Overclocking is alive and well! PCSTATS has all the details you need to see at a glance to know which board is best. The chart we've compiled below lists the highest overclocked Front Side Bus speeds we were able to achieve while maintaining 100% stability.

Maximum Intel Motherboard Overclocking Results
Motherboards	Max FSB (MHz)	Ranking
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (Intel X38 Express)	525
Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe (Intel P35 Express/DDR3)*	512
MSI P35 Platinum (Intel P35 Express)	504
Biostar TP35D2-A7 (Intel P35 Express)	483
Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 (Intel P35 Express)	482
MSI P6N Diamond (nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI)	478
Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus (nVIDIA nForce 650i SLI)	472
ECS PN2 SLI2+ (nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI)	450
MSI P6N SLI Platinum (nVIDIA nForce 650i SLI)	435
Abit AB9 Pro (Intel P965 Express)	420
Asus P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP (Intel P965 Express)	420
ECS NF650iSLIT-A (nVIDIA nForce 650i SLI)	412
Asus P5N32-SLI Premium (nVIDIA nForce 590i SLI)	410
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (Intel P965 Express)	406
Asus P5B-E (Intel P965 Express)	406
Asus P5W64 WS Professional (Intel 975X Express)	400
Abit AW9D-MAX (Intel 975X Express)	385
MSI P965 Platinum (Intel P965 Express)	375
Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H (Intel 975X Express)	368
MSI 975X Platinum (Intel 975X Express)	360
Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H (Intel P965 Express)	352
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Intel P965 Express)	352
ECS PN1 SLI2 (nVIDIA nForce 590i SLI)	350
Epox EP-5P945 Pro (Intel 945 Express)	350
Biostar Tforce P965 Deluxe (Intel P965 Express)	341
Biostar P4M890-M7 (VIA P4M890)	336
Foxconn G9657MA-8KS2H (Intel G965 Express)	333
Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3 (Intel 945PL Express)	255
Typical Test System Specifications: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz) or E6750 (2.67 GHz), 2GB Corsair Twin2X2048-8888C4DF DDR2 Memory, MSI NX7800GTX-T2D256E. Please see individual reviews for more specific test details. * - Tested with Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.67 GHz) and 2GB Corsair Twin3X2048-1800C7D DDR3 memory. If you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:Overclocking the CPU and Memory, Overclocking the Videocard

The MSI P6N Diamond is not the fastest motherboard PCSTATS has had the pleasure of overclocking for you, but it's certainly not slow. An overclocked speed of 478 MHz FSB is a very respectable figure, placing this MSI motherboard in the top 10 fastest boards tested thus far.

Intel Core logic vs. nVidia Core logic!

If you're going to be upgrading or building a new computer system soon, there is one thing you absolutely have to know.

Intel isn't the only game in town when it comes to motherboard chipsets.

nVIDIA has some very attractive chipsets, it's certainly not fighting for scraps from the table like VIA or SIS.

At the upper end of the scale we have Intel's P35 Express, its X38 Express and forthcoming X48 Express, and nVIDIA's nForce 680i. Remarkable considering the nForce 680i still has the feature set to compete with Intel's latest and greatest!

As we saw in the benchmarks, MSI has put together a very nice performance motherboard in its P6N Diamond. The nVIDIA nForce 680i based mobo sports dual gigabit network cards, an onboard Creative X-Fi 7.1 hardware soundcard and four PCI Express x16 slots among other features.

Where the MSI P6N Diamond really impressed PCSTATS was in the benchmark results.

Those results showed us that at stock speeds the P6N Diamond and its nForce 680i chipset stood in front of Intel P35 Express and X38 Express (on DDR2) motherboards in virtually test. The P6N Diamond is an excellent workstation motherboard (although it would be a shame to get this board simply for that) and despite some lower than expected memory bandwidth results in Sandra, came in top spot in every 3D test PCSTATS threw its way. From 3DMark06 to Quake 4, FarCry and Doom 3 the MSI P6N Diamond is a gaming monster.

The nVIDIA nForce 680i is a pretty good overclocking platform, although not quite at the level of Intel's P35/X38 Express motherboards. The MSI P6N Diamond was able to reach a very respectable 478 MHz FSB. With a retail price of $215 CDN ($227 US, £109 GBP), the MSI P6N Diamond is a steal. Other motherboards in its class usually run closer to $300, so tack on good pricing and a full feature card and it's hard to resist what the MSI P6N Diamond has to offer Intel Core 2 Duo users.

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