Abit AW8

BIOS:

As with previous Abit motherboards, they chose to base the AW8 off the Phoenix AwardBIOS. Shipped with the motherboard was BIOS version 10, with 12 being the latest version at the time of publication. Due to some fairly significant changes in versions 11 and 12, we flashed to this latest version for testing. Like usual, the main BIOS pages are uGuru Utility, Standard CMOS Features, Advanced BIOS Features, Advanced Chipset Features, Integrated Peripherals, Power Management Setup, and PnP/PCI Configurations. Inside the uGuru Utility (v1.00) the available options are external clock, multiplier factor, estimated new CPU clock, N/B strap CPU as, DRAM spec, and estimated new DRAM clock. As far as the voltage controls go the CPU, DDR, MCH, and PCI-E can be adjusted. The CPU voltage can be adjusted from 1.3625V to 1.7125V while the DDR voltage ranges from 1.75V to 2.30V. Making up the Abit EQ interface in the BIOS are the following: Abit EQ Beep Control, Temperature Monitoring, Voltage Monitoring, Fan Speed Monitoring, and FanEQ Control. Displayed from the thermal monitoring page are the CPU, system, and PWM1-4. From the temperature, voltage, and fan speed displays, the low and high limits can be set, and once the sensor surpasses the limits the options are available to either shutdown or begin to beep. Outside of the uGuru Utility, which replaces Abit's SoftMenu, continues to be a wealth of the generic BIOS settings and Abit's other extras. As always, Abit manages to make the Phoenix BIOS packed full of useful options.