About Technology

Bios Setup

by: Micro 2000 Lake

Changing the BIOS configuration is one of those things that novice computer users are sometimes warned against, as being only slightly less hazardous than tinkering with the Registry. It’s true that incorrect BIOS settings can keep a computer from functioning properly, but it’s also true that a competent technician needs to know how to configure the BIOS (without creating disaster), and that’s what this tech tip is about.

First we should clarify terms, because we are not actually changing the contents of the BIOS chip. The BIOS chip itself contains a program that is hard-wired in, and while it’s possible to ‘flash’ some BIOS chips, which electronically replaces the entire contents at once, it’s not possible to edit individual lines of the BIOS code in the chip. Unless it’s flashed, the BIOS will keep its contents intact essentially forever.

What we are really changing during a ‘BIOS setup’ are the contents of the CMOS chip. CMOS is a type of slow memory chip that requires very little power, usually supplied by a small, long-life battery. This makes it ideal to save information that might need to be changed occasionally but also needs to be safely stored while the computer is off, because the BIOS will use that information at boot-up. If you were to store a computer unplugged for a few years until the battery ran down, you would find that all of the data stored in the CMOS chip was gone.

Part of the programming stored in the BIOS is a routine that lets you edit the information in the CMOS chip, and that routine is commonly called the BIOS Setup program. You can access this program by hitting the correct key during the boot-up process. Unfortunately there is no standard for which key to press. One of my computers uses the Del key, and another one uses the F2 key. You have to read the screen prompts early in the boot process, looking for one that says “Press the x key for setup", or something similar. Then you need to press that key when it first appears, or soon after. By the time the prompt disappears, it’s definitely too late.

If you press the right key, and in time, the BIOS will discontinue booting and will open the BIOS setup program, which displays a series of menus and submenus for the various parameters that you can change. Because the operating system hasn’t loaded yet, there will be no fancy interface and no mouse control. Navigate the menus using the arrow keys, using Enter to select something and the Esc key to back up.

Although the navigation is fairly standard, every BIOS version will have a different menu setup and a different selection of items that can be edited. Two of the menu items are to exit the setup and save the changes, or to exit without saving the changes. When you do either of these, the boot-up process will continue where it left off.

Following is a sampling of the values that you can access and edit from the setup program. Keep in mind that any individual machine may have some of these and not others, and will probably have some options not listed here. Newer systems will generally have more options for configuration. They are also more likely to collect data automatically from the system hardware, in which case you should think twice before changing it. On older systems, it was often necessary to manually enter the configuration data when adding memory, peripheral devices etc.

Clock speeds – Some setups allow you to change just the master clock, and some let you tweak the clock speeds individually for the CPU, bus and RAM. This feature is loved by gamers who over-clock by jacking up the clock speeds, which is an excellent way to invite system errors, as well as voiding the warranty and possibly burning out your CPU chip.

Hard drive parameters – The cylinder head and sector values can be monitored, and sometimes edited. You can also monitor the primary/secondary and master/slave arrangement of the IDE drives.

Boot sequence – The usual sequence has the BIOS look for an operating system first at the floppy drive, then the hard drive and last at the CD-ROM drive, and the system will boot to the first OS it finds. This works well at the factory, but if you want to boot from a CD, for instance to run the Micro-Scope diagnostic, then the sequence needs to be changed to check the CD before the hard drive, which already has a resident OS.

ROM shadowing – RAM is faster than ROM, so copying ROM contents into RAM normally provides better performance. This option is enabled or disabled in BIOS setup.

Power management – Edit the conditions under which a system will go into hibernation, and the events that can wake it up again.

Caching – Caching can be enabled or disabled, for the CPU and sometimes for video RAM as well. One occasion when you might want to turn off CPU caching is during RAM testing. Some memory diagnostics do not flush the cache, so the test is actually looking at cache rather than RAM. For diagnostics that do flush the cache, disabling the cache will allow the tests to run faster.

Voltage control or monitoring – Some BIOS versions let you tweak the various system voltages. Some just let you monitor them, and some do neither. Like over-clocking, changing voltages is something that should be approached with caution.

Passwords – Some systems let you change the administrator and user passwords in the setup program. Some do not, and require you to ‘drain’ the CMOS by disconnecting or shorting across the battery before a new password can be entered. Of course, all of the other CMOS data will be deleted too. Yet another reason not to forget your password.

Date/time – The system’s RTC (Real-Time Clock) stores its values in CMOS, and is often incorporated into the same chip. The date/time values provide a reference for the OS and for many applications. Remember the Y2K hoopla a few years ago? Part of the problem was that many computers had ‘19’ hard-wired into the BIOS and only allowed you to edit the last two digits of the year.

Memory – Older systems sometimes required the user to enter the amount of memory the system was supposed to detect. Newer PCs will detect the amount of installed RAM automatically, and will let you view it but not always edit it.

PC Health – This is a monitor-only feature found in many new systems, which displays system and CPU temperature, fan speeds and sometimes other data, depending on the manufacturer. Whatever PC Health information is available will also be reported under the Utilities menu of the Micro-Scope program.

Well, that’s BIOS setup in a nutshell. There is one other thing that we should mention. Because computers have been known to fail on rare occasions, it can be quite handy to have the more critical CMOS information and settings written down somewhere on a piece of paper. And this paper record should be updated whenever major changes are being made to a system.

Disclaimer - The Micro 2000 Tech Tip is a free service providing information only. While we use reasonable care to see that this information is correct, we do not guarantee it for accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose. Micro 2000, Inc. shall not be liable for damages of any kind in connection with the use or misuse of this information.

No Comment | Posted in » BIOS setup, chip, CMOS, configuration, CPU chip    

AMD vs. Intel: Which Chip Offers More Bang for Your Buck in Gaming PCs?

by: Jordan Hall

Computer enthusiasts have long known of the ongoing rivalry between Intel, the processing giant, and Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD. Since the early nineties, Intel and AMD have vied for technical dominance in the computer hardware field and in relation to computer gaming. For many years, AMD was like the “kid brother" of Intel the latter held a seemingly insurmountable lead in terms of market share, and the former simply eked by and scrappily etched out a place in the industry for itself. Intel was also traditionally associated with more powerful chips while AMD came to symbolize greater value. Back in the nineties when clock speed meant everything, Intel’s Pentium III chip always managed to maintain a sizeable lead in terms of performance and speed over AMD’s Athlon offering. Product support also tended to lean decidedly in Intel’s favor largely due to their history of success, there were no shortage of computer manufacturers ready to do business with the company. AMD, meanwhile, enjoyed an almost cult-like following amongst computer enthusiasts who lauded its price-to-performance ratio.

Eventually, however, the raw power of a processor began to be less important than its overall performance, information processing ability, and power consumption. The landscape began to really shift in about 2000. That year, AMD announced and began to develop its 64-bit line of processors, Opteron and Athlon 64. The company essentially staked its future on these chip lines, and in 2003 they released to much acclaim. The balance of power had shifted decidedly in the processor market while Intel’s Pentium 4 chips struggled with power consumption and heat issues as they steadily increased in clock speed, AMD’s 64-bit offerings allowed consumers to take advantage of more powerful 64-bit code in their systems—including gaming systems. Whereas Intel enthusiasts could always point to the performance discrepancy between the two different types of chips, AMD quickly became the processor of choice for computer gaming and computer hardware enthusiasts. The processing power provided by the 64-bit AMD chips proved to be too great to pass up, and this was only reinforced in 2005 when the company released the first dual-core processors to the market. Since then, Intel has been playing catch-up in terms of hardware availability, and AMD’s market share has reached its highest point at roughly 20 percent, according to eWeek.com.

What are the Advantages of AMD Processors?

As the processing landscape has shifted towards AMD’s side, there are some key benefits of using AMD-based hardware that have been revealed. The first is obviously the pure power edge that AMD has attained. Tom’s Hardware (tomshardware.com) has long been regarded as a reliable authority in the field of computer hardware reviews. While Intel for years could always claim performance superiority over AMD at the high end, Tom’s reports that this is no longer the case. In conclusion to a comparison between AMD’s dual core Athlon FX-60 processor and Intel’s Pentium Extreme Edition, the reviewer writes, “With the exception of a few audio and video encoding benchmarks, the Athlon 64 FX-60 represents the new device to beat as far as performance goes, thanks to its two processing cores." Furthermore, the reviewer adds that the increased demands of running dual graphics cards configurations means that “this processor is a great choice for the best-possible 3D gaming experience." This status as the most powerful processor is reinforced by the fact that Alienware, renowned as the industry leader in terms of powerful custom computers, uses the FX-60 exclusively in its top-of-the-line Aurora ALX system.

Another advantage of AMD processors over Intel, at least for the time being, is the lower relative power consumption of their systems. According to Tom’s Hardware, AMD’s Turion 64 enjoys its status as the most efficient single core processor, and while Intel’s Core Duo is technically the most efficient dual core processor, the overall power efficiency of AMD systems offsets any advantage that the Core Duo might have. When you subtract the power draw of a graphics card, which can be massive, it remains clear that AMD processors just do their job in a more efficient manner.

So What about Intel?

None of this means that Intel processors should be completely disregarded, however. One key advantage that Intel maintains is in sheer numbers. Intel still maintains a roughly 80 percent share of the market today, and as such you are more likely to find a system sporting an Intel processor rather than its AMD counterpart. Furthermore, Intel’s long string of dominance ensures that there are no software-hardware compatibility issues as Intel is the accepted leader in the processor industry, companies base their compatibility around Intel processors first.

It’s not as if Intel is resting on their laurels, either. As has often happened during the rivalry between Intel and AMD, competition is breeding a new level of performance. Intel has recently shifted to a 65 nm processor core process, beating AMD to the punch in the process. The reduced core size allows for greater possibilities in terms of chip efficiency and power. Intel’s top-level chip is still more expensive than its AMD counterpart, however, perhaps due to the relative newness of the 65 nm process.

So Which Chip Should you Buy for Your Gaming Computer?

All of these technical comparisons are well and good, but they don’t answer the fundamental question: which chip is best for computer gaming systems? Though they continue to use the 90 nm core process for the time being, AMD processors still represent the best “bang for your buck." AMD’s highest-end chips are still priced lower than their Intel counterparts, and the performance numbers available for them don’t lie. Furthermore, AMD-based systems are more power-efficient in general, and certain technologies allow for technical innovation. nVidia’s nForce line of motherboards, for example, is just on the verge of achieving steady dual-channel DDR2-667 memory support for Athlon 64 FX2 dual core chips. What this means for the consumer is that the memory will operate faster, with a higher bandwidth, and in greater harmony with the processor than ever before.

No Comment | Posted in » AMD, chip, gaming, Intel, processor