Alienware X2 motherboard User’s Manual
Chapter 1: General specifications .................................................................................... 4 1.1 Specifications summary........................................................................................... 5 1.2 Motherboard features .............................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2: Hardware information ..................................................................................... 9 2.1 Board overview...........
5.2 Create RAID .......................................................................................................... 55 5.3 Delete RAID........................................................................................................... 59 5.4 Format a disk......................................................................................................... 61 5.5 Verify Disk integrity................................................................................................
Chapter 1: General specifications 4
1.1 Specifications summary CPU CPU power Chipset Memory Expansion slots SATA Support for Dual Intel ® Xeon processor on 604 Socket 800 MHz System Bus Supports Intel ® EMT64 Technology Supports Enhanced Intel ® SpeedStep Technology Supports Intel ® Hyper-Threading Technology Supports SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3) Complies with VRM 10.1 voltage requirements Dual EVRD Support FMB 1.
IEEE-1394 TI TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394 controller Two internal pin headers for front panel IEEE-1394 ports One external IEEE-1394 port at the back panel Internal I/O Two IDE connectors with support for UltraDMA 33/ATA66/ATA100 IDE drives and ATAPI compliant devices One Floppy connector for up to two drives One UART 16550 9-pin header One Smbus connector One WOL connector One pin header for IR External I/O System management BIOS One PS/2 keyboard connector One PS/2 mouse connector One 25 pin parallel port w
1.2 Motherboard features Intel ® Xeon Dual processor platform The Intel ® Xeon processors are built on 90 nm manufacturing process. These processors support new technological advances such as EMT64, Enhanced Intel ® SpeedStep Technology and Hyper-Threading technology. The Alienware X2 motherboard is designed to house one or two of these processors.
S/PDIF This motherboard facilitates connectivity to the most advanced stereo components through the S/PDIF port, giving high quality audio.
Chapter 2: Hardware information 9
2.1 Board overview 2.1.
2.1.
2.1.3 Ports and connectors 2.1.4 Onboard LED The onboard LED’s are located on the area highlighted in the image shown. The RED light indicates the motherboard is receiving power from the power supply, the YELLOW light indicates when the computer is turned on. 2.1.5 Jumper/Header configurations CMOS jumper [JP1] This jumper allows the clearing of information stored on the system CMOS RAM memory.
2. Unplug the power cable on the back of the computer 3. Remove the CMOS battery 4. Move CMOS jumper so that it covers pins 2 and 3 (see image below) and leave it there for 5 seconds 5. Move the CMOS jumper back to pins 1 and 2 (see image below) 6. Put the CMOS battery back in its socket 7. Plug power cable to the computer 8. Boot up and press DEL to enter setup BIOS protection jumper [JP16] This jumper protects the BIOS memory from being overwritten.
FSB jumper [JP3, JP3A] These jumpers define the type of memory that the system will be using. In order to support 800MHz DDR2, the jumpers JP3 and JP3A (shown on the image below) need to be covering pins 2 and 3. Case open pin header [J42] This jumper when enabled will detect when the system’s case (chassis) has been opened. A message will show up on the screen after the intrusion until the message is deleted. This feature is available only when using a chassis that supports intrusion detection.
To enable to front panel audio, these connectors need to be plugged into the pin headers as follows: Front panel connector 15
2.2 Hardware information 2.2.1 Supported processors The X2 motherboard has two Intel ® 604 sockets. Each of these sockets can support an Intel ® Xeon CPU that runs on an 800 MHz Front Side Bus. The following list shows the supported processors both on dual and single CPU configurations: Single CPU Intel® Xeon™ Processor 3.6GHz w/ EM64T 800 MHz FSB w/1MB Cache Intel® Xeon™ Processor 3.4GHz w/ EM64T 800 MHz FSB w/1MB Cache Intel® Xeon™ Processor 3.
Chapter 3: BIOS setup 17
This motherboard comes installed with an American Megatrends Inc. BIOS. This utility will allow modification and monitoring of hardware settings on the motherboard. In order to enter the BIOS, press DEL during the POST screen. 3.1 Main In the Main screen the system time and date can be set. This screen will also show the information recollected form the CPU and the amount of recognized system memory. 3.
3.2.1 CPU Configuration Max CPUID Value Limit Legacy operating systems do not support CPUs with extended CPUID functions. In order for these operating systems to boot up, this setting needs to be enabled. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Hardware Prefetcher Enables or disables the hardware prefecther feature. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch Enables or disables the Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch Feature.
3.2.2 IDE Configuration IDE Configuration This setting allows the configuration of ATA devices and the two SATA ports controlled by the 6300 ESB Southbridge (SATA1 and SATA2).
S-ATA Ports Definition The third and fourth IDE Master that are displayed under the IDE configuration screen represent the two SATA ports SATA1 and SATA2. This setting indicates which SATA is third and which is fourth. [Options are: ‘P0-3rd./P1-4th.’ and ‘P0-4th./P1-3rd.’] Configure S-ATA as RAID Enables or disables RAID on SATA1 and SATA2 through the Adaptec RAID utility.
3.2.4 SuperI/O Configuration Onboard Floppy Controller Enables or disables the floppy controller. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Serial Port1 Address Selects the base address to use for the Serial Port1. [Options are: ‘3F8/IRQ4’, ‘3E8/IRQ4’, and ‘2E8/IRQ3’] Serial Port2 Address Selects the base address to use for the Serial Port2. [Options are: ‘2F8/IRQ3’, ‘3E8/IRQ4’, and ‘2E8/IRQ3’] Serial Port2 Mode Selects the mode in which Serial Port2 will function.
Parallel Port Mode Selects which mode the parallel mode will function. [Options are: ‘Normal’, ‘Bi-Directional’, ‘EPP’, and ‘ECP’] EPP Version This setting only appears when Parallel Port Mode is set to EPP. Selects the EPP version for the Parallel Port. [Options are: ‘1.9’ and ‘1.7’] ECP Mode DMA Channel This setting only appears when Parallel Port Mode is set to EPP. Selects the parallel port ECP DMA. [Options are: ‘DMA0’, ‘DMA1’, and ‘DMA3’] Parallel Port IRQ Selects the IRQ for the Parallel Port.
3.2.5 Hardware Health Configuration This screen shows real-time information collected from the temperature, fan speed and voltage sensors on the motherboard. 3.2.
3.2.6.1 General ACPI Configuration Suspend mode Selects the ACPI state that is used when the system goes to sleep. [Options are: ‘S1 (POS) only’ and ‘S1 & S3 (STR)’] 3.2.6.2 Advanced ACPI Configuration ACPI 2.0 Features Enables RSDP Pointers to 64-bit Fixed System Description Tables.
ACPI APIC support Include the ACPI APIC table pointer to the RSDT pointer list. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] AMI OEMB table Include IEMB table pointer to R(X)SDT pointer lists. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Headless mode Enables or disables headless operation mode through ACPI. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Remote Access Selects the remote access type. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Terminal Type Only appears when Remote Access is enabled.
MPS Revision Selects the MPS revision. [Options are: ‘1.4’ and ‘1.1’] 3.2.8 PCI Express Configuration Active State Power-Management Activates or disables the PCI Express L0s and L1 link power states. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] PCI Express Port 2 Allows to enable or disable PCI-Express_2 slot. Display device will not be recognized when set to disable. When set to auto, the device will be enabled if it is recognized; otherwise it will be disabled.
3.2.9 Remote Access Configuration Remote Access Selects remote Access type. When enabled, parameters appear for configuration. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Serial port number Selects the serial port to be used for console redirection. [Options are: ‘COM1’ and ‘COM2’] Serial port mode Selects the Serial port settings. [Options are: ‘115200 8,n,1’,‘57600 8,n,1’,‘38400 8,n,1’,‘19200 8,n,1’,‘09600 8,n,1’] Flow control Selects the Flow Control for console redirection.
VT-UTF8 Combo Key Support Only shows up when the terminal type is ANSI or VT-100. It will enable VT-UTF8 combination key support for ANSI and VT-100 terminals. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] 3.2.10 USB Configuration USB Function Enables or disables internal USB controller headers. The USB ports on the back are not modified with this setting.
Hotplug USB FDD Support Creates a dummy FDD device at bootup that will be associated with a FDD that is hotplugged later. When set to Auto, the dummy FDD will be created only if there is no USB FDD present. [Options are: ‘Enabled’, ‘Disabled’ and ‘Auto’] 3.2.11 Onboard Device Configuration Onboard Sil3114 Controller Enables or disables the Silicon Image RAID controller. When disabled, none of the SATA devices plugged into ports SATA_3 through SATA_6 will be recognized.
3.2.12 Performance Setting DDR2 Working Voltage Selects the value for the voltage applied on DDR2 modules. [Options are: ‘1.80V’, ‘1.85V’, ‘1.90V’, and ‘1.95V’] OverClock Memory overclocking; can be set to values in range from 200 to 255. Cas# Latency Modifies the Cas Latency of the memory modules; lower is better. However, the memory modules need to support this feature. [Options are: ‘Auto’, ‘3’, ‘4’, and ‘5’] tRP Modifies the tRP timing.
3.3 PCIPnP Plug & Play O/S When set to yes, a Plug and Play OS can configure PnP devices not required for boot up. When set to no, the BIOS will configure all devices for the system. [Options are: ‘Yes’ and ‘No’] PCI Latency Timer Value in units of PCI clocks for PCI device latency timer register. [Options are: ‘32’, ‘64’, ‘96’, ‘128’, ‘160’, ‘192’, ‘224’, and ‘248’] Allocate IRQ to PCI VGA When enabled, a PCI VGA card can request an IRQ to be assigned for it.
PCI IDE BusMaster When enabled the BIOS uses PCI busmastering foreading/writing to IDE devices. This setting increases performance when running DOS programs such as Norton Ghost or Partition Magic. Windows has its own IDE busmastering software, and is not affected by changing this BIOS setting. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Offboard PCI/ISA IDE Card Some PCI IDE cards require this option to be set to the specific PCI slot that is holding the card.
3.4.1 Boot Settings Configuration Quick Boot When enabled, the BIOS will skip some tests so that the computer boots up faster. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Quiet Boot When enabled, the OEM logo is displayed instead of the POST messages. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] AddOn ROM Display Mode Set display mode for option ROM [Options are: ‘Force BIOS’ and ‘Keep Current’] Bootup Num-Lock Selects state of the Num-Lock key when powering up the computer.
Interrupt 19 Capture Allows for option ROMs to trap the Interrupt 19 [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] 3.4.2 Boot Device Priority The boot devices are listed in order of importance. The system will look for a bootable device in this order and go down the list until it finds one or it will prompt that no boot device was found. When selecting each option, all the available boot devices are shown (one for HDD, ODD, Removable, and LAN) plus Disabled option.
3.4.3 Hard Disk Drives Shows list of detected hard drives. The first one on the list will be considered for the boot device priority list. 3.4.4 Removable Drives Shows list of detected removable drives. The first one on the list will be considered for the boot device priority list.
3.4.5 CD/DVD Drives Shows list of detected optical drives. The first one on the list will be considered for the boot device priority list. 3.5 Security Change Supervisor Password Installs or changes a supervisor password.
User Access Level This option is only enabled when the supervisor password is installed. Defines access of users to the BIOS utility as follows: No Access: Prevents user access to the setup utility View Only: Allows user to access the setup utility; fields cannot be changed Limited: Allows only limited fields to be changed such as Date and Time Full Access: Grants full control to user access Change User Password Installs or changes the user password.
3.6.1 NorthBridge Configuration Memory Remap Feature Allows for the remapping of overlapped PCI memory above the total physical memory. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] 3.6.2 SouthBridge Configuration OnBoard AC’97 Audio Enables/disables onboard sound controller.
3.7 Power Power Management/APM Enables or disables the Advanced Power Management. When enabled, configuration settings become available on this same menu. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Video Power Down Mode This will power down video in suspend or standby mode. Only available when Power Management/APM is enabled [Options are: ‘Disabled’, ‘Standby’, and ‘Suspend’] Hard Disk Power Down Mode This will power down hard disks in suspend or standby mode.
Throttle Slow Clock Ratio Selects the Duty Cycle in Throttle mode. Only available when Power Management/APM is enabled [Options are: ‘12.5%’, ‘25%’, ‘37.5%‘, ‘50%‘, ’62.5%’, ’75.0%’ and ’87.
Resume On PME#/LAN Enables or disables PME to generate a wake event. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] Resume On RTC Alarm Enables or disables RTC to generate a wake event. [Options are: ‘Enabled’ and ‘Disabled’] RTC Alarm Date (Days) Sets the day schedule for an alarm to be generated [Options are chosen using ‘+’ and ‘-’ keys.
Load Failsafe Defaults This option will load the failsafe default values for all options. This can also be performed by pressing F8.
Chapter 4: Silicon Image RAID Utility 44
4.1 Introduction The Silicon Image RAID controller supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and spare drive configuration. Some other functions that can performed are a low level format, rebuild malfunctioning RAID 1 arrays and resolve conflicts. The RAID utility can be accessed by pressing CTR+S or F4 when prompted during the POST. This utility will only be accessible when the Sil3114 is enabled on the system BIOS and it is set to RAID mode (see section 3.2.11).
4.3 Create RAID 0 1. Select the Create RAID set option and choose the type RAID 0. 2. Select the number of drives that will be part of the RAID. 3. Select Auto or Manual Configuration. Auto Configuration will automatically create the RAID 0 with the first drive detected as 0 and the second one as 1, and a stripe size of 64K. Through Manual configuration these settings can be modified.
4. Press Y at the prompt “Are you sure (Y/N)?” 5. Once the RAID has been created, it will show up on the bottom right corner of the screen.
4.4 Create RAID 1 When a RAID 1 is configured, two identical hard drives need to be installed in the system. The Silicon Image RAID utility can create a blank RAID or copy the contents of one hard drive into a mirror drive. 1. Select Create RAID set and choose RAID 1. 2. Select auto or manual configuration. Auto configuration will automatically create a brand new RAID 1 with no information on it. Any information on the drives will be lost.
Manual configuration allows the possibility of choosing either creating a new blank RAID or mirroring a new drive from an already existing one. 3.
4. Once the RAID has been created, it will show up on the bottom right corner of the screen. 4.5 Delete RAID 1. Select the Delete RAID set option and press enter. 2. Select the RAID item that will be deleted.
3. Press Y to confirm when prompted. 4.6 Low Level Format 1. Select the Low Level Format option 2. Select the drive that will be formated. 3. Press Y to confirm when prompted.
Chapter 5: Adaptec RAID Utility 53
5.1 Introduction The Adaptec RAID utility manages the drives plugged into SATA_1 and SATA_2. To enter the Adaptec RAID utility, it has to be enabled on BIOS (see section 3.2.2). If there are Hard Drives connected to either of the SATA connectors, the system during POST will prompt or key combination Ctrl-A to enter. NOTE: Alienware recommends installing RAID only on the Silicon Image RAID controller.
Once inside the utility, navigation is performed with Up and Down keys on the menus, ENTER to select, ESC for previous menu, TAB to go to next option and Shift-TAB to go to previous option. 5.2 Create RAID 1. Enter the Array Configuration Utility 2. Select the Create Array option from the menu. 3. Use INS key to select the drives that will be used on the RAID. (Use DEL key to deselect the drives). Press ENTER when finished selecting drives.
4. Select the RAID type. Options are RAID 0 (Stripe) and RAID 1(Mirror). 5. Choose a label for the RAID. This is the name that will identify the logical drive after the RAID is created.
6. Select the strip size. Options are 16KB, 32KB and 64KB. The last one is recommended. 7. Select way in which RAID will be created. There are different methods for creating a RAID0 and RAID1 with the Adaptec Controller.
8. Enter to create RAID 5.3 Delete RAID 1. Enter the Array Configuration Utility 2. Select the Manage Arrays option from the menu. This will list the arrays detected.
3. Once the array that will be erased is highlighted, press DEL to delete it. 4. Use arrow keys to highlight the Delete option and press Enter. 5. Press Y to confirm elimination.
5.4 Format a disk 1. Select disk utilities 2.
3. Select format drive option 4. Highlight option Yes and press enter to confirm the format process.
5.5 Verify Disk integrity 1. Select disk utilities 2.
3. Select the Verify Disk Media option 4.
Chapter 6: SoundMAX Control Panel 65
6.1 Starting up The Alienware X2 motherboard features onboard Intel Audio with support for 5.1 speaker configuration. This speaker configuration and other advanced sound settings can be configured through the SoundMAX Control Panel. This chapter will explain how to use this control panel. The SoundMAX Control Panel is installed on the system when the onboard sound driver is installed.
6.2 Sound configuration 6.2.
As can be seen in the image above, there are four speaker settings: Stereo headphones: Only left and right channels are used. Stereo speakers: Uses left and right channels. When this mode is selected the Front Speaker Location can be toggled between Close Together and Far Apart. Close Together is optimized for two speakers that are close to the monitor. Far Apart optimizes sound for speakers away from the monitor, such as a home stereo system.
Hallway, Stone corridor, Alley, Forest, City, Mountains, Quarry, Plain, Parking lot, Sewer pipe, and Underwater. 6.2.4 Virtual Ear This feature will customize the ear model so that it is tailored to a specific listener: it will simulate the ear of the listener. Three generic Virtual Ears are provided: Standard, Adult, and Child. SoundMAX gives the possibility of purchasing a Virtual Ear Upgrade to create custom virtual ears. 6.2.
The test noise refers to a static noise that will come through the specified speaker. The test music loop is a prerecorded sound file that outputs through the specified speaker. The amount of speakers being tested depends on the speaker configuration that was last applied.
6.2.6 SPDIF When clicking on the SPDIF setup button located on the center bottom of the window, the Advanced Controls for Volume Control window is opened. In this screen it can be selected if the system will support AC3 and/or PCM SPDIF formats. 6.3 MIDI Music Synthesizer The SoundMAX Control Panel features MIDI playback. When selecting the MIDI Music Synthesizer tab, the Synthesizer Default Sound Set can be modified. General MIDI describes a specific MIDI format with 128 sounds and a drum kit.
6.4 DLS loader DLS stands for DownLoadable Sounds. This feature allows downloading custom sound sets in to the SoundMAX synthesizer and playing these files using the Windows Media Player. Simply browse for the MIDI or .RMI file, open it, and run it on the Media Player.
