BIOS and overclocking
BIOS duty is handled by Phoenix AwardBIOS. Here is the main screen that will grab the attention of those who like to tinker with their settings.
The DRAM clock can be set to either 100 / 133 / 166 and 200MHz, thereby giving direct support for PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200 memory straight out-of-the-box, giving you a lot of flexibility in your memory choices.
DRAM timings are either set by SPD (Serial Presence Detect) or can be set manually. The above configuration of timings is what I used for testing (I used an Active to Precharge(Tras) of 5, though). You have the option of choosing a CL timing of 1.5. Unfortunately, my system wouldn't boot with such aggressive timings.
The current CPU voltage is always reported as 1.85v irrespective of what you set it at. The CPU voltage options are quite limited with only 0.1v either way as shown below.
AGP voltage could be manipulated from 1.5v - 1.8v in 0.1v increments and the CPU clock from 100MHz - 200MHz in one MHz increments. There was no Vmem voltage adjustment with this particular BIOS.
I had the option of enabling or disabling RAID but the sound chip could only be enabled / disabled by way of a jumper on the motherboard itself, strange.
The usual options were available for AGP manipulation, you can manually key in an AGP driving value. In testing, this made no discernable difference.
Other standard options were present and correct, too. The BIOS was generally good, let down by the lack of Vmem adjustment.
Overclocking
The P4X333 is specified to support the newer Northwood B processors, ones that run at 133FSB natively. I'm presently using a 1.6GHz Northwood A, reason being that it is a fantastic overclocker. It can run at 2480MHz (155FSB) at default voltage in my personal motherboard, the ABIT IT7. With this in mind, I thought that it was a given that it would operate at 133FSB flawlessly, and perhaps rival the 155FSB+ of the IT7.
For some reason that I still cannot fathom, the system would lock whilst displaying the initial BIOS screen at anything over 128FSB. I tried various memory combinations, relaxed all the timings ,and still couldn't boot in at over 128FSB. I tried various FSBs from 101 to 170, anything over 128 gave me no joy whatsoever. I believe this to be a BIOS issue and hope that it is resolved before it hits the street. This is hugely disappointing considering that the P4X333 is specified to operate at 133FSB by default for the new Northwood B processors.
