It's not a myth.Originally Posted by Timoleros
You shouldn't see more than a 100 mhz difference between most of the higher end boards, and, of course, the BIOS matters too. The BIGGEST factor in how fast the cpu's will go is in the CPU itself.
The difference between boards is the VRM's, which handle power and loads to the cpu. One board may get you slightly lower voltages or slightly higher speeds than another, in that regard. For instance, one user was able to decrease voltage by 0.01v by switching from P8p deluxe to Maximus 4 extreme. That's a small but still noticable boost.
The chipset is still the same, so it's not like you're trying to compare a P45 vs an X48 or 780i. The IMC, which used to be the northbridge, was a critical factor in how far you could push the cpu's before the core i7, although some CPU's had weird FSB walls. With the IMC on the chip itself, the board is mainly responsible for handling the I/O and delivering stable voltages and amps, while the overclock potential mostly resides in the cpu itself.
BIOS can also play a part, although I have no idea how. I remember in a UD7 BIOS, one beta bios made people have to raise their voltages to get stability (same clocks weren't stable as on the previous bios), BUT they got higher 3dmark scores with the new bios. So what was going on there? Who knows...you literally would have to have a bios coder participating on this forum to know what is being changed, when something like that happens.
Now there IS a difference in using a $250 board and a $100 board (not even sure if you can buy a $100 board). The $100 board's VRM's are a lot cheaper, with far fewer phases, and thus the voltages will not be as strong/stable, and that can limit overclocking.
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