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The BIOS
Ah that place of mystery, where one can tweak how the motherboard behaves...
That is, one can tweak it if the BIOS provides the capability to tweak.
Gigabyte BIOS's seem pretty vanilla, unless you know about pressing CTRL-F1 on the main BIOS page - that magic incantation unlocks additional BIOS parameters for your tweaking pleasure. Even without CTRL-F1, the M.I.T. (Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker) allows some control over clock speeds etc., however once you invoke CTRL-F1... you get a decently configurable BIOS.
Gigabyte marketing must be really happy with the 6-Quad name, as the BIOS splash page shows you the above screen.
Above you can see the main BIOS menu.
And here is the fun part - the M.I.T. menu.
This brings me to one of my pet peeves. This BIOS shows an offset to the "default" voltage... and it does not show you what the default voltage is! Why can't BIOS writers show you what voltage is the default voltage, and let you vary it?
I would also put the Spread Spectrum menu somewhere else, it really has little to do with tweaking.
I like the flexibility offered by linked and unlinked FSB/memory clocks, however I wish there was a greater selection of dividers.
I do like the BIOS showing the effective memory speed.
The memory timing screen offers decent tweaking capabilities, but I've seen other boards offer more.
Above you will find the pretty vanilla standard CMOS features configuration.
The sub-menu for each individual channels is pretty sparse.
The advanced features screen is pretty standard.
The advanced chipset features lets you control the HyperTransport speed between the North and South bridges; turn the multiplier down to 4x and disable LinkBoost for better overclocking.
PC Health Status at least shows us that the default Vddr is 1.8V - however it shows a useless "OK' for other voltages.
The integrated peripherals screen lets you disable unused peripherals.
And the PnP/PCI menu gives you some control over interrupts.
The power management screen is bog standard.
Ah that place of mystery, where one can tweak how the motherboard behaves...
That is, one can tweak it if the BIOS provides the capability to tweak.
Gigabyte BIOS's seem pretty vanilla, unless you know about pressing CTRL-F1 on the main BIOS page - that magic incantation unlocks additional BIOS parameters for your tweaking pleasure. Even without CTRL-F1, the M.I.T. (Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker) allows some control over clock speeds etc., however once you invoke CTRL-F1... you get a decently configurable BIOS.
Gigabyte marketing must be really happy with the 6-Quad name, as the BIOS splash page shows you the above screen.
Above you can see the main BIOS menu.
And here is the fun part - the M.I.T. menu.
This brings me to one of my pet peeves. This BIOS shows an offset to the "default" voltage... and it does not show you what the default voltage is! Why can't BIOS writers show you what voltage is the default voltage, and let you vary it?
I would also put the Spread Spectrum menu somewhere else, it really has little to do with tweaking.
I like the flexibility offered by linked and unlinked FSB/memory clocks, however I wish there was a greater selection of dividers.
I do like the BIOS showing the effective memory speed.
The memory timing screen offers decent tweaking capabilities, but I've seen other boards offer more.
Above you will find the pretty vanilla standard CMOS features configuration.
The sub-menu for each individual channels is pretty sparse.
The advanced features screen is pretty standard.
The advanced chipset features lets you control the HyperTransport speed between the North and South bridges; turn the multiplier down to 4x and disable LinkBoost for better overclocking.
PC Health Status at least shows us that the default Vddr is 1.8V - however it shows a useless "OK' for other voltages.
The integrated peripherals screen lets you disable unused peripherals.
And the PnP/PCI menu gives you some control over interrupts.
The power management screen is bog standard.
next: Test Setup & Benchmarks Used »
Micah had the idea of putting those copper motherboard standoffs into the X to raise it off the back of the board. It worked, although it does apply more pressure to the holes, as long as you are careful it *should* be ok.
The latest bios I see at the GA site is F3.
gh
I have since received a newer BIOS for the Gigabyte N680SLI, and if I obtain better results, I will update the review.
This message was edited by bhenning on Apr 26 2007.
And yes, I signed up to your forum just to comment on this review.