Recently I have upgraded my machine and replaced my 4 years old A64 with an AIIX4 620, an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO, and a pair of GSkill Ripjaws 1333 MHz. While I have to say that ASUS BIOSes improved on mainstream Motherboards from an enthusiast standpoint, looking around I found that most manufacturers stills lack flexibility in many options.
For example, I have found that switching from a Single Core K8 at 1.8 GHz to a Quad Core K10 at 2.6 GHz, I simply have much more performance than I'm capable to use. Actually, that was also what happened when I had the A64, so most of the time it was underclocked to 1 GHz and/or undervolted to 1.1V (This always, as it was capable of the nominal 1.8 GHz at 1.1V, so it was pointless having it higher). Right now, I'm doing the same with this K10, and underclocked it to 1 GHz @ 0.8V using K10stat. This is where what annoys me begins.
Compared to the others ASUS Motherboards that I had from previous generations, this one doesn't stink from an overclocker standpoint, because it got a wide range of options. However, what annoys me is that with the exception of the Multipliers, everything Voltage related goes just upwars, not downwards. This means that I can't undervolt from BIOS and I have always to use a Windows based utility to lower power consumption.
It is THAT costly to improve BIOS options flexility so users without heavy power needs may reduce power consumption by undervolting from BIOS, as pretty much most modern Processors are overkill for basic computer usage? I was annoyed to find that pretty much no one cares that while now overclocking seems to be supported by pretty much all mainstream Motherboards, they still lack when people wants power efficiency, and there is no reason for them if they are supporting forcing components to go faster than the factory values, to go slower when you are actually relaxing components.
Most people will say that I should turn Cool'n Quiet on, but as an enthusiast, I prefer to manually manage that instead of letting something else do it for me, and if it wasn't due to K10stat I wouldn't be able to do it.
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