An overclocker acheived almost DDR5-8000 with ASRock’s Z690 Aqua OC Motherboard and Teamgroup memory

Air cooled 12900K, Teamgroup delta RGB DDR5 and Asrock Z690 Aqua OC motherboard
(Image credit: David Miller (MllrKllr))

A US based overclocker has achieved an impressive DDR5-7960 MHz speed with Asrock’s Z690 Aqua OC motherboard on air cooling.  The result was impressive in that it was achieved with an air cooled system made up of an Intel Core i9 12900K, Asrock Z690 Aqua OC motherboard and a TeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB 16GB module. MllrKllr  (via wccftech) is confident that he can achieve more when he switches over to ln2 cooling.

ASRock’s Z690 Aqua series motherboards are ultra premium options that sit at the top end of Asrock’s range. They compete with the likes of the Asus Maximus Extreme, Gigabyte Extreme Waterforce and MSI Godlike. But what's interesting is that there are two Aqua variants, one of which is an OC version with just two RAM slots. It's a little strange that such a motherboard even exists as a board that's designed for extreme overclocking doesn't need all the bells and whistles that come included with a flagship motherboard.

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The memory used was a TeamGroup T-Force Delta RGB DDR5-6400 module which is rated at 40-40-40-84 at 1.35V. It contains the OC friendly SK Hynix IC’s. On a side note, we happen to have this exact memory kit on hand for a review and will be putting it through its OC paces. Stay tuned for that in the coming days. 

Overclockers are always striving to achieve higher speeds and benchmark scores. We saw the same thing happen in previous generations. At one time, DDR4-4000 was a very good OC but over time, DDR4-5000+ became possible, even with XMP! DDR5 is still at the dawn of its development and speeds and latencies will continue to improve. It’s only a matter of time before overclockers can crack the 10000MHz barrier. As long as we can actually buy the stuff! 

Chris Szewczyk
Hardware Writer

Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an 'educational PC' that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he's gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.

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