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Abit decided to use the Phoenix Award BIOS system for the IN9 32X-MAX motherboard. Quite well expected as Abit has been sticking with the Phoenix Award system for some time now. And I happen to quite like the Award system simply for the fact that it feels so much cleaner and easier to navigate than the AMI BIOS system. So now that we have that little introduction out of the way, lets look at the BIOS in some greater depth and detail.

Verbose boot screen goes 'Yawn...'.

Graphical boot screen shouts 'Look out!', it's a metal horse, or a techno dragon, or something. Way cooler than text.

The intro screen is pretty simple, and the white text against the black background is incredibly easy on the eyes. We can also see at the bottom of the screen shot that our BIOS hasn't detected any LinkBoost capable cards installed, nor has it detected any SLI-Ready memory modules. The LinkBoost feature is something I would more than likely cover in a video card article, so we won't be testing it here. The SLI EPP memory would also fall under the guise of a memory review, but I'll touch on it briefly.

SLI-Ready EPP (Enhanced Profile Protocol) is an extension of the memory that stores extra information for the module inserted. Every has some ROM on it to hold simple figures, such as SPD timings, but EPP relies on extra memory ROM to house more settings for that module. These extra settings would include the optimal operating voltage, additional SPD timings and speed ratings, in addition to one click BIOS overclocking for the memory modules inserted. I considered trying out some of our EPP SLI-Ready memory on the Abit In9 32X-MAX motherboard, but what it offers isn't anything a patient overclocker couldn't accomplish themselves. Yes, it's a nice new feature. No, it's not a revolution in PC memory technology. But just in case you're interested, Neoseeker does have a very notable EPP SLI-Ready module reviewed, that in the form of the Corsair DOMINATOR XMS2-PC8888. Definitely worth a read.

Our first stop is the OC Guru page. It's here where we can set FSB speeds, CPU multipliers, voltage settings and the like. For our FSB frequency we can pick any whole number in MHz between 400 and 3000. As for CPU multipliers, since we are using an E6400, we only have 6, 7, and 8 to choose from. The DDR2 speeds can range from 400 MHz up to 1400 MHz. The NB PCI-e clock can range from 100 MHz to 200 MHz in 1 MHz increments. Same with the SB PCI-e clock speeds. The SPP<->MCP Reference clock runs from 200MHz up to a ceiling of 500 MHz in .5 MHz steps. A good range of frequencies for these settings. Or you could always opt for the Auto settings.

Located in the same directory as the OC Guru is the Abit EQ. This is just a section for simple things such as temperature monitoring, fan speed control, and voltage monitoring. But there's also a little something to take advantage of those surface mounted LEDs on the motherboard that manufacturers are using nowadays.

The voltage monitoring is nice and does give a wide range of voltage readings.

As for the Voltage Control Settings, that section an be accessed from the OC Guru menu. There's a number of settings and ranges available, so I'll put forth a brief list of each and their respective voltage ranges.