Board Software

The included software bundle has now become standard fare for all ASUS motherboard products. The "AI Tweaker" software suite contains a host of utilities that offer access to nearly every setting that is offered in the BIOS, but from within a Windows OS. The bar you see across the bottom in the images above and below form the base of the software suite, from which all of the utilities are launched. The leftmost button pops up the tools menu, from which most of the following software is launched. The three images above show the first tool, TurboV EVO, a softwar ethat allows clock and voltage adjustments, as well as providing an auto-clocking utility, that for most users, works fairly well, although it's important to note that the settings used are primarily for water-cooled systems, as the voltages given to the CPU are fairly high for standard air-cooled operation. The third image above shows the warning that pops up when you start the auto-clocking tool, letting you know that if the system crashes, the auto-tune process is ready to deal with that, and get you up and running at reasonably stable clocks. It does mention too, that "Installation of advanced cooling is recommended", even, so as we mentioned, it's best to heed that advice before letting the tool run.


The next tool is the DiIGI+ Power Control utility that launches to a window that lets you chose which VRM you'd like to adjust, either the CPU, or the DRAM sections, shown in the first image above. The second two images show each section, CPU first, then the DRAM page. There are options here to adjust both the power limits, as well as the frequency the VRM refreshes at, which proves ultimately critical when trying to maximize overclocks.


Next we have the "EPU" utility, a program for optimizing power usage, and energy conservation. There are several different pre-defined profiles as well as the option to customize each to the end user's preference. After that, we find the Fan Xpert+ utility, for controlling fan speeds. These are a mirror of the same options found in BIOS, so each chassis fan can have its own profile, while the dual CPU_FAN headers are grouped together under the same setting. The third image above shows yet another tool, called MyLogo, which allows users to replace the splash screen shown when the board first boots.


There are three different monitoring tools offered in the AI Tweaker software package; PC Probe II, a Sensor Panel, and a Sensor Recording utility, for tracking data over extended periods.


The AI Tweaker software also contains a utility for updating the BIOS from within Windows, shown in the first image above, as well as an application that lists system information, and finally, the last tool allows users to customize the AI Tweaker suite itself, and which tools are offered.


The final tool included with the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe is for the included Wi-Fi dongle, which allows users to set the Wi-Fi dongle to operate as an access point for other Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Containing the usual settings found within wireless routers, although a bit pared down, it also offers the ability to disable the Wi-Fi portion of the add-in card, if so desired.

We have been fans of the software ASUS has offered for some time now, as it allows users to access nearly every option in the BIOS, but in a far more familiar setting from within Windows. The BIOS itself does a good job of explaining what all the settings are, and the software extends that info in a very usable way, as well as offering a few options that just aren't possible to offer via the UEFI interface. Every tool has a very significant purpose, and we are very happy to see that ASUS takes the end user experience very seriously, not only with the hardware it provides, but also with the software.