overclocking and general performance tuning. The AI Overclock Tuner is the standard auto overclocking function built into ASUS boards for some time. This board has another such utility in it as well. The OC Tuner Utility. This setting is the same thing as the Turbo V EVO automatic tuner. It's just the actual setting in the BIOS. Speedstep, TurboMode Tech, Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode is the setting that disables the EPU functions and provides full power to all 16+3 phases. This is of course desirable when overclocking.
General frequency settings can all be found here as well. There are quite a few voltage settings which can be adjusted. The BIOS does have limits which can be adjusted via dip switches on the board itself. The settings in BIOS are broad and cover voltage levels that are not generally considered to be safe. However if you are seriously hardcore and want to push your phase change unit, you have some options. DRAM Timing Control is accessed via a sub-menu as usual. Here all your CAS latencies and memory timings can be adjusted. The SPD settings are reported here which is nice. This allows you to see your base line and work from there. From this menu you can also adjust things like Load Line Calibration which is supposed to help with Vdroop. CPU and PCI-E spread spectrum settings are also adjustable at the bottom of this menu.
The Advanced menu shows CPU information initially. These values are informational and therefore non-adjustable. However toward the bottom of the menu you'll find several adjustable values all in the form of sub-menus. CPU configuration settings, Uncore Configuration, Onboard Devices Configuration and USB configuration. Also in the root of this menu are the Intel VT-d and T.Probe settings. VT-d is the directed I/O setting for virtualization and T.Probe is ASUS' feature for load balancing temperatures across the power phases. The CPU configuration sub-menu contains CPU ratio settings, C1E support, Hardware Prefetcher, Intel Virtualization, Execute Disable, etc. In the Uncore configuration all you'll find is PCI MMIO Allocation and memory remapping settings.
The Onboard Devices configuration menu is really self-explanatory. This allows for the configuration for all the integrated hardware. Network boot ROMs, network port enabling or disabling, enable or disabling of the onboard audio and most importantly, storage controller configuration for the JMicron JMB363 controller. Oddly the JMB322 controller is controlled somewhere else in the BIOS. The USB configuration menu controls USB legacy support and displays a list of attached devices such as mice or storage controllers. The Power menu contains all your ACPI and power management settings as the name would imply. It also has the Hardware Monitor sub-menus.
CPU and motherboard temperatures are displayed here. CPU fan speed and ASUS Q-Fan support is found here as well. Other fan headers are monitored along with voltages. The Boot Menu contains boot device and hard drive ordering. The Boot Settings Configuration sub-menu allows you to disable the full screen logo option and things like that. The Tools Menu is where things get somewhat interesting again. Here you can access the ASUS O.C. Profiles, AI Net 2, Drive XPert Configuration (essentially RAID control for the JMicron JMB322 controller), ASUS EZ-Flash 2 utility, Express Gate, and ID LED control. The O.C. Profile allows you to save or load overclocking profiles. AI Net 2 has been around for awhile and is basically a built in tester for your LAN ports. It allows you to test RJ-45 cables with it.
The Drive Xpert Configuration sub-menu is slightly confusing as it's essentially marketing fluff terminology for the JMicron controller. The ASUS EZ-Flash utility is of course for flashing the BIOS. This can be done from the hard drive, flash drives, or just about other data storage system. Express Gate is a somewhat new feature. It is basically a Linux boot feature allowing you to start up the system and get internet access without loading your main OS. ID LED control is for controlling the LEDs found on the board's surface. These are for a variety of purposes, CPU LED, DRAM, Boot Device LED, etc.
All in all the BIOS is well thought out and executed nicely. It doesn't have quite as many settings to adjust as I've seen on many of the X58 boards but it is certainly enough to get the job done for most people. Given this is a "mainstream" product less BIOS features are to be expected.