Gigabyte 73UM-S2H and 73PVM-S2H
BIOS
The BIOS of Gigabyte 73UM-S2H and Gigabyte 73PVM-S2H is absolutely identical and is based on the Award BIOS version.
The memory frequency is set in the "MB Intelligent Tweaker/FSB & Memory Config" section:
In the "Memory Timing Settings" subsection, the user can set the required memory latency timings:
What is really convenient is that the right-hand column displays the current timings. Now look at the system monitoring section.
Both the motherboards display the current temperatures for the CPU and the system, rotational speeds of the two fans (the boards use two 4-pin connectors), as well as the voltage levels. The Smart Fan which allows for a dynamic adjustment of the CPU cooler rotation depending on the CPU temperature, and the cooler plugged in to the SYS_FAN - depending on the system temperature.
Besides, the boards allow the user to leverage all the technologies implemented in Intel's latest processors:
Finally, we note the feature for controlling the memory capacity allocated for the needs of the graphic core:
Overclocking and stability
Despite the identical PCB, the boards Gigabyte 73UM-S2H and Gigabyte 73PVM-S2H stand out with a kit of capacitors of the power converter. Both implement a 4-line scheme, but 73PVM-S2H uses nine 820 mkF as well as four 471 mkF capacitors. On 73UM-S2H, we can see nine 820 mkF and four 470 mkF capacitors.
Now on to the overclocking features.
We also note that there are few overclocking tools. But the most needs are there: the adjustment of FSB within 100 to 650 MHz.
The memory frequency can be set both dependent and independent of the FSB speed:
The second main function is one to adjust voltage on the CPU (Vcore) within 0.5 V to 1.6 V in 0.00625 V increments.
In theory, these two features allow to overclock the CPU up the bus (FSB) speed = 400 MHz. Further overclocking would require the features for raising voltage on the memory, the chipset, and the FSB, which are missing on the test motherboards.
Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed for both the motherboards is 380 MHz, with both the integrated video core and with an external video card:
In fact, this value is quite sufficient for value CPUs of the E2xxx series or Celeron (based on the Conroe-L core).
As regards the integrated video core, it can also be overclocked. For that, there is the "VGA Core Clock" feature that allows raising the core speed by 50%.
In practice, the system preserves stability at only 10% frequency rise, with the performance gain in 3D applications is extremely small.
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VGA Card:
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CPU & Memory:
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