BIOS Setup

The abit IX38 QuadGT mainboard sample we received for our tests featured a BIOS version 1.1 dating back to October 2007. abit doesn’t have a convenient built-in utility for easy BIOS reflashing, like the solutions from ASUS or Gigabyte. We didn’t find any appropriate utilities on their web-site as well as on the bundled CD disk that is why we had to resort to the good old-fashioned way of reflashing the newest BIOS version 1.2 from the floppy disk. However, later on we noticed that during abit μGuru installation you also get BlackBox and Flash Menu utilities, so don’t stress if you have no FDD.

abit IX38 QuadGT mainboard BIOS is based on a highly functional Phoenix-Award micro-code that we know very well from the previous abit mainboards.

By pressing F6 you can save the current settings in the memory. You can save the total of five profiles and name each one of them. By pressing F7 you can load the chosen profile instead of changing all the BIOS parameters one by one manually.

Most overclocking related features are gathered in μGuru Utility section. The first page you get to is called OC Guru:

By default all CPU and memory related parameters are set automatically, but we can select User Define mode I order to change the FSB frequency in the interval from 133MHz to 750MHz with 1MHz increment or change the processor clock frequency multiplier. In this case the Estimated New CPU Clock string will report the resulting CPU frequency. PCI Express Clock parameter allows changing the PCI-E bus frequency from 100MHz to 200MHz with 1MHz increment. The desired memory frequency can be selected from the drop down list of CPU:DRAM dividers. The resulting memory clock that depends on the divider and the current FSB frequency will be displayed in brackets.

To adjust voltages we have to go to the Voltages Control page:

It is not very convenient that the processor Vcore has to be set using two different parameters. It could result from the use of a digital processor voltage regulator. CPU Core Voltage VID can be adjusted from 0.8V to 1.6V with 0.0125V increment. As for the CPU Core Voltage Offset parameter, on many other mainboards it allows increasing the processor Vcore by a specified value. However, on abit IX38 QuadGT you get access to a long list of voltages up to 0.57V with 0.01V increment. Unlike some other mainboard makers, abit takes good care of their users so you will not have to add the values manually: the resulting voltage will be displayed in Target CPU Core Voltage field.

Other voltages that can be adjusted on abit IX38 QuadGT mainboard are also quite numerous and include the following parameters and supported intervals:

• DDR2 Voltage: 1.8V-3.0V with 0.025V increment;
• CPU VTT Voltage: 1.2V-1.6V with 0.01V increment;
• MCH 1.25V Voltage: 1.25V-1.9V with 0.01V increment;
• ICH 1.05V Voltage: 1.05V-1.5V with 0.01V increment;
• ICHIO 1.5V Voltage: 1.5V-2.0V with 0.01V increment.

Once we adjusted frequencies and voltages we can immediately check if the selected values are operational since abit IX38 QuadGT mainboard can overclock without leaving the BIOS Setup. By pressing F8 we enable OC On The Fly. The mainboard uses all new BIOS settings such as voltages and frequencies, and if it didn’t hang during this quick check-up, then it may be a good idea to reboot with these settings. This saves a lot of time on numerous failed restarts, simplifies and speeds up the search for optimal BIOS settings.