ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe - BIOS
ASUS use an AMI AWARD BIOS implementation for the A8N-SLI, as expected. I'll go through each of the main screens in turn.
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You can see the first BIOS screen, outlining your connected drives, the system time and whether you want to enable S.M.A.R.T. monitoring for your HDDs. You can see me running the A8N-SLI with a couple of HDDs and a DVD burner in the picture.
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The CPU Configuration screen leads to adjustment of the settings for the memory controller, holds the HTT multiplier and lets you turn Cool 'n' Quiet on and off. You can see me running the 2400MHz Athlon FX-53 in the system at 2600MHz. Unlocked multiplier's rule. You adjust that elsewhere though, in the JumperFree section.
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Sticking with the overclocked theme, you can see me in the JumperFree section manipulating the settings for an easy FX-55 emulation using the FX-53. In terms of voltage adjust, you've got up to 1.65V to play with for the CPU, and up to 3.0V on the memory (although it's out of shot).
Multiplier adjust is available in the correct directions for both Athlon 64 and Athlon FX, you can lock the PCI master clock to 33.33MHz, or to a divider off the CPU's HTT.
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The N.O.S. section lets you set a global multiplier for everything of up to 1.1X (10%), which you can then activate using software in Windows. For example, with an FX-53 and the 10% setting activated, turning on N.O.S. will boost dHTT to 220MHz, giving you 2640MHz at the stock multiplier of 12X, along with 220MHz memory clock. Useful for the novice tweaker that doesn't want to get his or her hands dirty.
Then you have settings for the NVIDIA RAID implementation, PEG Link which automatically overclocks your graphics card, toggle for SLI setup and the hardware monitor to check everything's O.K.
Overall
The above photographs and descriptions all apply to the 1003 BIOS release, which makes the A8N-SLI much easier to live with, tweak and generally enjoy. Prior BIOS revisions tended to bite you hard on the arse at some point, usually while playing games with SLI or overclocking.Overclocking with 1003 is also a lot more fruitful, too. I managed a none-too-shabby 270MHz (or so) dHTT at a HTT multi of 4X, with a memory clock of 270MHz too using some lax timings on a pair of Samsung TCCD sticks at 2.90V Vdimm.
It's a good BIOS, make sure you run it on your own A8N-SLI Deluxe. On to the DFI, which while based on the same core logic, is a much different proposition.
