BIOS Rundown

The true test of a motherboard for an overclocker or computer enthusiast is not usually board accessories or features, it is the BIOS and the ability for the board to handle a decent overclock. We will take a closer look at the overclockability of the board in the overclocking section.


The ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi features an AMI 8mb BIOS and supports ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake-up Events. The splash screen upon POST was pleasing to the eye and ASRock included a few other splash screen options selectable in the boot section of the BIOS. One point to note is you must press F2 instead of the typical delete key to enter the BIOS upon booting. Seems strange to move from the standard delete key, but it is not an issue if users are aware of it.


The PC Health page was consistent with many other boards, showing CPU and motherboard temperatures, fan speeds for the two fan headers, and voltages (vcore, 3.3v, 5.0v, and 12.0v). It would have been nice to see Vdimm and a chipset monitoring setting but this of course could mean a more expensive monitoring chip.

The BIOS info page is also typical of many other boards on the market. This page shows which CPU and memory is installed and a few specifications such as cache and speed. Also, if you aren’t sure which BIOS version is installed, the BIOS info page indicates the current BIOS version.


The CPU Configuration page includes CPU Thermal Throttling and Intel Speedstep Technology, both of which are recommended to disable if you want the multi to remain static. This is also the screen where you will find adjustable frequencies for CPU / PCIE and the CPU multiplier. Users must set Overclock Mode to Manual to adjust these settings.


The available RAM timings are as basic as it gets with the common four tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS plus DRAM Command Rate (1N vs. 2N). This is one of the biggest issues we had with the BIOS as secondary memory tweaking is important to be able to boot at particular memory dividers and chipset straps. Also, for memory dividers there are only three available: 400Mhz (DDR3 800), 533Mhz (DDR3 1066), and 667Mhz (DDR3 1333). We will go over how the dividers work in detail in the overclocking section.

Another feature on the Chipset Settings screen that you will see in X48 chipset boards is XMP Technology. XMP (extreme memory profile) is Intel compatible and provides the next level of JEDEC standard. Briefly, XMP is an extra speed bin to JEDEC’s standard DDR3’s definitions, allowing for higher speeds and tighter timings than JEDEC, simply by enabling the XMP Profile.



Continuing down the Chipset Settings screen, we see all of the voltages needed for overclocking. At default all of the settings are set to auto, which provides stock voltages for each component.


The maximum CPU voltage on the board is 1.60v, and unlike most other settings that have a drop-down menu and allow easy voltage selections, the only way to adjust CPU voltage is by pressing + and – on the keyboard. This method is not as convenient and it takes extra time to adjust CPU voltage. DRAM voltage is selectable to 2.40v and should be more than enough voltage for any DDR3 modules on the market.

Northbridge, Southbridge, and VTT Reference voltages are not in fact numeric selectable voltages but rather settings of low, medium, high, and very high. It is a little concerning to not be aware of how much voltage is actually being used in each of the settings and it is recommended to avoid the highest setting altogether to be safe and not risk damaging an expensive CPU. This is especially important for VTT voltages as several users have reported dead 45nm CPUs at only 1.5v VTT. After asking several times, ASRock support was not able to provide any actual voltages for these settings nor measure points for a digital multimeter.

One bright point in the voltage section however is instead of using non-numerical settings for GTLREF Voltage, ASRock added options ranging from 0.67 x VTT to 0.614 x VTT, which eliminates the grey area and is quite handy for FSB overclocking.

All in all, the BIOS on this board should appeal to novice overclockers since all of the basic adjustments for minor to mid-range overclocks are there but to be honest, there is isn't much for the enthusiast here. What we do like to see is that ASRock is taking steps for their boards to appeal to a wider market; as more boards come out the BIOS seems to be becoming more and more overclocker friendly. Hopefully with the next board ASRock will add more secondary memory timings, more memory dividers, and actual voltages for NB, SB, and VTT as these are the types of things enthusiasts demand in a good overclocker’s board.