We used the Asus P5AD2-E Platinum for testing the 600 series and the new Extreme Edition 3.73 GHz. Asus already provided BIOS version 1004, which supports the new processors. We expect all the other manufacturers to offer updated BIOS versions within a short time frame as well.
Speedstep In Action
With SpeedStep enabled, Windows' power management will use ACPI to reduce the clock speed to 2.8 GHz as needed.
The following conditions must be met in order to use SpeedStep:
The CPU needs to support SpeedStep
The motherboard and BIOS need to support SpeedStep
Windows XP Service Pack 2 needs to be installed
You need to select the mobile power scheme in the Windows power management options
The Asus motherboard offers four SpeedStep options in the BIOS. Here's how they benchmarked using the Lame MP3 encoder:
Swipe to scroll horizontally
SpeedStep option
Benchmark result using Lame MP3 Encoder
Maximum Speed
104 sec
Minimum Speed
140 sec
Automatic
112-117 sec
Disabled
103 sec
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