After our successful experiments with raising the clock generator frequency, we decided to simply overclock our test CPU. The CPU cooling was provided by the regular AVC Z7U7414001 air cooler. The memory we used was Corsair CMX512-3200XLPRO on Samsung TCCD chips.

During this overclocking test se set the CPU clock frequency multiplier to its nominal value, but raised the Vcore to 1.55V. In these conditions we managed to overclock the CPU easily up to the same level as we could do with other mainboards. The results look as follows: clock generator frequency reached 240MHz, CPU frequency grew to 2.88GHz, the memory frequency was 206MHz with 9:10 divider.

At that point we were almost ready to state that there are no hidden traps in overclocking done with Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 platform. However, we were pretty puzzled with what happened next. During our stability test of the overclocked system, which we performed with Prime95 utility, the system suddenly shut down. And it wouldn’t boot again, no matter what we did. The verdict was: mainboard death.

Luckily there was another Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 we had at our disposal at that time, so we could continue our tests, however, there were more consequences to this dramatic failure. Our investigation revealed that the mainboard died because of the failed capacitor in the CPU voltage regulator unit. We sent the mainboard back to Sapphire for further examination, but nothing could help our poor CPU at that point. It rested in piece, too.

This unpleasant incident saddened the overall impression left by the incredible list of overclocking friendly options and our excellent experimental results. Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 mainboard is designed specifically for overclockers. It suits perfectly for CPU overclocking. However, we have some concerns about the CPU voltage regulator. We only hope that we were simply unlucky this time, and that this is not a typical problem of this model.

In conclusion a few words about monitoring. The mainboard allows controlling seven voltages, three temperatures and rotation speed of one fan. Unfortunately, there are no tools to manage the CPU fan rotation speed, and this is a serious drawback of Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 from our standpoint.

However, there is one more comment about hardware monitoring features. For some reason the mainboard we had didn’t have any tools for monitoring the CPU temperature. The mainboard allows controlling the temperature of the CPU voltage regulator, North Bridge and the “internal environment” temperature inside the case. The processor thermal diode serves only to protect the CPU against overheating, and doesn’t report any temperature values during operation, which is very likely to upset a lot of hardware enthusiasts.