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Posted by: Dan on: 07.08.2008 01:00:00 [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]
Before we get into overclocking this board, I feel it important to point out that the test E6600 CPU I have is a particularly poor overclocker, needing as much as 1.375v to get just 3Ghz stable (further increases in clock speed need voltage to be added almost exponentially to get the CPU to run stable). Even with turning the multiplier down, I fear it needs much more voltage than is safe to push high FSB speeds. So with that in mind, let’s see how far we can get with this board and CPU.
When I started testing this board, I did so out on a test bench and not in a case. With overclocking, the PWM/Mofset area I was concerned about earlier proved to be a problem. With no airflow over them (the airflow from the vendetta cooler was apparently not enough) the temperature quickly soared to the high 90oC’s. Fortunately I was watching the system temps and was able to stop the testing and add a further fan in that area before something bad happened. With the additional fan, temperatures were much lower and completely acceptable.
After lots of messing around in the BIOS, and a scary amount of CPU vcore, I was able to get the board (more accurately the processor) to run stable at 450Mhz.
Even this decent overclock was held back completely by the CPU, as all of the board’s voltage settings were manually set to their stock values(!). As you can see above, I had to add 1.625 volts to get this CPU to even boot. Anything less and it wouldn’t POST, but somewhat amazingly it ran stable once it had completed POST.
With the right CPU I am confident that this board could push 500Mhz FSB, which would be the magic speed needed to get processors with an 8x multiplier to the 4Ghz mark.
Next Page – Conclusion
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