Overclocking:

I normally don't overclock much. I do when the CPU is willing with not much voltage increase and can be cooled by stock heatsink or an inexpensive air cooler. In the past, I was able to overclock AMD Dual Core from 1.8G to 2.8G without much fuss; Intel P4 over 1 Ghz from default speed using stock coolers.

Almost all Intel C2D processors are willing to be pushed. With FSB800 low end 2MB and 1MB cache being so inexpensive, I am going to, once again use the E2140 and E4500. I have had a very tough time in getting this board to work with 800FSB CPU. After several days of trying, I finally fired up an email to ASRock. FSB800 CPU requires another jumper setting that was not in the manual to achieve 1:1 memory ratio. The jumper setting is below;





Additionally, ASRock media sample BIOS allows the change of multi (lowering in this case). The subsequence BIOS release version P1.1 with FSB800 CPU enhancement takes away this feature.

Test Setup: Open Bench

Intel E2140

Intel E4500

Seagate 500GB SATA HD

Chaintech 7600GT 610/757

AXERam PC2-6400 2x1GB

LG Cable SHS (3 heatpipes low profile) cooler

Windows XP Pro with latest update

OCZ 420 Watts PowerStream PS

Room temp ~20°C

Intel E2140

I had high hope to reach 100% overclock on the E2140. Although it was able to boot into Windows, it failed any stress test. Here is best it could deliver at reasonable vcore.




Intel E4500



The E4500 hits 3.3Ghz stable. It would go 3.4G requiring higher Vcore which I don't think it will do much benefit in day to day work.