| ECS GF8200A Black Series GeForce 8200 Motherboard
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The BIOS:
The BIOS for the GF8200A is by American Megatrends, and the bulk of the screens will look just like many you have seen on other motherboards. Some screens may be of more interest, and we'll check out a few of them. The below left image shows the "Advanced Chipset Setup" tab where things like Hybrid SLI, HDMI audio, and memory settings can be configured. LAN, audio, and hard drive options can be configured on the "Integrated Peripherals" tab shown in the below right image.
 
The below left screen shows where you turn in order to set the primary display, while the below right screen shows where voltages and temperatures can be monitored.
 
Selecting the "Smart Fan Function" option seen in the above right image leads to the screen shown in the below left image. The choices seem foreign to me, but this is where you would go in order to set fan speeds and temperature settings in order to keep your system as cool and quiet as possible.
 
The above right image shows an overview of the "Frequency/Voltage Control" tab where the bulk of the overclocking would happen. The below left image shows the same tab, but the memory voltage option is highlighted in order to reveal the possible values. The range is 1.90V to 2.40V in a rather unique increment of 0.07V. The below right image shows the NB (northbridge) voltage options, where we see that you have four choices in a range from 1.13V to 1.24V.
 
Continuing down the "Frequency/Voltage Control" tab leads us to the HT (hyper threading) voltage options. Here you are presented with four more options, this time with a range of 1.20V to 1.35V. And the final voltage value to consider is for the CPU, which is set to auto mode by default. Deciding to take matters into your own hands gives you a decent range of voltages (1.200V to 1.550V) with fine tuning thanks to 0.025 increments.
 
While memory timings and frequency settings are found on another tab, this is where CPU overclocking occurs. With the voltages dialed in, pumping up the CPU frequency will bring the memory up with it. I was able to take the AMD 5400+ X2 2.8GHz dual core processor up to 3.3GHz without effort. This is exactly where I got the same CPU on the A780GM-A, which didn't quite have the overclocking features that the GF8200A has. I am confident that this board could be a much more impressive overclocker with the right gear and a bit of effort.
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