Overclocking:

Where stock performance has often tilted in favor of the 975X, overclocking hasn't been one of its strong suits. This is not a problem for the P35 chipset. In fact, it's arguably one of the strongest offerings to date that rivals that of the 680i chipset. The P35 can effortlessly leave the 975X in the dust, especially under default Auto BIOS settings. The previous ASUS P5K3 Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition easily reached 450MHz FSB under AUTO settings and began topping out around 475MHz. Both the Formula and Extreme scaled to 500MHz using Auto settings in regards to FSB, Voltages, Memory, and Memory Timings. With a bit more fanatical tweaking of the BIOS, each platform reached 510Mhz which is still entirely excellent. Since this isn't much of an increase or really worth risking your components, the 500MHz limit is still fantastic.
 

The biggest reasons for the scores being so different is still due to the performance differences between the DDR2 on the Formula and DDR3 on the Extreme. That kind of extreme extra bandwidth makes a big difference in every test in regards to the DDR3's higher frequencies. The newest INTEL 1333MHz FSB processors can make more efficient use of the faster memory. Every game also roughly gained a 15 to 20 percent gain when overclocked. Even if you don't overclock, you will still be able to play your favorite games.

And just to be thorough, water cooling on both the CPU and chipset still topped out at 500MHz FSB Auto and 510MHz manual settings. This reveals that the Cool Stack 2 is doing its job quite sufficiently whether air or water cooled. And stability remained perfect in either environment. If nothing else, water cooling was much quieter than the two included optional fans for cooling off the motherboard.

Connecting Water Cooling

Supreme FX, Power, and Reset

And what about the Fusion chipset water block integrated in to the heat pipes? While the temperatures were typically around 42 C idle and 52 C load, water cooling didn't bring the temperatures down quite as far as hoped. The temps dropped about 6 C, but this didn't afford any extra performance in terms of overclocking. This isn't really a big surprise given the design of the integrated Fusion. Every water block to cross the test bench in the past year have all had a matrix machined in to the block's copper internal base. The Fusion has a flat internal surface which means there isn't any kind of turbulence or have an increase of surface area that would draw more heat for the water to carry away. In all truth, this isn't so much a bad thing since it really means that the system is optimally tuned and really could have done without the extra block.

Summary and Conclusion:

Overclockers will undoubtedly find these boards to be quite aggressive and eager to keep going. Both motherboards eventually reached settings that would prevent a successful boot that didn't require any major case entry at any point. The system would eventually reboot itself coming back to the BIOS screen on its own and give you the option to press F1 to enter the BIOS. And other than purposely using the rear CMOS Clear Switch to see if it worked, the system will boot up using the last working BIOS settings. And again, at that point, other changes could be applied to achieve stability or realize that the system had maxed out.

Stability is absolute and the quality of components is top notch. Each system was a pleasure to test and were nearly effortless performers. The motherboard bundle is great and offers just about every cable possible as well as plenty of them. If you would like the potential option to squeeze some more out of your system, there are extra cooling fans included that don't get too loud. They are a bit quieter than, say, 975X motherboards to cross the test bench and they are noticeably loud. As with all ASUS' top boards, the software bundle includes quick and easy tools for tuning or updating your motherboard's BIOS and chipset drivers.

For DDR2 users, the ASUS Blitz Formula is the king of the crop. It doesn't come as cheap as you may like, but if you're an avid enthusiast who wants a very reliable platform and to tap in to that Core 2 Duo's hidden power, this is most definitely your board of choice. It's quite capable of pushing your DDR2 memory to its limits which is really the only word of caution that can be offered. If your DDR2 isn't top notch, you can leave the memory option at AUTO and let the system decide for you. Or, you can set it to a frequency of choice you know works well and overclock just the processor's FSB which can afford you some much greater performance.

The ASUS Blitz Extreme is an equally aggressive platform and a great performer. In terms of overclocking, it has out performed any other preliminary DDR3 supported motherboard thus far as well. The platform is just as resourceful when offering up more aggressive memory timings that you can squeeze from your memory kit. Despite the first generation of DDR3 coming to the market, the Extreme makes great use of the modules. Once again, leaving the BIOS options set to Auto achieved a matching 500MHz FSB as the Formula.

The Formula and Extreme make up one powerful team. The duo offers a powerful option to both DDR2 and DDR3 users that offers great overclocking. Given that Intel's Core 2 Duo can do so much more with platforms like these, why not?

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