The best stable frequency we’ve been able to get from this processor is 4.20GHz, and both the LANParty motherboards were able to achieve this frequency while maintaining complete stability.
Besides testing for maximum clock frequency, we also checked the maximum base clock frequency. The LANParty JR X58-T3H6 was limited to 214MHz which is still an impressive result, while the LANParty UT X58-T3eH8 was happy at 220MHz. The end result saw us use a 200MHz base clock frequency with a 21x clock multiplier which got us the 4.20GHz overclock on both motherboards.
We were unable to just raise the clock multiplier of our Extreme Edition processor as we did on the Asus P6T Deluxe, for example. The DFI boards limited the multiplier to 24x and the only way to get around this was to enable Turbo Mode and set a higher multiplier there.
Something else we noticed when overclocking was that both DFI boards tended to over-volt the Core i7 processor. For example, when setting the voltage to 1.3750v in the BIOS, we were getting reports as high as 1.4050 when stress testing in Windows. This is not a common occurrence when testing other X58 motherboards. The increased voltage raised the CPU temperature considerably, forcing us to reduce the voltage within the BIOS.
While our overclocking adventures were successful with both the LANParty UT X58-T3eH8 and LANParty JR X58-T3H6, we had to spend a bit of time fumbling around in the BIOS to get them. Simple 3.60GHz and 3.80GHz overclocks came all too easy, as they tend to do. However getting to 4.0GHz and beyond required quite a lot of fine tuning.
These LANParty motherboards are certainly designed for tech savvy users with some overclocking experience under their belt. The range of tweakable settings is impressive, though many of them are labeled in a way that we feel many users will be confused by. Still, for those willing to spend the time playing around in the BIOS, we guarantee that you will be rewarded.
