BIOS
The BIOS that's more popular than any other makes another appearance on the ST61G4. Phoenix's AwardBIOS is customisable, easy to use and, subjectively speaking, better than the competing AMI variants that usually are found in ASUS and Albatron boards. Shuttle has decided to group all performance-related factors under the advanced chipset features section. Please note that the ST61G4 was manually flashed from to the latest BIOS. At the time of writing it was the FT615010Q, dated 13/11/03.
Multipliers from 12x - 16x are open on our semi-unlocked test 3.2GHz P4 (non-EE, sadly). The first surprise arrives in the form of poor overclocking options. The CPU's FSB can be raised from the standard 200MHz (assuming the use of the new HT-equipped 'C' variety) to only 215MHz, or +15Mhz as the BIOS puts it. That's either Shuttle playing the game safe or it not having much faith in the RS300 Northbridge to go much above default specifications. It'll certainly come as a blow to enthusiasts who wish to run their 2.4Cs at 250MHz FSB+. CPU voltage ranges from 0.825v - 1.5875v in 0.0125v increments. That, again, doesn't provide much scope above default voltages. DDR voltage is the only line that sees any real change. A maximum of 2.8v should allow you to tighten up the latencies somewhat.
The BIOS had a nasty habit of resetting inputted latencies back to default SPD values every so often, and it would absolutely refuse to run 2-2-2-6 settings, even with 2.8v. That goes in the face of other chipsets that have managed to run the same 2 modules of Corsair XMS3500C2 at 225MHz (2-2-2-6) with 2.8v. It appears as if the memory controller isn't too fond of low latency DRAM. The best we could do is shown above; 2-2-4-8. Memory frequencies range from synchronous to the CPU's FSB (1:1) to asynchronous (DDR333, 266 and 200), Using ATI's Unified Memory Architecture, the onboard graphics can take up to 128MB of system memory for their own use.
Voltage is adequate for the CPU but can dip as much as 0.1v for DDR. The RS300 chipset's temperature was consistently reported at anything between 60 - 85c, however it was barely warm to the touch. One of this BIOS' assets is the ability to control the speed of the CPU's fan. It can be set to ultra low, low, mid and full. Ultra-low in conjunction with the quiet PSU and noiseless onboard graphics creates a barely audible hum from 4-feet away. If quietness is a real aim, this package is pretty slick. We're concerned with the lack of FSB adjustment offered here. That could prove to be a large purchasing deterrent for enthusiasts in particular.
There's the usual features toggling screen and power management options that are endemic in each and every XPC BIOS. We've grown accustomed to having top-quality BIOSes in this small form factor. This one is middling at best, which is a bit of a letdown.
