Those who’ve done their homework about overclocking Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors knows that the processor bus can often become a problem. The motherboards and chipsets of today have a hard time handling the extreme bus speeds the Core 2 Duo processors can be pushed to. Deciding to go for a 500MHz bus speed isn’t something you just decide to do but our overclocking guru Robert “Crotale” Kihlberg has now been ridiculously close using ABIT’s new AW9D-MAX motherboard. With a couple of nice voltmods Crotale has managed to reach a bus speed at 499.99MHz, pretty close we have to say.
ABIT AW9D-MAX was modified to sport the following voltages; 2.08V MCH, 1.71V Core, 2.42V DIMM and 1.30V FSB. The processor used was an unlocked Core 2 Extreme X6800 which ran at an 9x multiplier with focus on the bus speed. A compressor cascade was used to cool the processor. Except from a screenshot at 499.99MHz FSB Crotale managed to go through SuperPi 1M at 495.8MHz FSB, quite impressive. But we have a feeling there is more to expect and we can guarantee you more high octane Core 2 Duo overclocking here at NH the upcoming weeks.
