Shripad
Innovator
Ok. So quiet a few people here have bought thi snew 680i chipset board made by asus or thinking of buying it.
But many are unsure about how to get maximum out of this platform.
Unlike previous platforms for Intel C2D processors, this is completely different when it comes to overclocking. It has a steep learning curve. And completely different overclocking options.
This is an attempt to answer your questions and doubts and also act as guide.
The following observations were made after 10 days of playing with this board, reading lots and lots of stuff on other sites such as XS and then experimenting myself.
This only covers the overclocking section. Rest of bios settings are almost same as all other platforms. Pics are mostly self explanatory. I know images are big and i didnt use thumbnail but mods please let it be like this
Extreme Tweaker main screen. This is the overclocking section. Even if the boards are different, the basic settings remains the same.
PCI express frequency page and MCP-SPP link speed.
FSB and memory config
Here comes the beauty of this chipset. It allowed you to overclock memory and processor independently. So your FSB is not restricted by Memory or vice versa.
You can independently set both FSB and Memory clock speeds.
This board does allow you to overclock in sync mode. But then there are only 3 dividers.
1. 1:1 > This will run memory at same freq as FSB. So its basically DDR2 1000 divider.
2. 5:4 > This is DDR2 800 divider
3. 3:2 > This is DDR2 667 divider.
Overclocking
Now this board behaves little different.
Usually people lower their multiplier to get max fsb and basically max out of their memory.
The async overclock takes care of this problem. So there is no need to lower your multiplier. And i strongly advice you dont.
Lowering the CPU multiplier seems to have direct effect on the memory bandwidth of this board. Lower the multiplier, lower the memory bandwidth. So better keep your multiplier to default.
Memory timings
As the basic rule, keep the tight timings than the higher clock. Tighter timings have better performance, and this board lets you choose 1T command rate unlike intel chipsets which always run at 2T.
1T @ 850 Mhz 4-4-4-8 is faster than 1000Mhz 2T.
Voltage control
Now we come to the most important part.
The voltage that affects the most when it comes to overclocking ability and the stability is the CPU VTT voltage. Max it out to 1.55. Rest all is given in the pic itself.
I will add and update this if i find out something new or if any corrections are needed.
So far this should get you started.
Cheers.:hap2:
But many are unsure about how to get maximum out of this platform.
Unlike previous platforms for Intel C2D processors, this is completely different when it comes to overclocking. It has a steep learning curve. And completely different overclocking options.
This is an attempt to answer your questions and doubts and also act as guide.
The following observations were made after 10 days of playing with this board, reading lots and lots of stuff on other sites such as XS and then experimenting myself.
This only covers the overclocking section. Rest of bios settings are almost same as all other platforms. Pics are mostly self explanatory. I know images are big and i didnt use thumbnail but mods please let it be like this
Extreme Tweaker main screen. This is the overclocking section. Even if the boards are different, the basic settings remains the same.
PCI express frequency page and MCP-SPP link speed.
FSB and memory config
Here comes the beauty of this chipset. It allowed you to overclock memory and processor independently. So your FSB is not restricted by Memory or vice versa.
You can independently set both FSB and Memory clock speeds.
This board does allow you to overclock in sync mode. But then there are only 3 dividers.
1. 1:1 > This will run memory at same freq as FSB. So its basically DDR2 1000 divider.
2. 5:4 > This is DDR2 800 divider
3. 3:2 > This is DDR2 667 divider.
Overclocking
Now this board behaves little different.
Usually people lower their multiplier to get max fsb and basically max out of their memory.
The async overclock takes care of this problem. So there is no need to lower your multiplier. And i strongly advice you dont.
Lowering the CPU multiplier seems to have direct effect on the memory bandwidth of this board. Lower the multiplier, lower the memory bandwidth. So better keep your multiplier to default.
Memory timings
As the basic rule, keep the tight timings than the higher clock. Tighter timings have better performance, and this board lets you choose 1T command rate unlike intel chipsets which always run at 2T.
1T @ 850 Mhz 4-4-4-8 is faster than 1000Mhz 2T.
Voltage control
Now we come to the most important part.
The voltage that affects the most when it comes to overclocking ability and the stability is the CPU VTT voltage. Max it out to 1.55. Rest all is given in the pic itself.
I will add and update this if i find out something new or if any corrections are needed.
So far this should get you started.
Cheers.:hap2:
A very handy guide for those who have already moved on to the 680i chipset or who are planning to move on. 
