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Ordered P5K64 WS Evolution myself. Lets see how it will perform. While Rampage Extreme is certainly OC king, with 16-phase VRM, there's one thing which I really don't like on that board - slot layout. P5K64 WS is much better when it comes to expandability and still able to achieve comparable FSB overclocking (600+ Mhz on Core 2 Duo). Nothing beats the potential to insert five 16x PCI-E cards on one motherboard!

Rhuwyn wrote on 2017-11-03, 01:18:

I never understood why you would overclock and older system vs putting together a newer system that would do a better job without needing to be overclocked. As older components continue to fail overclocking just further increases the rarity even more.

As far as the board is concerned, because I dont overclock much there wouldn't be any reason for me to pay a premium for a board like this. Don't get me wrong I'd love to have one, but even 200 for any motherboard (even a brand new modern one) is hard for me to rationalize to myself.

Some of us find it fun to push systems to their limits relardless if they are old or new. In my opinion the socket 775 platform is probably the top overclocking platform of all times.

My favorite X48 chipset motherboard is my Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 (same board as the DS5 and DQ6 DDR2) that I bought new back in 2008. It's perhaps not one of the best FSB overclockers but it's very sturdy and I haven't managed to blow a mosfet eventhough I really tried. Sadly I'm not sure it still works as I had forgot that I had the bare board stored ontop of a stack of boxes on a top shelf (practically touching the ceiling) and when I was going to move a box the X48-DS4 plunged 2.7m (9ft) and as it hit the ground with a corner the impact chipped a large wood chip from the rock hard parquet flooring. The board is very heavy so the impact could have crushed VRM mosfets or cracked the chipsets BGA soldering. I guess I find out if the X48-DS4 still works the next time I feel like pushing my Pentium 965 EE to it's limits! 😁

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-X48-DS4-rev-13#ov

When it comes to older socket 775 boards I like the Asus Commando and the Abit AB9 QuadGT, both with Intel p965 chipset. The Asus board can do really high FSB and the Abit board is probably the fastest first generation Core2 board clock for clock.