Overclocking
Without a doubt, the Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus BIOS has all the options and settings for overclockers to use to tweak there system to perfection. How did my overclocking testing fare though?
For reference, I am using the exact same processor and memory configuration that I used in our overclocking testing on both the EVGA 680i and the Asus Striker 680i motherboards late last year. The X6800 Core 2 Duo processor is an engineering sample that allows me to move the multiplier around and I used the Corsair Dominator DDR2-9136 modules for our system memory.
Stock X6800
X6800 set to a 6x Multiplier for FSB testing
Stock memory settings
Above you can see all of the initial CPU-Z screens for our overclocking testing. Note that I moved the multiplier to the lowest level, 6x, in order to make sure that the total resulting frequency when I raised the FSB wasn’t going to be a bottleneck in overclocking.
Here I first jump to 1500 MHz FSB – a very nice speed bump over the 1066 MHz defaults. I think we can go further though…
And my results are somewhat limited to 1700 MHz front-side bus; though I am fairly confident that this board could go higher with some more tweaking. In some cases, I was able to boot at 1850 MHz and above, but I had some stability issues even when using the external heat pipe fin fans that Asus has included with their boards for some time. Other users are reporting MUCH higher FSB settings and Asus claims they have hit 2100 MHz with a single DIMM in their offices.
In all, I’d have to say that the overclocking on the P5N32-E SLI Plus is probably nearly on par with that of the standard 680i motherboards, though as with all overclocking, your mileage will vary. For now, this board isn’t able to topple the overclocking prowess of the original EVGA 680i motherboard.
