Athlon Motherboard Roundup - March 2000

Jumperless CPU & Voltage Configuration

Ever since ABIT and QDI produced the first-ever motherboards with a fully jumperless CPU and voltage setup, the goal of many manufacturers has been to bring that level of ease of use and operation down to their products as well.

The AWARD BIOS Setup v6.00 features a built in CPU Frequency & Voltage adjustment setup; it is the job of the manufacturer to take advantage of the option and enable it on their motherboards.  So there is no excuse for a motherboard that uses the AWARD v6.00 BIOS not to have a jumperless CPU & voltage configuration. 

There are certain features which you should be able to adjust, and those features do take a little more work on the part of the manufacturer to implement, especially in a jumperless configuration. 

One of the features we mentioned earlier in the article that is a very important feature to have is the ability to adjust the memory clock regardless of the FSB frequency selected.  Being able to choose from one of three options: FSB, FSB – 33MHz and FSB + 33MHz for your memory bus frequency is a very useful feature and something that should be controlled within the BIOS setup. 

The number of FSB frequencies supported is a function of the particular clock generator on the motherboard, but being able to support the entire range of FSB frequencies is something that must be implemented within the BIOS setup if the board boasts a jumperless configuration. 

For the Athlon, having a jumperless setup isn’t critical because the clock multiplier can only be controlled from an external interface, for now at least.  If you’re truly interested in getting the most out of your Athlon system, then you should look for a motherboard with FSB settings in the 100 – 115MHz range, which seems to be the sweet spot for overclocking on the current crop of motherboards.