ECS 945G-M3 and C19-A SLI Motherboards

Users interested in tweaking their systems will be happy to see that the C19-A SLI board includes quite a bit more options for overclocking than the 945G-M3 does.

ECS C19-A SLI: The BIOS A Few Good Options

It's nice to see that this BIOS allows some adjustment of voltages, namely the DIMM and CPU voltages. This should definitely help when trying to reach higher and more stable overclocks.

Along with memory and voltage control, the Performance Options menu allows you to adjust the front side bus speed, which happens to be shown as the quad data rate (QDR). In this case, the default FSB is 200MHz (200MHz x 4 = 800MHz QDR). FSB can be increased all the way to 1300MHz QDR (325MHz x 4). Memory speed and timings can also be adjusted.

ECS C19-A SLI: Overclocking Put the Pedal to the Metal

Overclocking with the C19-A SLI was quick and painless. With our Pentium D 840, we were able to crank the FSB to 235MHz (940MHz QDR) without making any voltage adjustments. After a couple small voltage bumps for memory and the CPU, we were able to get a stable overclock to 253MHz. At this speed, the CPU was clocked at 4.048GHz.

We were impressed that we reached over 250MHz, especially considering that this board isn't aimed at enthusiasts. Casual overclockers should be happy enough with the BIOS options. As always, your overclocking mileage will vary.