Abit AN-M2HD mATX Motherboard
Overclocking
Published: 20th January 2008 | Source: Abit | Price: £52.01 |
Overclocking
To start testing the overclocking capabilities of the AN-M2HD I started by entering the BIOS and accessing the Softmenu. From here I could alter the (rather limited) options allowing me to reach the boards maximum potential.
From here, with the CPU Operating speed and Voltage Control settings, i had the ability to adjust the FSB, PCI-E clock, CPU and DDR2 voltages. For these tests I also set the RAM divider and HyperTransport multipliers to lower figures to make sure they didn't impede the CPU.
With a very low stock Vcore of 1.2V I really didn't expect to get much out of the little X2 4200 used in this test. I was reasonably impressed with the end clock however. While maintaining a 3 hour orthos session the AN-M2HD managed to keep the 4200+ stable at 2615mhz.
While this result is no world record for 1.2v Vcore its quite impressive. There was one oddity that I encountered that I feel I shout point out however. As you can see from the CPU-Z screenshot the FSB obtained was 237.5mhz, when the BIOS setting was 240mhz. The board would boot and operate up to 2.8ghz, but it wasn't 100% stable.
I encountered another oddity next. Unfortunately I can't tell whether it's the motherboard or the CPU restricting the overclock as this is the first AMD based board we've had the opportunity to look at. But increasing the voltage didn't improve the headroom on the chip at all. With an upper limit of 1.50v the chip wasn't at all Orthos stable over 2.6ghz.
Finally the conclusion...
Most Recent Comments
Good review there, Ham 
I might build a second system on a board like that, processor for £40ish and any old ram, bargaintastic!
I might build a second system on a board like that, processor for £40ish and any old ram, bargaintastic!
Ye the board is great VFM, even though AM2 get's shown up a little
nice review hambo nice mobo for a budget build..
nice mobo for a budget build..
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See how it fairs here