Motherboard doesnt have the 'power' to overclock?

[jasonhickman17]

Why is it that people say certain motherboards are not able to overclock a chip to a certain level, should all motherboard in theory have enough power to push any chip as far as it wants as it only has to down-convert the amount of power coming to it from the PSU, since the PSU outputs 12V and the chips run up to a max when overclocking reasonably around 1.4V.

Will my gigabyte Z170-HD3P be able to overclock an i7-6700K to 5GHZ if the chip is able to and with sufficient cooling? I will probably not be running the chip at that but more in the are of 4.5-5.0.

Thanks for your input on this post!

Jason H

 

[TJ Hooker]

Motherboards have VRMs (voltage regulation modules) that are responsible for stepping down the voltage. VRMs have a limit on how much power they can deliver. I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing it's largely related to how much current the VRM components can handle, particularly the transistors. To handle more power, VRMs can use better components with higher ratings and/or more phases. Another factor is output stability. Even if the VRMs can output a given amount of power, they may not be able to maintain a stable voltage output in demanding situations.

Regarding your other question, no one can say for sure. It depends as much or more on the CPU (i.e. the "silicon lottery") than your mobo. 5 GHz is a pretty ambitious goal.

 

[jasonhickman17]

Motherboards have VRMs (voltage regulation modules) that are responsible for stepping down the voltage. VRMs have a limit on how much power they can deliver. I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing it's largely related to how much current the VRM components can handle, particularly the transistors. To handle more power, VRMs can use better components with higher ratings and/or more phases. Another factor is output stability. Even if the VRMs can output a given amount of power, they may not be able to maintain a stable voltage output in demanding situations.

Regarding your other question, no one can say for sure. It depends as much or more on the CPU (i.e. the "silicon lottery") than your mobo. 5 GHz is a pretty ambitious goal.

So is there a certain compliance that the VRM's have which shows the end user how far the mobo can go. As for the 5Ghz it is more of an objective i would like to reach and most likely overkill for what i need. The i5-6400 is running at 4.5Ghz right now after some stress testing and staying under 65C at all times! It was unstable with the last PSU which made me think i wasnt overclocking properly but it was just a bad PSU.

Thanks for the input!

Jason H

 

[TJ Hooker]

Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to know for sure what your mobo's capabilities are beforehand based on the specs. Your best bet is to try and find a professional review and see how it performed during overclocking. You can also look at the number of power delivery phases (in general, more phases is better), but there's no guarantee.

 

[jasonhickman17]

Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to know for sure what your mobo's capabilities are beforehand based on the specs. Your best bet is to try and find a professional review and see how it performed during overclocking. You can also look at the number of power delivery phases (in general, more phases is better), but there's no guarantee.

Well thanks for all of your time and help. Time for some reviews, at the time i bought it on solid recommendations, that was before i even considered overclocking my CPU now i am running an OC'd CPU 24/7.

 

[Tradesman1]

There are tons of things that play into OCing, you want a good mobo for your base, you hope (pray) to get a good CPU of the model you choose, you need a good solid PSU, , good CPU cooler, Good case with good air flow....and possibly most important - YOU, your patience and skills 😉

 

[jasonhickman17]

There are tons of things that play into OCing, you want a good mobo for your base, you hope (pray) to get a good CPU of the model you choose, you need a good solid PSU, , good CPU cooler, Good case with good air flow....and possibly most important - YOU, your patience and skills 😉

My patience, not sure if i even know what that means 😛 I think that the CPU that i got was actually pretty well made in terms of overclocking abilities as i was able to, today, reach 4.7GHZ with 1.4V at 48C max after 1Hr of testing with Prime95 but i needed to flash the BIOS out of the F5G BIOS as i was getting many boot issues. So now i cannot overclock but one thing that i did find was i was not able to increase the voltage passed 1.4V as the motherboard did not seem to be able to output that much. So i think i have found the limits of this mobo, not the chip but by the time that i upgrade the chip i will have either upgraded the mobo or i will be upgrading the mobo at the same time. The EVGA 750W PSU should be sufficient for OC'ing right? Its the NEX750B. And the cooler that i am using right now is the H110I GTX which is capable of handeling my current CPU at under 50C at full load for an hour so i think that should be fine but an upgrade to the EKWB Predator 360 is in mind for the future. As for the case airflow i am watching for the noctua 140's or 120mm fans to come on sale to fill up the case with as they are quiet and work well right now i am using the corsair 780T with the stock fans and it is alright for airflow but could use more fans 😉

Jason H

 

[Tradesman1]

Sounds good

 

[jasonhickman17]

Sounds good

If you dont mind me asking what cooler are you using on your skylake build in your sig?

 

[Tradesman1]

At the moment I've got a Lepa EXllusion in there. Have also tested with their Aquachanger 240, a Seidon 120, a Nepton 240M and on air cooler the 212 EVO, the H7 and a GTS V8. I tend to play with components alot, also have run numerous GPUs (single, XFire and SLI) and sets of DRAM