Overclocking
Overclocking is was accomplished by increasing the core voltage from 0.976V to 1.275V and upping the multiplier and base clock until the CPU can no longer complete the HandBrake run. The X99-A managed to run a tad quicker than the Deluxe, surprisingly so, but the results from four different motherboards are within 130MHz of each other. Point is, variations in the CPUs is larger than variation of motherboard overclocking.
We've not retested the MSI and Gigabyte boards since their review. Newer BIOSes claim higher memory speeds, but Asus continues to lead the way, with the X99-A able to break the 3,000MHz barrier with relative ease. The same Corsair Vengeance LPX 2,800MHz DDR4 is used in all instances.
The quoted figures are for the entire system, evaluated at the mains.