BIOS Interface

ASUS has integrated a number of features into the A8R32-MVP Deluxe’s BIOS that should appeal to hardware enthusiasts and the overclocking crowd. HyperTranspot speeds ranging from 200MHz-400MHz are available in 1MHz increments, while PCI-E settings from 100-150MHz are also selectable within BIOS, also in increments of 1MHz.

For overclocking Athlon 64 FX processors, ASUS provides multiplier options ranging from 4.0x to 25.5 in 0.5x increments, while ASUS also provides BIOS settings for running the memory bus asynchronously. Clocks can be locked at 100, 133, 166, 183, 200, 216, 233, or 250MHz on the memory bus.

ASUS provides a wealth of options for fine-tuning memory performance, not only can you set the clock speed, but timings can be tweaked to your heart’s content as well. We’re not just talking basic settings like CAS Latency, command rate, TRAS, TRP, and TRCD either, ASUS provides the entire gamut of memory timings to adjust and tweak. ASUS even provides a new feature known as AI Clock Skew. With this feature the clock signal of both memory channels can be adjusted by end users to provide enough setup time to hit just the right memory speed with complete stability (the setup time is the amount of time that the chipset needs to prepare to receive the data read from memory). ASUS provides settings that allow end users to adjust the clock signal manually, or if you’d rather not touch it, “auto” and “normal” options are available within BIOS as well. To improve your chances of overclocking at higher memory speeds, you may want to delay the DDR clock skew, particularly if you intend on using 1T memory timing.


In terms of voltages, the results are a little more mixed. While ASUS provides a nice range of options for adjusting memory voltage (from 2.6V-3.2V in increments of 0.05V) and even provides voltage adjustment for the chipset’s North Bridge, PCI Express, and HyperTransport (1.2V, 1.3V, 1.4V, and 1.5V for all three components), as well as South Bridge over-voltage, ASUS only provides CPU voltages ranging up to 1.4V in 0.025V increments. Considering that the ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe’s predecessor, the original A8R-MVP Deluxe provided CPU voltage options of up to 1.55V, many enthusiasts may consider this 1.4V limitation a step backwards (hopefully ASUS will address this in a future BIOS update). UPDATE 3/7/06: ASUS actually provides CPU voltage options up to 1.6V on "E"-stepping Athlon 64 CPUs via their over-voltage BIOS setting. Therefore the previous statement has already been addressed.


For inexperienced users who are new to overclocking, ASUS provides presets that will automatically overclock your system based on percentage, this is accomplished with ASUS’ AI Overclocking feature. Inside AI Overclocking are a range of settings. If you want to play it safe, you can overclock your system by 3%, 5%, or 10%. If your system still runs fine at 10% overclock, you can then crank up AI Overclocking higher as percentages of 15%, 20, and 30% (max) are also available. With A.I. N.O.S., the motherboard will automatically overclock the processor a given percentage once the CPU is under load (say for instance, gaming), returning the CPU to stock speeds once you’re finished. Here ASUS offers settings of 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%, 15%, and 20%.

Another feature that ASUS provides that has drawn a little controversy in the past is called PEG Link. Once PEG Link turned on, PEG Link automatically adjusts the graphics core and memory speeds of certain graphics cards automatically. ASUS doesn’t provide a lot of options for PEG Link, just settings of “auto, disabled, normal, fast, faster”, so most enthusiasts will probably want to turn this feature off and overclock their graphics card manually with their favorite tool of choice, whether its ATI Tool, RivaTuner, Coolbits, or some other method.

Overclocking

During our RD580 briefing, we were explicitly told that the chipset was overbuilt specifically for overclocking. With this in mind we were eager to see how high we could push our A8R32-MVP Deluxe motherboard, and we’re happy to say that ASUS didn’t disappoint. We were able to hit HyperTransport speeds of up to 334MHz without any problems. That’s an overclock of just over 40%! Beyond that speed we’d run into BSODs and other errors in Windows XP. This overclock was achieved with 100% stock components (right down to AMD’s reference design heatsink) and no additional system fans blowing cool air on the motherboard or its components, perhaps with third-party aftermarket cooling on the chipset and a case fan or two we could have gone even further.