Overclocking
The big question on everyone's lips is "does the K8N-E lock the PCI bus". Well not quite it seems, but the on-chip SATA and Sil3114 controllers are both driven by separate PLL timing circuits, clocking them independantly of the CPU and memory controller. Hurrah!With AGP also lockable, the main basic components of a hassle-free overclocking experience are present and correct. The graphics card and hard disks can be kept happy while you push the limits of your CPU and its onboard memory controller.
The board would do well to supply an in-BIOS multiplier adjustment option and adjustment of HTT dividers, to complement the generous derived HTT clock range, but you get half of that capability in Windows with CPUID.com's ClockGen software, along with the NVIDIA System Utility supplied on the K8N-E's CD. There's also some scope to adjust Vcore from within Windows too, using Clockgen, but it's imperative that ASUS get proper adjustment of CPU Vcore into the BIOS as soon as possible
Personally, on the test board, I was able to drive a Model 3400+ processor to 10 x 250 using software, in Windows, without any problems at all, my limit being my memory modules (not much range in them around DDR500 at the meagre 2.7V Vdimm max).
It's not perfect, but hopefully a new BIOS can fix the shortcomings. The basics are definitely there with clock-locked SATA controllers the main thing.
