Overclocking the LGA775

     Overclocking the LGA775 is nothing special, and its even easier given that the LGA's are manufactured a bit more modernly then its predecessors. We used nothing more than the SuperSpeed option which we maxed out to 265 on the first try without any kind of voltage adjustment whatsoever. Perhaps this was due to the other quality components that we used such as the OCZ Power Supply, and the Crucial Ballistix memory.

     The first thing that came in mind was that Foxconn had done a good job on their BIOS but we needed MORE MHZ!! After some brainstorming we noticed that SuperStep could be used in windows while adjustments to the voltages could be done in the BIOS. Upon booting into windows with the voltages properly adjusted, we used SuperStep to bump the MHz a bit more. Unfortunately we weren't able to go any more than 10mhz above what the BIOS maxxed out at. Depending how hard core of an Overclocker you are you may see this as a big deal, and some may not...

Just a tad under the Abit AA8 Duramax, but using the 3/4 divider gave us that little bit extra that we needed to achieve some good benchmarks.

Oh yeah... 353Mhz memory bus was something unheard of about 6 months ago!

     For all of our testing we used the following configuration.

Intel Pentium 4 3.0E LGA775
Apollo geForce 6600GT 128mb
Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 2x512mb
OCZ Powerstream 470W Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200.8 400gb HD
Lite On 52x24x52x CDRW

Overclocked...

SiSoft Sandra 2005 Pro

CPU

MMX

Memory

SuperPI

33 Seconds!!

More Benchmarks!

     You couldn't possibly think we would end it there do you? We sure hope not.. For the Overclocked benchmarks we overclocked our card as far as it would go without artifacts. The 6600GT hit 570core and 1050Mhz memory speed. Fairly decent although the stock card clocks are 500/1000... We also used the 3/4 memory divider to place our memory in the 350mhz as mentioned earlier. No other cooling apparatuses were used other than the retail Intel HSF and the Foxconn chipset HSF...

Synthetic Default vs. Overclocked Speed

     Not too shabby given that the video card is not of the flagship variety. The interesting aspect is that the 6600GT is supposedly faster than the ATI 9800 Pro, but it is fairly behind, which makes us think that it is the PCI-X form factor that is at fault. 20k is an easy achievement for a 9800 Pro, with the 6600GT we had to really try, and at 3.7Ghz it should be able to achieve that easier...

Gaming and Synthetic Default vs. Overclocked Speed

     The DOOM3 score is what made my jaw drop. 70fps is an excellent showing for this setup! Check out the COD score!! Aquamark was a strange score, and no matter how many times we ran the benchmark, we still achieved the same scores. Its more than likely a pipeline problem which is a key selling point difference between the 6600 and 6800 series cards...

Conclusion

     Foxconn has been trying like crazy to get their company across as a serious company that wants to appeal to overclockers and hardware enthusiasts. Id say with the 925XE they have achieved that. The board is so silky smooth and absolutely loves to multi task. We had no problems at all with this board other than the voltage settings are in percentages rather than decimals for better understanding, but seeing as how most if not all boards are now starting to use that kind of format, we can't really use that against Foxconn. The 925XE performed just a tad less than our ABIT AA8 Duramax from just a short time ago, but the Foxconn is readily available and very affordable making it a must have for the LGA775 owner.

     The reality of it is that Foxconn still has some homework to do with their BIOS, since we had no problem maxxing it out and had to rely on overclocking to the max of our processor within WindowsXP. Some may say that's not a big deal, but its a little more time consuming and generally inconvenient, when it could be so much easier to do in the BIOS. The 925XE is rich in features and functionality. Its strongest point was its silky smoothness which made itself abundantly clear once the board was flogged more than it should have. Therefore it is definitely ClubOC recommended!!