Overclocking Methodology

Before getting into the overclocking discussion of the P5E3-Premium, we will briefly discuss what we consider to be the import aspects of a motherboard overclock. More importantly, we will outline what we feel is considered a stable overclock. During the overclocking we will take notes about how easy or hard it was to achieve each overclock as well as what is potentially holding the motherboard back each step of the way. We don't want to focus on how we achieved the overclocks we did, but more how difficult it would be for others to do the same.

If you are familiar with the ASUS Rampage Formula review posted at Hardware Canucks not too long ago, you will recall that we tested max FSB, memory clocks, and then an overall 24/7 stable system overclock combining all aspects of the previous overclocks for what we feel would be the best setup for a daily use machine given our components and capabilities. We will repeat this process somewhat for the P5E3-Premium since it was favorably received by our readers. We will however be testing specifically a 2x2GB kit of DDR3-1600 memory for stability in place of traditional memory overclocking.

In order to consider an overclock stable, we had to come up with a recipe of ingredients to ensure our whole system was stable for each of the overclocks. There is always great debate about what is and isn't stable. Remember, we were trying to simulate an average user when coming up with this stability testing and with time limitations there is only so much we can do. We feel this is a very good, well rounded stability test though for projected 24/7 use:

• 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

The key factor in any stability testing is that everyone has different stability needs. For your own stability testing, do what you need to make sure is stable, not what someone else does. The standards are OCCT and Prime95 but if you mostly game, make sure you have a lot of extended gaming sessions in your testing...not that you will mind ;).