can i overclock an i5 6500 on an asus z170-a?

[Ratul Chakrabarty]

is it possible to overclock the i5 6500 on an asus z170-a or z170-k motherboard, i just want to know if anyone else has done it or not and is it safe compared to overclocking an unlocked processor?

 

[superninja12]

a few mhz , however to keep everything safe NO.

dont do it, its not even worth it you will run your whole chip.

 

[anti-duck]

You will be able to overclock it with the BCLK, I've heard of people getting their i5 6500's to ~4.5GHz with just a BCLK overclock, the ASUS Z170-A also has 5 way optimisation which could do the BCLK overclocking automatically for you if you're worried.

You can use the BCLK overclocking method on any motherboard currently, but Intel are going to put a stop to that at some point.

 

[Twigman]

Its possible, you need a modified motherboard BIOS (freely available from google). There should be no problems with it, the only reason we have the i5-6400,-6500 and -6600 is (aside from giving intel 3 SKUs) is that they all operate at different clock speeds at the same wattage (65W), so the only downside is that a 6500 might require more power to get to a given clock speed than a 6600, but I wouldn't imagine by much. ~

 

[InvalidError]

It isn't any more or less risky but because CPUs are binned, you can expect to get much less overclocking headroom the lower you aim in the CPU lineup.

Since Skylake CPUs have separate base clocks for the CPU cores and everything else, all you need is a motherboard with a programmable CPU clock generator separate from the rest, which most Z170 boards have, to overclock any Skylake CPU.

I wouldn't recommend automatic overclocking due to many people reporting obscene over-volts from using automatic OC on previous generations' boards.

 

[saint19]

is it possible to overclock the i5 6500 on an asus z170-a or z170-k motherboard, i just want to know if anyone else has done it or not and is it safe compared to overclocking an unlocked processor?

Possible? Yes...

Worth it? No, since the few MHz that you gain will not have impact in the performance rig.

 

[InvalidError]

Worth it? No, since the few MHz that you gain will not have impact in the performance rig.

Few MHz? Since Skylake has separate input clocks for the CPU core, it isn't limited to the 3-7MHz BCLK overclocks of previous CPU generations. People have overclocked Skylake i3 and non-K i5 by 500-800MHz using Skylake BCLK overclocking.

 

[Ratul Chakrabarty]

Worth it? No, since the few MHz that you gain will not have impact in the performance rig.

Few MHz? Since Skylake has separate input clocks for the CPU core, it isn't limited to the 3-7MHz BCLK overclocks of previous CPU generations. People have overclocked Skylake i3 and non-K i5 by 500-800MHz using Skylake BCLK overclocking.

so what would you suggest i buy the i5 6500 for now with the z170-a motherboard and if i want i can buy a cooler and OC later
if any game demands it?

 

[Guest]

It's possible to increase a few MHz. But it will not affect the performance of the computer in a noticable way.

 

[InvalidError]

so what would you suggest i buy the i5 6500 for now with the z170-a motherboard and if i want i can buy a cooler and OC later if any game demands it?

For BCLK overclocking on Skylake, you don't even need a Z170 chipset, only a motherboard that implements independent clock generators for BCLK and PCIe. Having more options for next to no extra up-front cost doesn't hurt.