BIOS Setup

Soon after we started testing Intel DX38BT mainboard, a new BIOS version came out and we replaced the BIOS version 1016.1510 dating back to 10.16.07 with version 1217.1401 from 12.17.07. Although there was no built in BIOS reflashing utility and no floppy disk drive, the whole procedure was very simple. There are three different variants of the same BIOS version on the company web-site. You can reflash it using a CD disk, a USB-flash drive or directly from Windows. The last way was marked as preferable, so we decided to go with it. To perform the reflashing procedure you have to launch installation file, agree to the license agreement and then your system will reboot automatically, the BIOS will be reflashed, and next time you launch Windows OS you will receive a notification that BIOS has been successfully updated. As simple as that.

It is quite possible that Intel mainboard BIOS is developed by company’s own specialists or is based on AMI BIOS code. At least, the top menu where you can switch between Main, Advanced, Performance, Security, Power, Boot and Exit is very similar to that from AMI BIOS. The interface colors as well as the BIOS accessing are also the same.

When the system boot, you can press F2 to get into the Menu section.

Here you get all the info on the current BIOS version, CPU, system memory, can change the date and time.

Advanced section consists of several subsections. The first one is Boot Configuration.

This is pretty strange name for a subsection, where you can enable/disable keyboard Numlock and enable/disable fan rotation speed management. There are no detailed settings, everything is done on the software level, and Lowest Fan Speed parameter may be set to Slow or Off. In the first case if the temperature is low enough the fans will rotate slowly, and in the second case – they will shut down completely.

The contents of other subsections correspond to their actual names: Peripheral Configuration, Drive Configuration, etc. We, however, would like to draw your attention to Hardware Monitoring section.

This page looks pretty scarce; there are no settings over there. It serves solely informational purposes. The manufacturers would sometimes display some monitoring data in other sections for additional convenience. For example, the current processor Vcore, Vmem or Vchipset may be displayed in the section where these voltages are adjusted. It is not the case with Intel DX38BT mainboard, however, so Hardware Monitoring page contains the full list of parameters that can be adjusted in the BIOS. We could probably be pleased only with the fact that this board allows adjusting rotation speeds of four fans out of five that can be connected to it.

The next section is called Performance. It is actually the most interesting one from overclocking prospective. However, before you get to play with it you receive a heart-freezing warning about all the troubles you will be up to once you decide to get into the whole overclocking thing. They threaten you with loss of system stability, degradation, shortening of the hardware life span, physical damage, loss of data integrity and even performance drop! Well, I guess the guys who wrote this BIOS could probably be real good at writing thriller scripts.