Overclocking Methodology

Overclocking a motherboard these days doesn't simply involve increasing the multiplier on the CPU, increasing voltage, lowering temps, and the good old days of soldering irons as the primary overclocking tool are long gone. We now have motherboards with BIOS's so rich in overclocking abilities, it is sometimes harder now than it was back then to overclock their system for someone who isn't up on their overclocking knowledge. We don't want to turn this review into an overclocking guide but we will keep track of just how complicated it is to overclock this motherboard as we go through the overclocking.

We will primarily be looking at three areas of the motherboard and how well they overclock. We will focus on the maximum frequency we can stabilize for the Front Side Bus and the memory. Then, we will combine these for an overall system overclock focused on performance and temperatures for a good 24/7 overclock rather than simply the highest FSB or clocks.

In addition to deciding on what to overclock, we also have to conclude on what exactly is a stable overclock. Everyone has their own ideas of stability, from Prime95 for one hour on the Blend test to three days of running Folding@Home. For our overclocking here, we will be stability testing the system in a wide range of programs. It is imperative to test stability of the complete system and not just a single component. For this reason, we will be utilizing the following stability test suite on each of the overclocks before we list them in this section:

• Dual 32M runs of SuperPi Mod 1.5 (ran at the same time)
• 2 hours of dual Prime95 using Prime95 v25.5 Stress Testing Blend
• 2 hours of OCCT Custom 2H Mix OCCT v2.0.0a - Except for Memory Overclocking
• 2 hours of dual HCI MemTest Pro in Windows using all available memory
• Multiple loops of 3DMark 01 / 06 (30 minutes of looping the full tests each)
• 1 hour of game play in COD4 & Crysis @ 1680x1050

We have all of the stability testing favorites here and we threw in a couple gaming sessions for good measure. The above suite should provide enough testing for a completely stable 24/7 system but there are always exceptions to the rule. It is also important to keep in mind that overclocking is never the same between two pieces of hardware, especially when it comes to motherboards. Every single component we use will influence the overall system differently and one can't expect the same results with a completely different list of hardware.