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| Overclocking Results: |
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When it comes to overclocking, nVIDIA's 680i SLI has
been receiving a lot of good praise. This is the first such board PCSTATS has
had the opportunity to thoroughly flush out, so we'll be tweaking with a lot of
high expectations this time around. With an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 and 2GB of Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 memory installed, we'll be giving the ECS PN2 SLI2+ motherboard its best
opportunity to reach high speeds.
The memory was first set to run at DDR2-533 MHz mode, and starting from 266
MHz the overclocking adventure begins!
Without much difficulty the ECS PN2 SLI2+ motherboard broke the 300 MHz barrier. Then
just as quickly, at 335 MHz FSB, the system started to show
instability. To resolve this, the processor voltage was increased to 1.4V.
The next roadblock came up at 380MHz FSB; here the
ECS PN2 SLI2+ system BSOD'd while loading into WindowsXP. Increasing the nForce 680i SLI chipset voltage
to 1.4V quickly brought the situation back to normal, and I
was able to continue on for a good 20MHz more without much trouble. Next, in order
to reach 400 MHz the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor voltage had to be increased
to 1.45V.
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A good steady
supply of voltage to the CPU is important, and here we can see Intel
spec'd high quality capacitors and power circuitry with dedicated cooling
solutions.
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Despite all these voltage adjustments, the ECS PN2 SLI2+ would did turn out to
be the best overclocking Intel Core 2 Duo motherboard PCSTATS has yet tested. It
topped out at a blistering 450 MHz FSB in the end. To reach that speed,
the chipset voltage needed another boost to 1.5V, and the optional chipset heatsink attached. The
latter is definitely a must because the nForce 680i SLi out out a lot of
heat...
Up
next PCSTATS gets right to the heart of the matter with a full suite of
benchmarks!
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