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Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H P965 Express Core 2 Duo Motherboard Review
Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H P965 Express Core 2 Duo Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
The Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H is one of least expensive P965 Express motherboards out there. Onboard goodies include a PCI Express x1-based Gigabit network card and an Intel Azalia High Definition 7.1 channel audio codec.
 84% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Foxconn Oct 03 2006   Max Page  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H

P965 Express and Core 2 Duo Overclocking

Overclocking Results:
stock max. oc
motherboard speed: 266 mhz

352 mhz

if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

The Intel Core 2 Duo 'Conroe' E6600 processor runs on a 1066 MHz FSB (266 MHz motherboard clock speed) which means it's already faster than what any Intel Pentium D 840 will overclock too from a 800MHz (200MHz) starting point. As usual before the overclocking began, PCSTATS set the Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 memory frequency to run in DDR2-533 mode, this way the memory will not hold the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H motherboard back from hitting it's highest possible speeds.

The P9657AA-8KS2H also supports lowering the CPU multiplier to 6x, so we set the Core 2 Duo E6600 processors to that so we'd have one less bottleneck.

Starting at 266 MHz FSB the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H's clock speed was increased in small 2-3 MHz intervals. Overclocking with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor is still somewhat of an unknown experience for me so I wanted to take things nice and slow.

Yet from the start Foxconn's P9657AA-8KS2H motherboard showed it was definitely up to the overclocking challenge, and it handled each increase in clock speed very well. In fact the P9657AA-8KS2H did not give us any problems until 325 MHz. Getting past that speed required the Intel P965 Express chipset voltage to be increased slightly (0.24V).

The road was smooth sailing from 325MHz right on through to the board's maximum overclocked speed of 352 MHz! Anything further caused instability in our trials, and thus could not be guaranteed. An overclocked speed of 352 MHz is definitely very quick, and this makes the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H one of the fastest P965 Express motherboards PCSTATS has tested to date!. It's nice to see that the P965 Express chipset overclocks this well with the Core 2 Duo processor. Me thinks this might just be the sleeper upgrade hit of the year...

BIOS Options and Tweaks:

Looking around inside the Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H BIOS we soon discovered that Foxconn has really increased the amount of overclocking options available to the user. Yippe!!

The P9657AA-8KS2H BIOS includes basic memory timing adjustments, and in particular note that memory clock frequency goes as high as 800 MHz. It was set to 533 MHz for our overclocking purposes.

The FSB can be adjusted from 200-600 MHz FSB in 1 MHz increments, CPU voltage goes as high as 0.3V above stock, DDR2 voltage goes as high as 0.6V above stock and the MCH voltage to 0.24V above stock.

Up next, benchmarks of this 'Conroe' based Core 2 Duo system!

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Contents of Article: Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H
 Pg 1.  Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H P965 Express Core 2 Duo Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  FoxONE and External SATA
 Pg 3.  Intel P965 Express and ICH8 chipsets
 Pg 4.  The Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H Motherboard Highlights
 Pg 5.  — P965 Express and Core 2 Duo Overclocking
 Pg 6.  Test System Specs / Sysmark 2004
 Pg 7.  Benchmarks: Office Productivity, SiSoft Sandra
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: Sandra 2005, Super Pi
 Pg 9.  Benchmarks: PCMark05
 Pg 10.  Benchmarks: 3DMark05
 Pg 11.  Benchmarks: 3DMark06, FarCry
 Pg 12.  Benchmarks: Doom 3, Quake 4
 Pg 13.  Conclusions: Intel Core 2 Value all the way?

 
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