But Not Below 200MHz!

Oddly enough, the automatic overclocking does not happen below 200MHz. Once we set it to 199MHz or slower, the ASUS motherboard remained clocked at the set FSB speed.

Take a look at these screenshots of CPU-Z when the FSB was set to 199MHz.

ASUS P5AD2 Premium @ 199MHz FSB

As you can see, there was no hanky-panky going on once the FSB was set below 200MHz!

ASUS P5AD2 Premium @ 199MHz FSB

Conclusion

If we are correct, ASUS has done another "PEG Link Mode" on the industry. Only this time, they are messing with the FSB and memory bus.

While a 2MHz boost in FSB speed may not seem like much, it's actually more than enough to give their motherboards a noticeable boost in performance over the competition. Remember, any change in FSB speed is also reflected in the processor and memory speeds. There will be a linear increase in performance and benchmark scores.

In addition, the P5AD2 motherboard also tightens the memory timings. In our testbed, it tightened the memory timings from 4-4-4-12 to only 4-3-3-8! That's sure to give an additional boost to its performance and benchmark results.

To be honest, we cannot approve of this secret manipulation of the FSB speed and memory timings. The only reason for this feature to exist would be to give the motherboard an unfair advantage in any performance comparison.

Most hardware reviewers would not have bothered checking the actual clock speeds with CPU-Z. Therefore, ASUS could very easily get away with such shenanigans. Of course, not only ASUS is doing this.

Yeah, before you go "Aww.. Everyone else has been doing that for ages!", this is ASUS that we are talking about. ASUS is the biggest motherboard manufacturer in the world with a history of excellent design and quality. Being a top-dog in this industry, one would hardly expect them to follow the rest of the pack in such matters.

So, we are frankly pretty disappointed that ASUS chose to implement such a feature in their motherboards. We expected better of them.

Questions & Comments

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