A few BIOS tweaks I need help on...

[earwicker7]

I'm almost finished with tweaking my BIOS... I have managed to get 1/10th of a point added on my Windows Experience score so far. Woohoo! Once it's finished, I'm going to do a complete Windows 7 reformat/reinstall and go from there.

Anyways, I've been able to find exact definitions and recommended settings for most of the stuff in the Alienware Aurora BIOS, but there are a few for which I could use some help. I'll basically use this format: (Name)--(Options)--(Current Setting). This is for a home computer, primarily used for gaming, but also used for some MS Office and Photoshop stuff and surfing the net.

AHCI CD/DVD Boot Time Out--0 to 35--35

USB Power in S5--Enable or Disable--Disabled

Intel R HT Technology--Enable or Disable--Enabled

Intel R Speedstep (TM) Technology--Enable or Disable--Enabled

Intel R State Technology--Enable or Disable--Enabled

XD Bit Capability--Enable or Disable--Enabled

Wait for "F1" if Error--No Error, All Errors, All But KB--All But KB

Finally, I'm assuming everything under Frequency/Voltage Control is for overclocking, correct? Is it a good idea to do this (if I do it, not sure yet) before or after the operating system reinstall? If before, let me know and I'll also post that stuff.

Thanks, everyone!!!

 

[Slaymate]

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AHCI CD/DVD Boot Time Out--0 to 35--35

I'm guessing on this one but I suspect it is setting a limit on the time it will take to detect your CD/DVD if it is selected as the primary boot device.

USB Power in S5--Enable or Disabled--Disabled

S5 is a system hibernation state, so this setting (Disabled) is allowing the system to shutdown the usb bus when the system enters the S5 state.

Intel R HT Technology--Enabled or Disabled--Enabled

HT or Hyper-Threading is Intel's term for simultaneous multithreading. For each processor core that is physically present, the operating system addresses two virtual processors, and shares the workload between them when possible. Enabling this will increase your performance in multithreading applications. Disabling this feature will decrease the cpu core temperatures and may increase your overclock.

Intel R Speedstep (TM) Technology--Enable or Disable--Enabled
Intel R State Technology--Enable or Disable--Enabled (this is the C-STATE function)

Intel SpeedStep / CxE Function / C-STATE / CPU TM Function
These are Power Saving Features designed to reduce the speed of the cpu to save power under various conditions. These should be disabled for overclocking.

XD Bit Capability--Enable or Disable--Enabled

Execute Disable Bit
When this is enabled the cpu will not execute any code residing in areas of the memory marked by the OS as non-executable. This is used to prevent certain types of malicious software from taking over computers by inserting their code into another program's data storage area and running their own code from within this section (Buffer Overflow Attack). I disable this feature, but generally speaking it shouldn't effect your overclocking.

Wait for "F1" if Error--No Error, All Errors, All But KB--All But KB

When you press the power button the 1st thing that happens is the Bios will perform a system check.
No Error, means the system will attempt to continue loading regardless of any error it encounters
All Errors, the system will stop and display an Error Message if it encounters any errors.
All but KB, the system will stop and display an Error Message if it encounters any errors other than a Keyboard Error.

Finally, I'm assuming everything under Frequency/Voltage Control is for overclocking, correct? Is it a good idea to do this (if I do it, not sure yet) before or after the operating system reinstall? If before, let me know and I'll also post that stuff.

More or less, yes these settings are mainly for overclocking.
If you want to overclock you should do so AFTER you install the Operating System.

Here's a link that may help you
http://www.techist.com/forums/f10/i7-overclocking-guide-224693/

 

[earwicker7]

Thanks!!!

 

[earwicker7]

Hey, on the XD thing... if I have a decent anti-virus program, and I run it regularly (at least a few times a week and after every time I go to a website that I don't completely trust), do I need to even worry about the buffer overflow attacks?

 

[Slaymate]

I can't really say as you just never know. But I run my system with it Disabled.