My first concern is stability - I could boot into Windows no problem and everything appears stable, but until you push it a bit, you're not quite sure if it's "real". I decided to use Prime 95 to test for both stability and temperature levels at 1.6 and 2.13 GHz.

I inserted a thermocouple under the heatsink next to the CPU core as a second check to on-die temps as reported by CPU Cool. Ambient temps averaged 25ºC during the test period.

Under 100% CPU usage after an hour, the difference between the two is negligible.

The Pentium 725 is a gift from our pals at Intel; according to Intel's S-Spec, the Pentium Ms can run up to 100ºC, so running at 65-68ºC is not even close to dangerous territory. It appears then that the only difference between the 400 MHz part and the 533 MHz part is the multiplier - under the hood, the SL7EG is a tiger waiting to be unleashed and the ASUS Z71A is one way to wake it up.

I have seen some anecdotal reports about the 400 FSB 1.7s and 1.8s doing the same thing, although I have to believe that as the stock speed increases, the percentage of CPUs that will overclock decreases. To check out various CPU specs, go HERE.

To give you some idea of the performance boost, I ran some SiSandra benches for comparison:

No real surprises here - CPU and Multi-Media are about 33% higher with Memory up about 6% (Note: The RAM is rated DDR333). I was going to run 3DMark, but it gave me an "Out of video memory" error - with 512 system RAM, there is only 64 MB of video RAM; over 512 MB, the video bumps to 128 MB.

The ASUS Z71A, as a DTR, looks like a fine choice, considering the no-brainer performance boost from FSB overclocking. I am doing more use testing and will report back on my impressions shortly.

The ASUS Z71A is available from Directron.