Core 2 motherboard overclocking roundup

MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Edition

Price $249 Street Price $247 Supplier MSI Website www.msi.com.tw
Chipset 975X + ICH7 Max CPU voltage 1.58 Max DDR voltage 2.4

This board did not detect our USB key for firmware updating through DOS, but the Windows update worked like a charm. The PowerUP neither steps a foot wrong nor stands out from the crowd, its overclockability acceptable for a 975X series board. Frustratingly it still follows MSI’s botched DDR slot colour coding, which is confusing for setting up dual channel.



ASUS P5W DH Deluxe WiFi

Price $429 Street Price $358 Supplier ASUS Website www.asus.com.tw
Chipset 975X + ICH7 Max CPU voltage 1.7 Max DDR voltage 2.4

We expected big things out of the overclock on this board, due to the online buzz surrounding it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get them. To be mentioned is ASUS’ excellent way of giving back live RAM speeds associated with ratios in the BIOS, and a firmware update means the onboard sound is ready for Vista as well. Still, we’d look at Intel’s option first.



Intel BX975XBX2

Price $TBA Street Price $320 Supplier Intel Website www.intel.com
Chipset 975X + ICH7 Max CPU voltage 1.6 Max DDR voltage 2.8

This baby shows Intel knows how to make its boards better than anyone else. With an excellently featured, if somewhat unfamiliar BIOS at first, this 975X ripped past even the premium offerings from other companies in the overclocking space. If you want 975X, get this board. The only downside is it might be a bit hard to obtain unless you go OEM.



ABIT AW9D-Max

Price $349 Street Price $314 Supplier Altech Website www.altech.com.au
Chipset 975X + ICH7 Max CPU voltage 1.725 Max DDR voltage 2.65

The Max is an impressive looking board with the usual elementary layout mistakes made by ABIT. Two SATA ports, an FDD port and power connector sit at the bottom of the board, wreaking havoc for cabling. Solid capacitors are a nice touch, it’s just a shame about the blingy lights – which can fortunately be turned off.