Review: ABIT AA8 DuraMAX

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 28 July 2004, 00:00

Tags: abit

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BIOS

ABIT add their µGuru set of enhancements to a standard AWARD BIOS, endowing it with hardware control features via the small µGuru chip on the bottom right of the board. Some of the adjustment is doing inside the main BIOS interface, such as those to control the memory controller on the i925X bridge, but almost everything else takes place inside the new SoftMenu replacement.


CPU voltage adjust goes from boot voltage to 1.9250V, in 0.0250V steps, but you can't adjust to any voltage below the the boot voltage defined by the CPU.


Chipset voltage gets a +37% adjust range, all the way up to 2.05V, from the 1.5V default.


The BIOS can also keep track of how many times the board has been powered up or rebooted. It also records uptime to single hour resolution.

Finally, you also get a range of EQ adjustments and monitoring pages, courtesy of the ABIT EQ section in the µGuru menu.

BIOS Summary

Overall it's a pleasant BIOS to work with, containing plenty of options to please the enthusiast. Multiplier adjustment for the CPU was in and working well and the voltage ranges are very generous.