Overclocking:

Our two previous ASRock board reviews did not seem to have found the highest FSB clock using Intel E2140 for various reasons before the CPU crapped out. The P945 chipset was limited by CPU, PCIe Async pushing PCIe bus speed to 120MHz at 352FSB; the P965 board was limited by FSB of the board at about 362FSB. This el cheapo E2140 has given me all the fun I could have with 3 boards.

Let's find out the FSB limit of the 4Core1333-eSATA R5.0.

We arrived at 366FSB by setting the jumpers to 1066 CPU strap making CPU to Memory ratio of 1:1. However, we must set "CPU, PCIe sync" pushing PCIe bus speed to 109 MHz. Using "CPU, PCIe Async" and PCIe bus to 105 or 109 will result to no boot.

Pin mod to increase vcore from default to 1.4v since there is no BIOS vcore adjustment. Other settings include:

1) VCCM Voltage = High
2) NB Core Voltage = High
3) VTT Voltage = High
4) Memory to "Auto"

With too many variables in DDR2 800 memory voltage, it is safe to set VCCM to high (1.99v).


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Increase CPU FSB to 367, PCIe bus speed reduces to 91MHz; again no boot.




It would seem 366FSB is the max this board could achieve, 3Mhz higher than ASRock's own 4Core1333-Viiv P965. It also means I haven't found the Intel E2140 max overclock limit.

To overclock an Intel E4400 becomes easy with 10x multiplier. The CPU reaches its limit at 1.55 vcore via pin mod far before the board FSB limit. 327MHz is the same found in ASRock 4Core1333-Viiv. This time 800 CPU FSB jumpers were set, making the CPU to Memory ratio of 4:5.


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The overclocking process is challenging other than the FSB jumpers. I could start with 200, 266, 333 but anything in between must be at no more than 2-3 MHz increment. Otherwise, clear CMOS and restart from the beginning. The FSB pin-mod that worked well with two previous ASRock boards (945G & P965) does not work with P31 chipset.

Crossfire:



Unlike ASRock 4Core1333-Viiv, not only this board does not require jumper settings for Crossfire to operate but also maintain the use of IDE devices; a trade off for FSB jumpers. The 4-pin molex connector must be connected to the power supply for CrossFire to work properly.