ECS PN2 SLI2+ (680i SLI) Motherboard Review

Overclocking Results

Overclocking the ECS PN2 SLI2+ was actually rather easy. The board either posted, or it restarted. This certainly makes things nice when you are trying to overclock the board. I did not have to do a clear CMOS one time when working with the board.
At the defaul multiplier this board came aweful close to matching the overclock performance of the Asus 650i board. Actually, I am not sure you can say that is was really any different. We were able to get 401fsb out of the Asus 650i board, which was the highest overclock we have been able to get on our e6600 CPU. The ECS came within 1… hitting 400 fsb, which is a VERY good showing for this board.
Here is a CPU shot of the default multiplier overclocking on the PN2 SLI2+ board.

We saw a totally different story when we changed the multiplier to its lowest option (6x). While the Asus was able to reach an astounding 496fsb, we were only able to sqeek out a humbling 431fsb on the ECS PN2 SLI2+ motherboard. I was actually very surprised at this, as I have seen a site or two that reviewed this board and were able to get over 470fsb. Nevertheless, as it always is with overclocking, you never know what you are going to get with any item, whether it is a motherboard or a CPU. I would like to think that the issues we had with the board when using the 6x multiplier were related to our motherboard only, since we have seen other have success. Here is a screen of our 6x multi overclocking…

Overall, it is hard to complain about a board that is able to reach your CPU’s ceiling when overclocking. With the ability to run your ram linked or unlinked, there essentially is not much of a reason for the average overclocker to use a 6x multi anyways, so it may just be a moot issue. Just for reference, our extremely successful overclocking adventures with this particular CPU can be seen in our ASUS P5N-E SLI review, and our Foxconn 975xAB review.

Ok, stick a fork in it, this thing is done, so let’s wrap it up!