The Problem With Overclocking On Non-Z170 Chipsets

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Unless these specially designed motherboards are still at or close to the same price as their normal counterparts you might as well go with Z170. Not just for the OCing, but for all the extra features.
 
That's wrong. It's all wrong. You got it all wrong. That's not how it works at all.

Just kidding. I figured I'd say it before one of the article terrorists comes along and does. Preemptive contrarianism. Now they have no reason to do so. Seriously, good to know. Thanks for the info.
 
Because there weren't any boards specifically designed for this purpose yet, on chipsets other than Z170. Normal H170, B150 and other chipset boards can't overclock the locked chips like the ones specifically designed for it. Really, it's kind of ridiculous to have to "design" an overclocking board for a locked chip. If you can "do" it, on non-Z hardware without having to invest significant resources into developing a new product that will require it to be more expensive than it's incapable siblings, then great. Otherwise, you might just as well get an low end Z board.
 


This is a good question, and I have an answer for you. As of right now, there are only five non-Z170 LGA1151 motherboards that have been announced and are capable of overclocking. Four of the motherboards are from ASRock, and aren't available for purchase yet.

Then there is the one motherboard from Super Micro that has been out on the market, but Super Micro did not reveal that the motherboard was capable of overclocking CPUs until earlier this week at CES. There were rumors that it was able to be overclock CPUs, because Super Micro sent the motherboard to an overclocker who competes in overclocking competitions and has set world overclocking records before to have him test out the motherboard and reported that it was capable of overclocking, but we weren't able to confirm his story until now. Others using the motherboard likely didn't expect to be able to overclock and thus didn't try to even if they noticed the base clock option available. Even if they did, because the Super Micro board doesn't disable Hyper-Threading, just C-states, anyone owning the motherboard could have easily overlooked that the board wasn't using C-state modes. I witnessed this first-hand at CES a few days ago, and confirmed this info with several companies over the week, which is the only reason we are aware of it now. That is why you are reading about it on Tom's Hardware first, hard work and journalism, getting you this out before anyone really has a chance to learn it the hard way. :)
 


Haha well glad you enjoyed the post. Lot of work went into this one, so feel free to spread this around to anyone asking about it :)
 
Most of these drawbacks also exist when over clocking non-k cpus on Z170 boards, i.e. loss of c-states and avx instructions (what I'm guessing Asus is referring to when they mention losing "some" instructions sets). Loss of HT is new though, and probably the most troubling.
 


You don't lose AVX instruction support or the ability to use c-states when overclocking on a Z170 motherboard.
 
Really? Keep in mind, I was referring specifically to overclocking non-k CPUs via changing the BCLK on Z170 boards. I had read a number of places that this disables c-states and disables (or at least negatively effects) AVX support. I'm pretty sure even it was even mentioned in the release notes for the new BIOSs than enabled non-k OC from a couple of mobo brands like ASRock.
 
Interesting read. However, it's not supprising. We can't get everything we want for the cheapest price. :)

It's risky for sure, for me personally, there is no way I'd buy a modified OC mobo for at least half a year.

Plus, another thing to consider is that YOU DON'T NEED TO OVERCLOCK! I feel like a ton of people are being caught up into this lie that you need to overclock your CPU to make your system feel great. When in reality, overclocking is 100% optional. The only time you truly need to overclock is if your doing extreme rendering, extreme gaming with EXTREMELY powerful graphics cards, or you have one of the cheapest CPUs on the market.
 
I do not need to overclock. It is more of this thing of having a 4.0ghz i5 3570k, for almost 4yrs, that a 3.4ghz Xeon almost seems wrong. Granted it will fold better, which is what I would be after, but the psychological aspect is still there.
 
Ill stick to my AMDs thanks, no restricted overclocking, among many other things, CMON ZEN! ill wait.

Heck, im still running a 6 year old x6 1090T @ 4.2GHz on Air and a 970. no issues with games here as long as i dont try 4K! lol
 
I'm more interested in overclocking non-K CPU on Z170 motherboard, which makes way more sense given the small price difference between Z and non-Z motherboards.

If you guys at TH don't come up with an article on the subject I'm sure some other website will ...
 
Unless these specially designed motherboards are still at or close to the same price as their normal counterparts you might as well go with Z170. Not just for the OCing, but for all the extra features.
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well here's some good news for you then.
IIRC, Asrock have stated in another article on Toms that their non-Z OC boards will sell for less than the equivalent H or B boards, meaning they'll actually be super cheap compared to a full-feature Z board.
 
Well, unless they can all fix the HT issue like SuperMicro has, I find this of extremely limited use. While the core i5's won't suffer really, the whole point of being able to OC is to extract maximum performance. This becomes more obvious when you lose the advantage of HT with the i3's and the i7s.

To that end, a relatively inexpensive Z board will probably wind up being the way to go for those who are serious about overclocking.
 
Ill stick to my AMDs thanks, no restricted overclocking, among many other things, CMON ZEN! ill wait.

Heck, im still running a 6 year old x6 1090T @ 4.2GHz on Air and a 970. no issues with games here as long as i dont try 4K! lol
Click to expand...

You'll still need a overclocking friendly "K" or "FX" chip for best results, methinks. But yes, hopefully even with the unified socket we'll see little or no overclocking restrictions based on the chipset. It's a ways off though so at this point it's all very "we'll see". I wish them luck, they need it.
 
What is the word on the Z-270 models of motherboards, perhaps someone knows of a rumor that it will enable these types of OCing that will run as wished, that is, without negative repercussions for non-K cpus. I know they are not due until middle of the year at the earliest, but it is those I yam waiting for unless I get an infusion of moola.

I realize this is not in the realm of this article, but it is what is on my mind every time I read of the newest technology.
 


Too soon to know what they will allow.
 
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