Okay, so I wanted to get some input from the masses. I haven't had any luck getting a continuously stable OC on my system (below). Course, my mobo isn't well known for easy OC'ing. Anyhow, I'm considering the idea of the "Pencil mod" as it sounds simple, and reducing Vdrop is probably a good thing. So I'd like to get some advice or input on that issue.

Also, I read on another forum that people are flashing their 680i LT SLI boards (which usually use P07 BIOS) to the P31 BIOS which is for the 680i SLI (not LT) boards. I've read everything from better OC's, better stability, to people being able to OC with lower Vcore settings than before.

Anyone here have any input or experience with flashing the P31 BIOS instead of the P07?

Thanks ahead of time!

Sadly, the problems are due to the chipset itself; the only real solution is to go with a better-chipset MB.

Fortunately I already know that much! lol I've strongly suggested to several people on Tom's not to buy 680 motherboards (I try to steer people toward Intel chipsets). But, my questions were for input on people's experience with the "pencil mod" and flashing the P31 BIOS to a 680i LT model.

I have the P31 bios on my XFX 680i LT and have my Q6600 overclocked to 3.4Ghz stable.

I dropped the CPU multiplier to 8, put the QDR to 1700 and DDR to 850 and bingo. CPU core voltage runs just below 1.44v and its spot on.

Mobo = XFX 680i LT (flashed with P31 680i Bios)
Ram = 4Gb Corsair Dominator PC-8500
GPU = BFG Geforce 280 GTX OCX SLi
PSU = Coolermaster M700
Sound = X-Fi Fatal1ty



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