- Oct 9, 2002
- 28,298
- 1,235
- 136
I've just rebuilt my system and I'd like know how to configure some of the more cryptic options in my CMOS Setup utility. So, here goes:
CPU
AMD Athlon XP 2000
Hard Disk Drive
Western Digital WD400JB
Video Card
PNY Verto GeForce4 Ti4200 with AGP 8x (NVIDIA)
Audio
NVIDIA NFORCE-2
Advanced Bios Setup
APIC Function - Enabled
-?
MPS Table Version - 1.4
-?
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. - Disabled
-I've heard that this can detect a cascading HD failure. In my experience, a SMART error usually appears when it's too late to recover *anything* from a drive. Does SMART affect performance? Is this an older standard that has been replaced by a more-modern technology?
Video BIOS Cacheable - Disabled
-My old books used to recommend shadowing any BIOS ROM. However, I think I've heard that it would be a waste of memory now that bus speeds are vastly improved. Opinions? Benchmarks? Please?
Advanced Chipset Features
System BIOS Cacheable - Disabled
-See comment from "Video BIOS Cacheable"
Video RAM Cacheable - Enabled
-I think that this has something to do with the integrated NVIDIA IGP/GPU. The BIOS description says nothing. Does this option reserve system memory for the integrated video chipset (which is not in-use)? Even if it automatically knows to not allocate memory, it might be a waste of resources to let it auto-detect. Am I wrong about the function of this option?
AGP Aperature Size - 128M
-Not sure how this affects performance. Is there really a reason to have this option?
Integrated Peripherals
Init Display First
-Does it make sense to leave PCI selected instead of AGP? I think that this option is only provided for emergency situations, when a PCI card is used as a replacement for a non-functioning AGP card/bus.
IDE Function Setup
Primary Master PIO
Primary Slave PIO
Primary Master UDMA
Primary Slave UDMA
IDE Prefetch Mode - Enabled
IDE DMA Transfer access - Disabled
^What to do with these? Why are these options available to the user?
IDE HDD Block Mode - Enabled
-This is another one that sounds like a legacy feature. How does this affect the performance of a modern drive?
Onboard Device
AC97 Audio - Auto
-The NVIDIA software seems to have full control of the audio in my system, including the analog connectors. What does AC97 audio have to do with this system?
MC97 Modem - Auto
-I have no modem connector on my motherboard, I do not use a modem, and I don't use the CNR slot. Is it wasting resources to leave "auto" selected instead of "disabled"? I don't see a modem in the WinXP Device Manager, so I assume that it is disabled.
SuperIO Device
Onboard FDC Controller - Disabled
-I don't have a floppy drive. Does it save resources to disable a legacy device like this? I would assume that most operating systems won't use the resources anyway. I'm not sure if the processor continually checks un-assigned IRQ's or not, so I'm not sure if it will help performance to disable the FDC.
UART Mode Select - Normal
-Just wondering about this one. I know what the UART chipset does; but what does the "ASKIR" mode do?
Parallel Port Mode - SPP
-I have some legacy hardware (2 different N64 RAM-based cartridge emulators for game backup and development, 1 Game Boy Flash-memory based cartridge writer for backup/development). These devices use different modes and are extremely picky. I don't have the ability to test (requires Win98), but does the ECP+SPP mode present any compatibility problems with bi-directional devices?
EPP Mode - 1.7
-What does this option do? How does it affect compatibility? Why is "1.7" the default value instead of "1.9"?
ECP Mode Use DMA - 3
-Other option is "1". Does it matter which DMA is used?
Power Managemen Setup
Sleep State - S1(POS)
-I'm not using an old hardware internally. Is there any reason to not set this option to "S3(STR)"?
Video Off Method - DPMS Support
-Other options are "Blank Screen" and "V/H SYNC+Blank". I assume that "V/H Synch + blank" is for displays that don't have any type of sleep mode. I'll just leave this option at "DPMS Support", which I assume is a power-management standard.
PnP/PCI Settings
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop - Disabled
-What is this used for? I that it is a legacy option.
PCI Slot1/4 IRQ Priority - Auto
PCI Slot2/5 IRQ Priority - Auto
PCI Slot3 IRQ Priority - Auto
^Huh? Is there any way to tweak performance by fiddling with this? It sounds like it would be a waste of time. Why are these options provided to the user?
Frequency/Voltage Control
AGP Clock Control - Default
_Value - 66
^Optimal?
CPU Ratio - By H/W
-"ratio"?
CPU Vcore Select - By H/W
-Voltage, perhaps?
PCI Clock Auto Detect - Enabled
-Are there really different standard for PCI-bus timing?
CPU
AMD Athlon XP 2000
Hard Disk Drive
Western Digital WD400JB
Video Card
PNY Verto GeForce4 Ti4200 with AGP 8x (NVIDIA)
Audio
NVIDIA NFORCE-2
Advanced Bios Setup
APIC Function - Enabled
-?
MPS Table Version - 1.4
-?
Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. - Disabled
-I've heard that this can detect a cascading HD failure. In my experience, a SMART error usually appears when it's too late to recover *anything* from a drive. Does SMART affect performance? Is this an older standard that has been replaced by a more-modern technology?
Video BIOS Cacheable - Disabled
-My old books used to recommend shadowing any BIOS ROM. However, I think I've heard that it would be a waste of memory now that bus speeds are vastly improved. Opinions? Benchmarks? Please?
Advanced Chipset Features
System BIOS Cacheable - Disabled
-See comment from "Video BIOS Cacheable"
Video RAM Cacheable - Enabled
-I think that this has something to do with the integrated NVIDIA IGP/GPU. The BIOS description says nothing. Does this option reserve system memory for the integrated video chipset (which is not in-use)? Even if it automatically knows to not allocate memory, it might be a waste of resources to let it auto-detect. Am I wrong about the function of this option?
AGP Aperature Size - 128M
-Not sure how this affects performance. Is there really a reason to have this option?
Integrated Peripherals
Init Display First
-Does it make sense to leave PCI selected instead of AGP? I think that this option is only provided for emergency situations, when a PCI card is used as a replacement for a non-functioning AGP card/bus.
IDE Function Setup
Primary Master PIO
Primary Slave PIO
Primary Master UDMA
Primary Slave UDMA
IDE Prefetch Mode - Enabled
IDE DMA Transfer access - Disabled
^What to do with these? Why are these options available to the user?
IDE HDD Block Mode - Enabled
-This is another one that sounds like a legacy feature. How does this affect the performance of a modern drive?
Onboard Device
AC97 Audio - Auto
-The NVIDIA software seems to have full control of the audio in my system, including the analog connectors. What does AC97 audio have to do with this system?
MC97 Modem - Auto
-I have no modem connector on my motherboard, I do not use a modem, and I don't use the CNR slot. Is it wasting resources to leave "auto" selected instead of "disabled"? I don't see a modem in the WinXP Device Manager, so I assume that it is disabled.
SuperIO Device
Onboard FDC Controller - Disabled
-I don't have a floppy drive. Does it save resources to disable a legacy device like this? I would assume that most operating systems won't use the resources anyway. I'm not sure if the processor continually checks un-assigned IRQ's or not, so I'm not sure if it will help performance to disable the FDC.
UART Mode Select - Normal
-Just wondering about this one. I know what the UART chipset does; but what does the "ASKIR" mode do?
Parallel Port Mode - SPP
-I have some legacy hardware (2 different N64 RAM-based cartridge emulators for game backup and development, 1 Game Boy Flash-memory based cartridge writer for backup/development). These devices use different modes and are extremely picky. I don't have the ability to test (requires Win98), but does the ECP+SPP mode present any compatibility problems with bi-directional devices?
EPP Mode - 1.7
-What does this option do? How does it affect compatibility? Why is "1.7" the default value instead of "1.9"?
ECP Mode Use DMA - 3
-Other option is "1". Does it matter which DMA is used?
Power Managemen Setup
Sleep State - S1(POS)
-I'm not using an old hardware internally. Is there any reason to not set this option to "S3(STR)"?
Video Off Method - DPMS Support
-Other options are "Blank Screen" and "V/H SYNC+Blank". I assume that "V/H Synch + blank" is for displays that don't have any type of sleep mode. I'll just leave this option at "DPMS Support", which I assume is a power-management standard.
PnP/PCI Settings
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop - Disabled
-What is this used for? I that it is a legacy option.
PCI Slot1/4 IRQ Priority - Auto
PCI Slot2/5 IRQ Priority - Auto
PCI Slot3 IRQ Priority - Auto
^Huh? Is there any way to tweak performance by fiddling with this? It sounds like it would be a waste of time. Why are these options provided to the user?
Frequency/Voltage Control
AGP Clock Control - Default
_Value - 66
^Optimal?
CPU Ratio - By H/W
-"ratio"?
CPU Vcore Select - By H/W
-Voltage, perhaps?
PCI Clock Auto Detect - Enabled
-Are there really different standard for PCI-bus timing?
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