BIOS
The ASUS Springdale follows on from the Canterwood version by specifying an AMI BIOS. The main tinkering screen is detailed below.
ASUS' Ai feature automatically applies what it thinks are the best settings when overclocking. Options are +5%, +10%, +20%, and +30%. Memory timings are altered to best fit the overclock, hence the Ai naming. Enthusiasts will want to manually define their settings and ASUS allow you to do so. The CPU's FSB is adjustable from 100-400FSB in 1MHz increments and the AGP/PCI busses can either be locked to the default 66.66/33.33 or increased to either 72/36 or to 82/41. The latter frequencies should only be used when overclocking. The last thing you want is data corruption from a high PCI frequency.
ASUS almost redeem their 1.6v VCore limitation by adding a Vcore offset (gain) of 0.1v. Under heavy OS load, though, the maximum 1.7v drops to around 1.645v. Still, that's not too shabby for most air-cooled CPUs and it managed to push our 3.0C to 3.5GHz+ using reasonably quiet air cooling. Similarly, the 2.85v VDDR should be ample for most. This appeared to be stable during load. Toggling 'Performance Mode' from the default Auto to either Standard or Performance gave little in the way of performance increase; it only served to destabilise the board.
The usual timing are present. The most interesting aspect is the performance when the settings are at the default FSB (200) and SPD memory timings. Let's just say that you'll be in for a shock in the formal benchmarks section, I certainly was.
Jumperless, as usual now. It's a little ironic that two VIA controllers host both the FireWire and IDE RAID functions. It's all intuitively laid out.
On-board storage is well catered for in BIOS. The ICH5/R allows you to dictate just how either P-ATA or S-ATA interact with your setup. S-ATA RAID is one of the more notable features of the Canterwood chipset, so it's pleasing to see it on the cheaper Springdale variant.
ASUS' BIOS temperature seemed a little low in comparison to other boards'. Their Q-Fan technology is a nice touch if, like me, you like to minimise the noise from your PC. You can manually set the fan's ratio from 11/16 to 16/16. The lower the ratio, the lower the sound, obviously.
Subjectively speaking, ASUS' BIOSes never appealed to us at Hexus. However, after toggling about with this and the Canterwood version, it's perfectly functional.
