FIC AZ11E Socket-A KT133 (686B) ATX

FIC's NOVUS II

FIC is putting more and more emphasis on the software bundled with the motherboard. They developed what they called the NOVUS II, a combination of hardware monitoring and software utilities. NOVUS II consists of BIOS Guardian, Easy Key, Overclock Partner, Clockometer, LogoGenie, and Audio Alert II. BIOS Guardian is designed to protect the BIOS from virus attacks. Easy Key provides a set of hot keys / shortcuts to jump to specific areas of the BIOS. Overclock Partner allows you to revert the BIOS to default settings when an overclocking attempt fails and the machine refuses to boot.

LogoGenie allows users to put a 640x464x16 image on the screen in place of the standard Award BIOS POST screen. Users are leave with the option to hit the tab key to see the original POST screen. While this feature is probably not that useful for most AnandTech readers, it is very useful for OEM builders where they can customize their systems that much more.

The Clockometer is something similar to the SoftFSB, which allows you to change FSB speeds from within Windows 98. It does not offer any additional features over the BIOS, but it does provide another option for users that are not entirely comfortable with playing around in the BIOS. At this stage, the software only supports Windows 98, so Windows NT/2000 and non-Windows users will not be able to take advantage of it.

Motherboards manufacturers are rapidly improving the way to inform you of potential problems. In the past users could hear the beep code. Later on there were diagnostic LED's. Now manufacturers are starting to use voices to inform users. FIC demonstrated Audio Alert II at last year's Comdex, which uses voices coming through the external speakers to let users know that memory, CPU, or video has not been detected after power on. With our evaluation AZ11E, FIC actually included the optional daughter board module, which is required for the Audio Alert II to function. There is also software where users can record their own voice or greetings and save them to the flash memory.

Beside the NOVUS II utilities, FIC also includes Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Ghost, and Norton Virtual Drive. Norton Anti-Virus is great virus-scan software. Norton Ghost helps duplicate data from one hard drive to another, which can ease the process of upgrading greatly. Norton Virtual Drive attempts to improve CDROM performance by using hard drive space as a big cache. The manual does not contain much information on how to install the board, but is otherwise pretty good for experienced users, and includes information on all connectors as well as the various BIOS settings.