MSI X58M Motherboard Review :: BIOS and Overclocking

MSI uses a modified version of the American Megatrends AMIBIOS with their X58M motherboard. The main menu is split into Standard CMOS Features, Advanced BIOS Features, Integrated Peripherals, Power Management Setup, H/W Monitor, Green Power, Cell Menu, Overclocking Profile, and M-Flash. The Standard CMOS Features has the Date, Time, SATA devices installed, IDE devices and System information.

Advanced BIOS features are where you set up the Full Screen Logo Display, Quick Booting, Primary Graphics Adapter, CPU Features, Chipset Features Boot Sequence and Trusted Computing. CPU Features includes enabling Hyper-Threading, Execute Bit Support, C1E Support and Overspeed Protection. The Boot Sequence shows the first and boot from other device setting. Chipset Feature only shows High Precision Event Timer.

Integrated Peripherals is where you enable the USB Controller, the Legacy USB Device support the LAN Controller, LAN Option ROM, IEEE-1394 Controller, Extra RAID/IDE Controller, HD Audio controller, On-chip ATA Devices and I/O Devices. On-chip ATA Devices is where you set the PCI IDE BusMaster to enable/disable, enable the SATA controller on-chip and RAID Mode of that controller. I/O Devices is where you enable or disable the COM1 Port.

The Cell Menu is where most of the overclocking is done in the BIOS. The top of the screen has the current Core Frequency, Current DRAM Frequency, and current QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) frequency. Under that is the CPU Specifications menu which shows the various features of the currently installed CPU. Intel C-State sets the clock speed according to load. The Base Clock sets the frequency of the CPU. Intel Turbo Boost tech overclocks the CPU if certain conditions are met. Auto Overclock will let the system detect the FSB limit for overclocking automatically. Adjusted CPU Frequency is the result of the Base Clock multiplied by the multiplier. I was able to set the frequency using the Cell Menu to 200MHz for the Base Clock and 21 multiplier with an unlocked Core i7 920. The resultant 4.2GHz was totally stable without changing the voltages. Here's a chart of the various settings and ranges in the BIOS:

Setting	Range
Base Clock	133-400
Multiplier	12x-21x on Core i7 920
1N/2N Memory timing	1N, 2N, 3N
CAS Latency	6-12
tRCD	3-15 DRAM Clocks
tRP	3-15 DRAM Clocks
tRAS	9-23 DRAM Clocks
CPU Amplitude Control	700mV, 800mV, 900mV, 1000mV
PCI Express Amplitude Control	700mV, 800mV, 900mV, 1000mV
CPU Clock Skew	Normal 100ps-1500ps
IOH Clock Skew	Normal 100ps-1500ps
PCI Frequency	Auto, 37.5MHz 42.5Mhz
PCIE Frequency	100-200
NB Voltage	1.09-2.37V
IOH Voltage	0.70V-2.13V
DDR VREF CA CHA	0.624-0.910V
DDR VREF CA CHB	0.624-0.910V
DDR VREF CA CHC	0.624-0.910V
DDR VREF DQ CHA	0.624-0.910V
DDR VREF DQ CHB	0.624-0.910V
DDR VREF DQ CHA	0.624-0.910V

Bios Screenshots