Motherboard selection for i3-6100

[fromthecoast]

I am trying to nail down a selection for my build. I will be using an i3-6100, 16GB of RAM, SP550 SSD, R9 380 4GB. I realize that the BLCK overclocking options might have gone away with some of the motherboards out there, but I believe that ASRock has a few in the Hyper line that support overclocking (B150 HYPER and H170 HYPER) but they won't support much overclocking of the RAM. Based on what I am seeing, you don't get much from overclocking RAM and I am guessing that if I will have to sacrifice either OC'ing RAM or CPU, I would choose the latter for more gain. Am I thinking along the right lines? As far as I know, there are no longer any for sure motherboards that will support RAM and CPU overclocking on non K processors.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Neither are worth it as far as overclocking goes. Just get a nice board to run your setup on.

 

[apk24]

OCing the i3 will give you ~10-15% extra performance and 90% extra headache worrying about which bios updates are safe to install and overall system stability.

 

[Chugalug_]

Yup, the only motherboards that support it are the ASRock K4 series, but with an i3 that money is better spent getting a better CPU which will have better stock performance.
As mentioned above though, overclocking a low end CPU will not result in very high gains, and will likely be more trouble than it is worth.
For an R9 380 an i3 will be quite a decent bottleneck, so in your case I recommend getting an i5 6500 (ideally) or a 6400, and grab a decent motherboard such as a Asus H110M-A.

 

[chenuki]

It's unfortunate you're getting some misinformation here. I want to help clear it up:

Non K OC is very doable and you're not limited to ASrock boards at all. Most Z170 boards have Non K OC disabled as default, but you can see there is a huge list of boards with BIOS you can use to enable Non K OC: http://overclocking.guide/intel-skylake-non-k-overclocking-bios-list/

With Z170 chipset/board, you can tune BCLK in 1 Mhz increments which is a requirement. Not sure if non-Z boards support it.

My i3 6100 thread is here for your reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3056579/8ghz-core-6100-air-bclk.html

Another member with similar question as you: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3067167/overclock-6100-msi-pro-gaming.html

Hope this helps!

 

[Chugalug_]

It's unfortunate you're getting some misinformation here. I want to help clear it up:

Non K OC is very doable and you're not limited to ASrock boards at all. Most Z170 boards have Non K OC disabled as default, but you can see there is a huge list of boards with BIOS you can use to enable Non K OC: http://overclocking.guide/intel-skylake-non-k-overclocking-bios-list/

With Z170 chipset/board, you can tune BCLK in 1 Mhz increments which is a requirement. Not sure if non-Z boards support it.

My i3 6100 thread is here for your reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3056579/8ghz-core-6100-air-bclk.html

Another member with similar question as you: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3067167/overclock-6100-msi-pro-gaming.html

Hope this helps!

This list is outdated, it was last updated in December last year, before the BIOS update to all intel motherboards which disabled the feature.
http://wccftech.com/intel-forcing-ban-nonk-oc-feature-skylake-motherboards-bios-rolling/
Don't go flaunting misinformation as facts when you haven't checked your sources correctly.
Pretty ignorant really....
THIS is the new list.
http://overclocking.guide/updated-msi-z170-non-k-overclocking-guide-new-bios/
It appears to only list MSI motherboards however, but the Asrock K4 motherboards are intended for this.

 

[apk24]

It's unfortunate you're getting some misinformation here. I want to help clear it up:

Non K OC is very doable and you're not limited to ASrock boards at all. Most Z170 boards have Non K OC disabled as default, but you can see there is a huge list of boards with BIOS you can use to enable Non K OC: http://overclocking.guide/intel-skylake-non-k-overclocking-bios-list/

Not saying it isn't doable. Merely pointing out that it may be more headache than it is worth. It is not guaranteed and you are at constant risk that a BIOS or CPU Microcode update will break the overclock. Furthermore, I wouldn't expect significant performance advantages.

 

[chenuki]

This list is outdated, it was last updated in December last year, before the BIOS update to all intel motherboards which disabled the feature.
http://wccftech.com/intel-forcing-ban-nonk-oc-feature-skylake-motherboards-bios-rolling/
Don't go flaunting misinformation as facts when you haven't checked your sources correctly.
Pretty ignorant really....
THIS is the new list.
http://overclocking.guide/updated-msi-z170-non-k-overclocking-guide-new-bios/
It appears to only list MSI motherboards however, but the Asrock K4 motherboards are intended for this.

If you're suggesting that a 4 month old BIOS will not work today as it did 4 months ago then I believe you don't have a good understanding of how BIOS and CPU microcode updates work. Microcode updates are implemented on a voluntary basis by board manufacturers via BIOS updates. These updates are then applied at boot by the system BIOS every time. You will frequently see whether microcode updates exist by reading the BIOS release notes. Older BIOS without the microcode instructions are exactly what's needed for Non K BCLK OC and exactly what the overclocking.guide website provides. Newer modified BIOS from that updated list accomplish the same thing by ignoring microcode updates. There's nothing wrong with using an older BIOS if a system is running fine.

 

[chenuki]

Not saying it isn't doable. Merely pointing out that it may be more headache than it is worth. It is not guaranteed and you are at constant risk that a BIOS or CPU Microcode update will break the overclock. Furthermore, I wouldn't expect significant performance advantages.

Not saying it's the easier than flipping up a multiplier on K chips, but performance advantages can be substantial. Please see my short test results from last week: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/1119218 You will find my i3 OC is #2 out of 1558 Core i3-6100 results. OC i3-6100's 145 points on single core bench is faster than i7-6700K's single core (132 pts), and nearly as fast as peak overclocked i7-6700k single core (147 pts).

 

[fromthecoast]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have been trying to respond but my phone would not cooperate. I think I will be leaning toward a Z170 based board because the reasons for doing a 1151 build with DDR4 was to have a future upgrade path. I just think I might wait until the new processors to come out before I do anything differently than the 13. I should also point out that I mainly do racing sims and retro gaming. I don't really get into the cutting edge FPS games that are so graphic intense as tend to gravitate for gameplay over graphics.

 

[fromthecoast]

Also a few other things that I should throw in.

-I don't necessarily care about SLI or Crossfire capability. If I find a board that meets other criteria with or without SLI/Crossfire support then I would want it.

-I do think that I want an M2 slot and Type C USB for future connectivity possibilities

-4 ram slots

-I would like an options for good audio as I have liked the ALC1150 so far on another board

-Overclocked RAM capability without "special" or certain types of RAM. Currenlty have 16GB of 3200 capable RAM

-I "think" I would lean toward the spectrum of having more power phases to support overclocking, but I may need some input into whether that is really a big deal

-SATA Express - Apparently this is a non issue as the technology is not used?