As promised I will include an overclocking section in my review
disclaimer: If you blow your board and or cpu through overclocking dont hold me responsible people
Equipment used:
AS in the main review, but also now tested with Crucial ballstix DDR2 1000 @5-5-5-15
qaudcore cpu used
Very few reviews that I have seen have included the BIOS screen shots with the adjustments needed TO overclock.
You will notice that with the 3.8 (480FSB X8 overclock) that I have had to set the vcore on CRAZY voltages to get anywhere! This does confirm the fact the QUADCORES especially the q6600 are much much harder to overclock, generate more heat and need MORE volts to get anywhere. It also confirms the fact that the latter week numbers of various Core 2 Duos and Quads need a lot more voltage to get to the same levels as erlier week numbers. THe proof of this is that when I lowered the vcore to a safe level of 1.55 the PC refused to boot.
All overclock results have had 'Orthos' running for 3 hours
The following are the BIOS screenshots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71909665@N00/893104345/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71909665@N00/893104321/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71909665@N00/893104451/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71909665@N00/893104487/
The next is the super pi score
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...4013736&size=o
After playing about some more, I further managed to increase the FSB to a wopping 498FSB !
and for a QAUDCORE thats a massive acheivement!
Below is a screenshot
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...3104269&size=o
You may note that this is the limit that this CPU would do, I have hit an FSB wall and could not even get 500FSB x8 stable, which is the 4 gig barrier. However using a qaudcore q6600 model thats very hard to do, BUT as you can see I came VERY close.
Note do not use a X9 multiplier if you have a q6600 when overclocking as this will hit a wall around 410FSB !
Summary:
GREAT overclocking board only let down by the CPU itsself, 4 GIG barrier VERY nearly Broken. THE CRAZY VCORE needed to achieve this shows that its the LIMIT of the CPU NOT the board that stops myself breaking the F500FSB X8 Barrier!
Again I am very very impressed with this board.
Soon to follow OVERCLOCKING with a CORE 2 DUO!!
Hope you like my scores folks
cheers
Gilgamesh