AMS gBOX Blue - Bios and Temperatures
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BIOS
For those of you familiar with the Intel 845 Series motherboards, you won't see anything new here. However, being an enthusiasts system, I was curious to see what type of options we had to tweak the system. While not matching the tweakability of a full blown overclockers system, the AMS gBOX did not disappoint with several options to tweak and tune performance. First is a shot of the Award Bios and then the "Advanced BIOS Features" section where you can adjust various boot settings.
Below is a shot of the "Advanced Chipset Features" where you can adjust memory timings, RAS/CAS and Frequency Options. The 845GE has both 266 and 333 settings, and also disable the onboard VGA should you wish to install an AGP card such as we did here today.
For CPU to PCI clock we are given options to go from 136MHz to 160MHz in various increments with the Intel 2.4B/533 CPU. Since there are no voltage adjustments or PCI/AGP dividers in the BIOS, overclocking will be limited. Given the relatively small power of the 150W PSU however, we didn't expect massive overclocks with this system. Still, these options should be enough for the Gamer and casual tweaker/overclocker to squeeze a little extra performance out of the system. We'll check later how well the gBOX overclocks.
A few more misc BIOS pics to take a look at.
System Temperatures
The AMS gBOX Blue with XBLADE Cooling technology runs surprisingly cool for an SFF package. Cooling plays a big part in system stability and something I generally take seriously when building any system. I was initially worried the gBOX would have problems in this area but my worries were soon put to rest as I started to put the system through it's paces. Not only does the Akura CPU Cooler keep the CPU nice and cool, the XBLADE fan keeps the system temps at a decent level as well. With a constant room temperature of 74deg Fahrenheit, here are the temps we are seeing for Idle and Load.
Idle
CPU Under Load with Folding@Home
Even when under load the gBOX setup keeps the P4 at a very respectable 102deg Fahrenheit. Case temp is 105. This is actually better than my main system that has several more intake and exhaust fans than the gBOX. Hats off to AMS for giving the gBOX Blue excellent off the shelf cooling with very little space taken away from the system. Lets take a look at just how much the XBLADE cooling fan helps keep this system cool. Below are idle and load temps w/out the XBLADE fan running.
Idle w/out XBLADE
Load w/out XBLADE
Proof is in the pudding and we have quite a tasty treat with XBLADE Cooling Technology. Not only is the XBLADE fairly quiet, it has a relatively small footprint thereby taking up as little room as possible in the tiny gBOX Blue SFF P4 Aluminum Barebone System. AMS has gone the extra mile to include everything you'd need in a great little system, and also given us great CPU and system cooling with the P4 Akura Blue HSF and XBLADE Cooling Technology. As these types of systems get smaller and smaller, companies must get even more resourceful to find ways of proper cooling. AMS is definitely headed in the right direction. Lets move on and checkout some benchmarks.
Next: Benchmarks >>
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