Need help choosing Z370 motherboard for i5 8600k

[martin.carline]

Hey guys,

I am struggling to find sufficient information on the web (and that I understand), so really need some help choosing a motherboard to overclock i5 8600k to 5ghz.

Ideally I want to spend around £90 and I have the following options on Amazon Prime and Ebuyer -

ASRock Z370 Pro4 - £89
GIGABYTE Z370P D3 - £88
MSI Z370-A PRO - £90

I will be also buying 16gb of DDR4 3200Mhz RAM, and I will be gaming only - I don't do anything else apart from browse and watch Youtube, use word and excel for work etc. I also have a GTX1060 6gb Zotac Mini. I have an 850 evo 250gb SSD and a couple of HDD's. Also have a TP wireless card to hook up to it from my old motherboard as well as a couple of fans - so nothing special to plug into the motherboard. Noctua NH-U14S is the cooler I have also which I think will be more than enough to keep it cool (hopefully).

I appreciate that you can't always get to 5hz and that you are playing the lottery with whatever CPU shows up at your door, but I'm guessing I'm asking the question of - which Z370 will give me the best chance of getting there?

 

[aswindamara]

Both are good.

 

[rodolphe.viard]

Hi Martin,

Personnaly, I have the 8600k paired with the MSI Z370 SLI PLUS which is the same board as the MSI Z370-A PRO.
I've managed to bring mine up to 5.2GHz.

What you need to know about motherboard to overclock is the number of phase which deliver the tension/current to the processor. The higher the number of phase, the more stable will be the tension/current. The "Phase" quality matters too (better have 6 good phases than 8 of low quality).

The Z370 A PRO has 10 (pretty strandard now) high quality phases which is more than enough to overclock.
Furthermore, the first PCIe port is armored and I prefer the MSI BIOS.

So for me, better go with the MSI Board.


Rodolphe

 

[martin.carline]

Both are good.

There are three to choose from. Any more thoughts on WHY you'd choose a particular one?

 

[rodolphe.viard]

If this can help:

The ASRock Z370 Pro4 has the old audio chipset and hasn't good VRM cooling (necessary for the sake of longevity).
The GIGABYTE Z370P D3 has not enough power phases and hasn't USB C.


Rodolphe.

 

[martin.carline]

Hi Martin,

Personnaly, I have the 8600k paired with the MSI Z370 SLI PLUS which is the same board as the MSI Z370-A PRO.
I've managed to bring mine up to 5.2GHz.

What you need to know about motherboard to overclock is the number of phase which deliver the tension/current to the processor. The higher the number of phase, the more stable will be the tension/current. The "Phase" quality matters too (better have 6 good phases than 8 of low quality).

The Z370 A PRO has 10 (pretty strandard now) high quality phases which is more than enough to overclock.
Furthermore, the first PCIe port is armored and I prefer the MSI BIOS.

So for me, better go with the MSI Board.


Rodolphe

Thank you for the fantastic answer. I was initially going to buy the ASRock, but you've convinced me to go with the MSI. Could I please be a little cheeky and ask you to share your overclocking settings? I have previously overclocked on my very old P55 motherboard, and all I had to do was increase the multiplier and the voltage, but it appears that 8 years later it got more complicated lol. I've noticed there are things like ATX instructions which allow you to lower your CPU frequency so it doesn't stay at 5ghz all the time, and lots of other settings.

If you could be so kind as to share your settings so I can attempt to match them as the overclocking videos all use different settings

 

[rodolphe.viard]

The first Goal of overclocking is to find the minimum voltage required for a given frequency
First, at stock, note your frequency and voltage you can read during stress test.
You put them in manual mode in your bios.
Then, you have two ways :

1°/ Better performance :
With stock voltage, bump your multiplier until it's not stable then bump voltage (increments of 0.025-0.05V) and so on.
Once you've reach the stable frequency you want, lower the voltage as much as you can as long as it remains stable.

2°/ Better thermals :
Keep stock frequency and reduce voltage as much as you can until it's not stable.

For 1°/ and 2°/, once you're done with your tweaking and that everything is stable for your usage, you can re-enable power saving features as C-States and put the voltage on adaptative to let the voltage and frequency fluactuate with the load.


Tips: stay below 1.38V and 85°C during stress test for daily usage.


I can give you my settings but it will be different on your setup.
CPU ratio :52
Avx offset:-2 (so your processor will be at 5GHz when AVX instructions kicks in)

CPU Voltage : adaptative + offset (carefull, it can overshoot so go easy on this)
This, combined with C States and EIST let the voltage fluctuate with the load

CPU Voltage : 1.385V
CPU Voltage offset : -0.015V
CPU SA Voltage : 1.18V
CPU IO Voltage : 1.17V
C states : enable (dectect the "state" of the CPU)
C1E : disable

EIST : enable
This, combined with C States and Adaptative voltage let the frequency fluctuate with the load

Turbo boost : disable



Rodolphe.

 

[martin.carline]

The first Goal of overclocking is to find the minimum voltage required for a given frequency
First, at stock, note your frequency and voltage you can read during stress test.
You put them in manual mode in your bios.
Then, you have two ways :

1°/ Better performance :
With stock voltage, bump your multiplier until it's not stable then bump voltage (increments of 0.025-0.05V) and so on.
Once you've reach the stable frequency you want, lower the voltage as much as you can as long as it remains stable.

2°/ Better thermals :
Keep stock frequency and reduce voltage as much as you can until it's not stable.

For 1°/ and 2°/, once you're done with your tweaking and that everything is stable for your usage, you can re-enable power saving features as C-States and put the voltage on adaptative to let the voltage and frequency fluactuate with the load.


Tips: stay below 1.38V and 85°C during stress test for daily usage.


I can give you my settings but it will be different on your setup.
CPU ratio :52
Avx offset:-2 (so your processor will be at 5GHz when AVX instructions kicks in)

CPU Voltage : adaptative + offset (carefull, it can overshoot so go easy on this)
This, combined with C States and EIST let the voltage fluctuate with the load

CPU Voltage : 1.385V
CPU Voltage offset : -0.015V
CPU SA Voltage : 1.18V
CPU IO Voltage : 1.17V
C states : enable (dectect the "state" of the CPU)
C1E : disable

EIST : enable
This, combined with C States and Adaptative voltage let the frequency fluctuate with the load

Turbo boost : disable



Rodolphe.

Awesome! You've been extremely helpful