SiS and overclocking generally tend to go together like oil and water, so we weren't expecting much from either the Intel or AMD platform in that respect.

Starting with the Intel 656 chipset, we first lowered the memory frequency so it wouldn't the hold the motherboard back, then started increasing FSB slowly from 200MHz. The ECS PF88 Extreme hit a maximum speed of 237 MHz with the Pentium 4 installed. We knew that it was the motherboard which had maxed out since the processor can clock much higher with stock voltage and the memory was not even running at stock speeds yet. Not bad for an ECS motherboard though.

AMD overclocking was more limited than with the Intel set up, but then again an enthusiast would not buy a motherboard like this for overclocking purposes. With no multiplier or voltage controls and a maximum motherboard clock speed of 232 MHz we didn't expect much.

The motherboard had no problem running at the maximum setting of 232 MHz, though we had to lower the memory frequency to run at 166 MHz mode. With additional frequency adjustments and voltage adjustments in the BIOS, the ECS PF88 Extreme might turn out to be a decent overclocker, for AMD processors at least.

The ECS PF88 BIOS:

We'll be looking at the Intel BIOS first. Here in the DRAM Clock/Timing Control we have the DDR2 memory timing adjustments. There are quite a few settings here and tweakers will enjoy pushing the system as much as they can.

In the Frequency/Voltage control section we can change the FSB from 200-450 MHz in 1 MHz increments and there are also a whole host of memory multipliers. The maximum voltage you can add to the CPU is 0.75V and memory 1.5V.

When the SIMA A9S is installed we get DDR RAM (not DDR2) memory options since the Athlon64 CPU still uses traditional DDR memory. The amount of tweaks here is less than we expected but should be good enough for the average user.

As you can see, Socket 939 overclocking is not very exciting. The only option that we have is to adjust the motherboard frequency between 200-232 MHz in 1 MHz increments.

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: intel pentium 4 540 amd athlon64 4000+ clock speed: 16 x 200 mhz = 3.2 ghz 12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz motherboards: albatron px925xe pro-r (925xe)** gigabyte ga-8anxp-d (925x)** msi 915p neo2 platinum (915p)* dfi lanparty 875p-t (i875p)* asrock 775v88 (pt880)* gigabyte ga-8n-sli royal (nf4-sli intel)** ecs pf88 extreme (sis 656)** asrock k8 combo-z/asr (ali m1689)* soltek sl-k8tpro-939 (k8t800 pro)* epox 9nda3+ (nf3 ultra)* albatron k8x890 pro ii (k8t890)** gigabyte ga-k8nxp-9 (nf4 ultra)** epox ep-9npa+ ultra (nf4 ultra)** msi k8n neo4 platinum (nf4 ultra)** gigabyte ga-k8nxp-sli (nf4 sli)** msi k8n neo4 platinum/sli (nf4 sli)** dfi lanparty nf4 sli-dr (nf4 sli)** ecs pf88 extreme (sis 756)** videocard: asus x800xt/vtd* msi rx800xt-vtd256e** memory: 2x 512mb crucial ballistix pc5300 2x 512mb mushkin pc3200 l2 v2 hard drive: 74gb western digital raptor sata hdd cdrom: aopen 52x combo drive powersupply: seasonic super tornado 400w software setup windowsxp build 2600 intel inf 7.00.10 nforce4 6.53 via 4in1 4.55v sis beta driver catalyst 5.4 windowsxp build 2600 nforce4 6.53 via 4in1 4.55v sis beta driver catalyst 5.4 benchmarks sysmark 2004 business winstone 2004 content creation 2004 super pi sisoft sandra 2004 pcmark04 3dmark2001se 3dmark05 aquamark3 comanche 4 x2: the threat ut2003 ut2004 doom 3