ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP motherboard with Intel® P35 Express Chipset.
Intel Q6600 processor.
MSI Nvidia 8600GTS air-cooled graphics card.
8 gigabytes Patriot PC2-6400 RAM.
Western Digital 1 TB GP drive.
Asus DRW-1814BLT DVD-RW drive with LightScribe.
Cooler Master GeminII CPU and motherboard cooler with two Arctic Cooling 120mm PWM fans.
Antec Sonata Designer 500 case.
Antec Pro 120 DBB case fan.
Profile 1 is pretty much stock. Profile 2 significantly increases front side bus speed from 266 MHz to 400 MHz, and increases processor speed from 2.4 GHz to 3.2GHz, without having to increase any voltages. The key changes were enabling load-line calibration (accounts for voltage drop at higher currents) and adjusting GTL thresholds (differentiation between low level 0 bit and high level 1 bit).
FSB speed is particularly important for the current Intel Core 2 Quad processors, as the ‘chip’ is really two dual core chips in one package. Communications between the two is at the FSB speed, as is communications to memory and the graphics card.
| Setting | Profile 1 | Profile2 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ai Overclock Tuner | NOS | Manual | |
| CPU Ratio Setting | 9 | 8 | |
| FSB Strap to North Bridge | Auto | Auto | |
| FSB Frequency | Auto | 400 | |
| PCIE Frequency | Auto | Auto | |
| DRAM Frequency | Auto | DDR2-801MHz | |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto | Auto | Fails at 1 |
| DRAM Timing Control | Auto | Auto | |
| DRAM Static Read Control | Auto | Auto | |
| Transaction Booster | Auto | Enabled | |
| — Boost | 3 | ||
| CPU Voltage | Auto | 1.2875V | Fails at 1.275V |
| CPU PLL Voltage | Auto | 1.50V | Lowest available setting |
| FSB Termination Voltage | Auto | 1.20V | Lowest available setting |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto | Auto | |
| NB Voltage | Auto | 1.25V | Lowest available setting |
| SB Voltage | Auto | Auto | |
| Clock Over-Charging Voltage | Auto | Auto | |
| Load-Line Calibration | Auto | Enabled | Important |
| CPU GTL Voltage Reference | Auto | 0.63x | Important |
| NB GTL Voltage Reference | Auto | 0.67x | Important |
| CPU Spread Spectrum | Disabled | Disabled | |
| PCIE Spread Spectrum | Disabled | Disabled | |
| CPU Settings | |||
| CPU Ratio Setting | 9 | 8 | |
| C1E Support | Enabled | Enabled | |
| Max CPUID Value Limit | Disabled | Disabled | |
| Vanderpool Technology | Enabled | Enabled | |
| CPU TM Function | Enabled | Enabled | |
| Execute Disable Bit | Enabled | Enabled |