BIOS
The P9657AA features the AwardBIOS that allows for easy navigation and tweaking. The garish lettering at the top, which flashes like a bad Christmas decoration, is something to shield your eyes from, though.
The Fox Central Control Unit is where most of you will head on over to first. It's not as fine-tuneable as some other BIOSes we've seen, notably DFI and abit's, but the important parameters are covered, including basic memory timings and speed adjustments. The P9657AA offers a wide range of voltage and speed adjustments which we've listed below:
| Item | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| CPU bus frequency | 133MHz to 600MHz in 1MHz steps (200-600 for 1066MHz CPUs) |
| DRAM frequency/multis | DDR2 533/667/800MHz |
| CPU voltage | Default + 0.3V in 0.025V increments |
| DRAM voltage | 1.65V to 2.40V in 0.05V increments |
| PCI Express frequency | N/A |
| P965 MCH voltage | Default -0.12V/+0.24V |
| FSB voltage | N/A |
| ICH8R voltage | N/A |
| CPU boot FID adjust | Yes; depends on CPU |
| CPU boot VID adjust | Yes; depends on CPU |
| Intel Speedstep Control/EIST | Yes |
Noting the important details as far as enthusiasts are concerned, there's plenty of voltage headroom for both the CPU and DRAM but you cannot reduce the CPU's voltage below default. Helping overclocking matters is MCH voltage adjustment but the PCIe frequency is locked at to the default 100MHz. Interestingly, there's an option for a 'smooth overclock'. Toggling this made no difference to our overclocking tests, however.
The P965 chipset carries most of these features natively. Foxconn's added the JMicron hybrid controller and Marvell GigE LAN.
The CPU and two system fans can be set to spin at set percentages of maximum. Putting in a 130W TDP Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU highlighted Core 2 Quad compliance and a BIOS load temperature of <50C. We were able to run the reference cooler's fan at 70% during stability testing without the processor throttling.
