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More on Overclocking

As always, there were five parts to the successful overclock:

1. Figuring out the fastest stable memory speed
2. Figuring out the fastest stable memory timing
3. Setting the FSB speed and multiplier
4. Getting the right Vcore
5. Sufficient cooling for the processor. 

In order to run at 3.48GHz we:

• set the Vcore to 1.45000
• set the DDR2 voltage to 2.3V
• set the DDR2 timing to 4-4-4-12 @ 870MHz
• set the FSB speed to 435MHz
• used the outstanding ThermalRight Ultra 120 cooler with  two 63CFM 12cm fans in a push-pull configuration

The E6400 is an amazing overclocker; and we managed to set a new record on this motherboard... are you ready for this?

We reached 3.60GHz stable on air cooling!

Mind you, it took more fiddling...

• MCH voltage to 1.55V
• IOH voltage to 1.5V
• FSB voltage to 1.45V
• FSB speed to 450

But we got to 3.6GHz with a 2.13GHz processor!

Actually, we could do most things at 3.64GHz, but we started to get thermal shutdowns.

Basically, despite its somewhat lackluster performance at stock settings, the Asus P5W DH Deluxe turned out to be our best overclocking board for Conroe to date - we were able to leap past our previous Conroe lab overclocking record of 3.48GHz to a whopping 3.6GHz - and came within a whisker of getting 3.64GHz stable!

Conclusion

I enjoyed working with the P5W DH - it was definitely made with an eye towards enthusiasts.

Personally, the WiFi and remote control did not make much difference to me - for HTPC's I tend to use smaller, more integrated boards with lower power processors to allow me to keep the noise level down - but the motherboard DEFINITELY was feature full.

What I did not like about the board:

• performance at stock settings was a bit sub-par; but I am sure a BIOS revision will take care of this
• using one of the four primary ports for the eSATA connection - makes running a four drive RAID5 array more difficult

What I liked about the board:

• the flexibility for setting voltages (cpu core, cpu fsb, dram, north bridge, south bridge)
• the EXCELLENT overclockability
• more I/O on the back panel than you can shake a stick at
  • PS/2 keyboard/mouse, audio including SPDIFF and optical out, TWO gigabit ethernet, firewire, eSata, serial, four USB, WiFi antenna

If it were not for the eSATA connector issue, I'd give this board a "Highly Recommended" award - but even with that isse, I'll give the Asus P5W DH Deluxe a well deserved "Overclocker's Choice" award!

If you want to overclock the heck out of your Conroe, you can't go wrong with this board.