LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G review - BIOS
Author: Grga Curkovic
Date: 04 Feb 2007

Guys from DFI often surprise us with innovative BIOS design and loads of new options. They are often the first to introduce options that later become industry standards. This motherboard follows the foot steps of its predecessors and sets new standards in overclocking options. The BIOS looks pretty much standard except for the Genie BIOS section where all the overclocking options are hidden. The Genie BIOS page contains a bunch of options, mainly voltage related and two submenus, the Performance Options and NorthBridge ASIC CFG. The main Genie BIOS contains the following voltage options:

- CPU VID Control - 0.44375V to 1.6V
- CPU VID Special Add ? controls the percentage of voltage added to the the CPU VID ? 100% to 121.25%
- DDR2 RAM 1.8V Voltage ? 1.5V to 3V
- CPU VTT 1.2V Voltage ? the FSB voltage ? 1.21V to 1.59V
- NB Core 1.2V Voltage ? 1.3V to 2.18V
- NB PLL 1.8V Voltage ? 1.83V to 2.51V
- NB PLL 1.2V Voltage ? 1.21V to 1.46V
- NB PCI-E 1.2V Voltage ? 1.22V to 1.6V
- NB Core 1.2V Convert From ? 1.81V to 2.39V
- SB Core 1.2V Voltage ? 1.23V to 1.59V
- Clockgen Voltage ? 2.92V and 3.4V

The number of different voltages you can control is impressive, as is the range of the major voltages. The 3V DDR2 voltage is extremely high, and should be used with caution. This will probably be very useful when memory module makers come out with high voltage DDR2 modules. The CPU voltage can be set se high as 1.9V if you use 1.6V and then choose to add 121.25%. Is there any voltage that you can?t control through BIOS? That?s a good question; the answer is, probably not. But the overclocking options do not end here. The lower part of main Genie BIOS page contains GTL REF Voltage Control, CPU Core 1/2 GTL REF Volt, CPU Core 3/4 GTL REF Volt, North Bridge GTL REF Volt, CPU PLL Setting Override, PLL Override Loop Count, Conroe P-STATE Multiplier, C1E Function and CPU Clock Ratio. What sticks out are the GTL options. Signals use Gunning Transceiver Logic (GTL) in Front Side Bus of modern Intel processors. This technology brings many benefits, but they are outside the scope of this article. In Intel?s processors the reference voltage is set to 0.8V while the signals swing between 0.4V and 1.2V (being the default VTT Voltage). The receiver of the signal uses the GTL VVT Ref value to determine if the signal is logical 0 or 1. This board let?s you control this parameter which is extremely useful for overclocking. It is the first board to have this option in BIOS and enthusiasts will definitely welcome this because top overclockers have been modifying their hardware to gain control over GTL Reference voltage. The Performance Options sub page of Genie BIOS page reveals some neat options as well. In this page you can find the following options:

- Memory Clock Frequency ? controls the FSB/MEM divider (2:1, 8:5, 4:3, 1:1, 4:5, 2:3, 2:1)
- Control CPU Frequency ? Auto or Manual
- CPU Frequency ? if Control CPU Frequency is set to Manual you can set it here in range of 0 to 511 MHz
- NB FSB Strapping
- PCIE Overclock
- Software Reset Clockget ? if Enabled, helps recovering from bad overclocks
- Memory Overclocking ? Enabled or Disabled
- Overclock Frequency ? If Memory Overclocking is Enabled you can set the memory frequency in MHz here in steps of 3 MHz

These options are pretty also pretty much standard, but there is one thing that differentiates RD600 from any other chipset, and this board (being the only available board based on RD600 for Intel) than any other board. The memory controller is completely independent of the FSB. There are dividers you can use like on any other motherboard, but if you enable the Memory Overclocking option the memory bus becomes completely independent of FSB. This is a long awaited and appreciated option since it enables the users to get maximum performance of their memory and CPU independently, not search for a setup that works best within the given limits of dividers. Another great feature of this board is the fact that you can control a huge set of memory settings. The amount of available options is enormous and can be compared to DFI?s LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR. The last, but not the least option we want to mention is a well known feature of DFI called CMOS Reloaded. You can save 3 complete setups in the CMOS and recover them whenever you want. This is extremely useful since there are many bios clearings when you overclock.