ASUS ROG Series X38 DDR3 Maximus Extreme

BIOS

ASUS' BIOS design has not changed. Using the Award Modular BIOS in tab menu form as we like to call it, it resembles the same BIOS look as the Intel desktop boards. Under the Advanced tab you get your overclocking options under the Jumperfree menu which is the same setup as the older boards used.

Buses

FSB Frequency: 200 - 800 in 1MHz Increments

PCIE Frequency: 100 - 150 in 1MHz Increments

Voltages

CPU Voltage: 1.1v to 2.4v in 0.0125v increments

CPU PLL voltage: 1.1v to 3.0v in 0.02v increments

Northbridge voltage: 1.25v to 2.05v in 0.02v increments

DRAM Voltage: 1.5v to 3.04v in 0.02v Increments

FSB Termination Voltage: 1.2v to 2.0v in 0.02v increments

Southbridge Voltage: 1.05v to 1.225v in 0.05v increments

SB 1.5 Voltage: 1.5v to 2.05v in 0.05v increments

Overclocking

Our overclocking result was quite good. With all the settings we had on tap, we managed to get our system to a stable 527MHz FSB with a 6x multiplier; a very good result for our first X38 test board. While it hasn't managed to hit over the 550MHz mark like some of the better P35 boards (even the ASUS P35 boards are able to do this), more mature BIOS updates will need to come out as Intel is still tweaking this chipset itself.

Important Editor Note: Our maximum overclocking result is the best result we managed in our limited time of testing the motherboard. Due to time constraints we weren't able to tweak the motherboard to the maximum limit and find the highest possible FSB as this could take days of testing. We do however spend at least a few hours overclocking every motherboard to try and find the highest possible overclock in that time frame. You may or may not be able to overclock higher if you spend more time tweaking or as new BIOS updates are released. "Burn-in" time might also come into play if you believe in that.