III. EPP, The Bad Axe Style [Extreme Performance Profile]

I have already covered this before, and what this feature actually does is increase vCore for each multiplier adjustment. It only works with Extreme Edition CPU that I have tested. This ensures that each clock frequency adjustment will have enough voltage to power the overclocked processors. Be forewarned though, make sure you have a very capable power supply and cooling solution before you attempt changing multiplier with this board.

IV. Bootstrap Frenzy, Leap-style Overclock

This should be one of the nifty feature of this motherboard that I have yet to see from other motherboard brand to be implemented succesfully. While this can easily be done with Extreme Edition processor, this feature doesn't come "selectable" in the BIOS with non Extreme Edition processor. Before I mention what are the ways to get this feature working with regular CPU, I'll just elaborate a little more on what this actually do.

As I've said, it is "Leap-style Overclock" because this board allows user to change the bootstrap settings. Currently, bootstrap is the default FSB that the CPU supports during bootup. During the bootstrap procedure, bootstrap is one of the configuration being negotiated. To illustrate, Northwood = 400MHz/533MHz/800MHz, Prescott = 533MHz/800MHz/1066MHz, Gallatin = 800MHz, Smithfield = 533MHz/800MHz, Yonah = 667MHz, Merom = 667MHz, and for Conroe, it's 1066MHz. The bootstrap will still be quadpumped and so it should be divided by four (4) to get the FSB and then multiplied by multiplier for the clockspeed. Again, to illustrate, an Intel® Pentium® D 805 (2.66GHz = 20 x 133) has 533MHz and will run at 533MHz bootstrap. With 20x multiplier, a simple change in bootstrap from 533MHz to 800MHz will equate to 4GHz for the Intel® Pentium® D 805 (4.00GHz = 200 x 20)!

So, how to enable such? Two ways - hard modding the motherboard, or using Intel's Integrator Tool Kit. First, Hard Modding, this would be to short pins 2-3 of the two solder points just above the BIOS jumper settings. Remember that this will void the warranty but opens up all functionality with regards to overclocking. Next is use ITK and change the settings of the FSB Frequency Override to the desired settings, and then update the BIOS with the ITK-bios update file. Note that with the second way, it will impact all processors, that is, all other processors placed in the motherboard will always have the FSB set in the ITK. For example, if bootstrap is set to 266MHz, then an Intel® Pentium® D 805 may fail to boot since 266 x 20 = 5.32GHz!!! So be very careful when doing this. Both ways have its cons.