MSI X48 Platinum: Four PCI Express x16 Slots to go Please....

Interesting and Unusual BIOS Settings

The MSI X48 Platinum allows for a certain degree of automatic overclocking. The D.O.T. (Dynamic Overclocking Technology) setting provides a means for setting the upper limit of this feature, either a 1, 3, or 5% increase in CPU frequency during periods of higher loading. Disabling this setting permits manual overclocking via Front Side Bus (FSB) and multiplier modifications. Half-multiplier support is included for Intel's newest 45nm processors.

Available memory dividers are displayed in a slightly different manner than usual. These numbers correlate to 1:1, 6:5, 4:3, 3:2, 8:5, 5:3 and 2:1. Unfortunately, the only missing divider (5:4) is one of our favorites; hopefully MSI can work this into a future BIOS release.

Selecting "Advanced DRAM Configuration" leads to a page where manual values can be entered, overriding the memory's SPD settings. Command Rate is also selectable at 1N or 2N - we have found that DDR3 is much more forgiving than DDR2 when it comes to selecting 1N at higher speeds. We would like to see a few more of the most common memory timings available for adjustment - tRC (Row Cycle Time) for example. MSI assures us that customer satisfaction is an important aspect of their business model, and they are constantly working to improve their products. We are also told that this BIOS is very early and we can expect some substantial enhancements in the next release.

The X48 Platinum's use of a less traditional voltage monitor chip rendered CPU-Z incapable of reading actual CPU voltages in Windows. We did however check our processor's load voltages the old fashioned way, with a steady hand and a digital multimeter. Droop was not excessive and we found we could run just about the same VID settings with our QX9650 test processor as we could on any other board.

We were able to get away with leaving our "Memory Reference Voltage" on Auto (nominally one-half of memory voltage) but were forced to manually set the "CPU Reference Voltage" when working with our quad-core CPU. It appears as though the BIOS properly sets this voltage automatically when a dual-core CPU is installed, but it needs a little help with the QX9650. We used 0.82V with an "FSB Terminator Voltage" (VTT) of 1.30V - this being 63% of VTT. As you can see, the "CPU Reference Voltage" is really a single GTL setting in disguise. Without this change we were unable to press above about 360MHz FSB; afterwards we had no problems running 400MHz FSB.

As we mentioned before, higher "NB Voltage" settings has the effect of quickly causing instability. Switching to a more robust form of MCH cooling may help to alleviate this affect.

The in-BIOS hardware monitoring page is surprisingly good, although we would like to see NB voltage and memory voltage reported here. Those that do not have the ability to check these voltages on their own are usually comforted by the ability to easily verify these are where they think they should be. "System Temperature" is read out from somewhere near the PWM circuit and "CPU Temperature" is a reading from the processor's onboard temperature diode. Of these settings we were most intrigued by the one labeled "Efficiency". No doubt this refers to PWM efficiency but we have never seen this in a BIOS before.

The last page we want to showcase contains options for enabling or alternately disabling some of the onboard controllers. "Extra IDE/RAID Controller" is a reference to the Marvell RAID controller with RAID 0/1 support; settings for the ICH9R are contained under "On-Chip ATA Devices".