Overclocking
For our first round of overclocking tests, we backed off our OCZ memory's timings from 2-2-2-5 to 2.5-4-4-8, dropped the CPU and HyperTransport multipliers, and started cranking on the HyperTransport clock. We were able to get the board stable some 95MHz later, with a 295MHz HT link speed, 3x HT multiplier, and 8.5x CPU multiplier that kept our Athlon 64 FX-53 close to its stock 2.4GHz clock speed. We left that RAM at a 1:1 ratio with the HT link. This is the highest overclock we've had on any Athlon 64 motherboard by about 15MHz, which is an impressive result to say the least.

The OCZ DIMMs we used for this overclocking test are actually only rated up to 400MHz, but the modules use Samsung TCCD memory chips that have proven to be potent overclockers. It's possible that the A8N32-SLI could overclock even farther with memory capable of higher speeds. However, we tried changing the memory clock speed ratio in order to keep RAM speeds down, but doing so didn't allow us to push the board any higher than 295MHz.

Since our overclocking tests were conducted with 2.5-4-4-8 memory timings, the results below differ from those earlier in the review.

Our nearly 50% HT overclock is good for healthy performance gains in Sphinx and Unreal Tournament 2004. However, keep in mind that with a 295MHz HT speed and 8.5x multiplier, our overclocked configuration's CPU is running close to 110MHz above stock.

For our next round of overclocking tests, we swapped in Corsair's "Best for A8N32-SLI" TWINX1024-3500LLPRO DIMMs to see how far they'd go with more relaxed 2.5-4-4-8 timings. The Corsair DIMMs didn't hit 295MHz, but they were stable at speeds up to 260MHz. That's a reasonably good result for high density DIMMs, especially since no extra voltage was required. Adding a little extra voltage didn't improve stability at speeds above 260MHz.

Gains aren't quite as dramatic as we saw with the jump to 295MHz. Still, the extra performance is a nice perk.

As is always the case with overclocking, your mileage may vary. Overclocking success is never guaranteed, and can often depend as much on a system's mix of individual components as it can on luck.