Overclocking Experiments

As soon as we found out that the board increases the base processor clock, we got concerned that the board may have some problems during CPU overclocking. Luckily, it turned out that the board set the frequencies above the nominal in a correct manner. We did experience some problems during CPU overclocking on ASRock P55 Deluxe, but they were way less numerous than during our experiments in nominal mode.

At first we couldn’t find out the maximum base clock, at which the board could remain stable. We lowered the processor clock multiplier, increased the frequency, but the mainboard either wouldn’t start at all, or would start and then would reboot on its own. We had to clear CMOS, which actually means that “Boot Failure Guard” wasn’t working properly. Looked like the board was sending wrong voltage to the CPU, because once we locked it at 1.2 V, the problems disappeared. However, they have disappeared not quite completely, since we could only confirm stability at 200 MHz, and not 210 MHz as on Asus or Gigabyte boards.

By the way, trying to identify the source of the issue I noticed that I couldn’t disable Turbo Boost technology. There was simply no option in the BIOS that could allow doing so, although it used to be in the “CPU Configuration” sub-section, for sure. It turned out that “Intel TurboMode tech” parameter simply disappears when we select “Load Performance Setup Default” option. Theoretically, it is quite possible, suppose that the Optimized mode requires Intel Turbo Boost technology to be up and running. That is why the parameter is being hidden to ensure that the user doesn’t disable it without knowing. However, it would be really nice to have it back when we disable the unpredictable Optimized mode.

We could dedicate the whole entire investigation to complex and unobvious connections between different BIOS parameters of ASRock P55 Deluxe mainboard. Enabling “Load Performance Setup Default” not only switches “Overclock Mode” parameter to Optimized and hides “Intel TurboMode tech” parameter, but also enables “ASRock VDrop Control” preventing the processor voktage from dropping under load. However, if we use “Intelligent Energy Saver” to enable brand name power-saving technologies, this protection immediately gets disabled. So, we are facing another dilemma here: either “ASRock VDrop Control” or “Intelligent Energy Saver”. And why don’t other manufacturers offer us the same mutually exclusive choices?

But let’s get back to CPU overclocking. Not only the maximum base clock on ASRock P55 Deluxe turned out lower than by its competitors. We had to stop our overclocking progress at 177 MHz instead of 180 MHz on Asus or Gigabyte mainboards.

However, unlike Gigabyte solution, the CPU installed in ASRock P55 Deluxe lowered not only its multiplier but also its core voltage in idle mode.

The difference in maximum CPU overclocking between Asus or Gigabyte and ASRock mainboards is only 50 MHz. this is a truly insignificant number that doesn’t seriously affect the performance, as we will see later on. However, at this point we encountered one more problem: ASRock P55 Deluxe mainboard doesn’t know how to adjust the rotation speed of the processor fan depending on the core temperature. We do remember that we used to have some problems with automatic fan rotation speed adjustment on ASRock mainboards before. They use the readings off some diode from “around the processor socket” that reports extremely low temperatures. As a result, the mainboard’s response to CPU temperature increase was way too late, so we couldn’t use automatic fan rotation speed adjustment feature during CPU overclocking.

This time things got way worse. ASRock P55 Deluxe mainboard offers formal functionality for that in the BIOS. However, unlike all other boards, enabling automatic adjustment doesn’t mean that your fan will immediately lower its rotation speed. By default, the speed is at its maximum – Level 9. If you want to lower it to some acceptable level, you should pick Level 4 or Level 5.

45 °C is the threshold temperature, after which the fan rotation speed should increase. However, this temperature rose to 57 °C during our overclocking experiments, and the fan rotation speed remained unchanged. 57 °C is the reading take off the same diode from “around the processor socket”, and in reality the core temperature was already at 88 °C. This is when I terminated the test not to risk the CPU health. From that moment on all the tests were performed with the fan working at its maximum rotation speed.

 As a result, ASRock P55 Deluxe gets a satisfactory mark for overclocking success. It has lower maximum frequency, lower overclocking results and it can’t properly adjust the rotation speed of the processor fan. The table below sums up the overclocking related features and functionality of ASRock P55 Deluxe solution: