Good overclocking motherboard?

[OnyxTech]

Need some recommendations for a good motherboard for overclocking, 600 dollar budget and Z370 chipset, thanks!

[r2724r16]

The Asus ROG Maximus X Apex is the best motherboard for overclocking with a z370 chipset as far as I know.

[Spaceman_Wil]

The Aorus Gaming 7 is great for overclocking. Also Prime shipping!

 

[FAQBytes]

I want to ask you two question:

"Why are you wanting to overclock and how far are you expecting to go?"

[OnyxTech]

3 minutes ago, FAQBytes said:

I want to ask you two question:

"Why are you wanting to overclock and how far are you expecting to go?"

Just trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the CPU, and I wanna go to 5.2Ghz or so.

[Rainbow Dash]

4 minutes ago, OnyxTech said:

Just trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the CPU, and I wanna go to 5.2Ghz or so.

It all depends, quality of cpu silicon, psu quality, motherboard power phases and quality, and cooling. 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

6 minutes ago, OnyxTech said:

Just trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the CPU, and I wanna go to 5.2Ghz or so.

mobo isnt gonna help ya, ive had shitty mobos and maximus boards,  somtimes the shitty boards got me higher clocks then maximus boards, its simply sillicon lottery

[FAQBytes]

13 minutes ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

mobo isnt gonna help ya, ive had shitty mobos and maximus boards,  somtimes the shitty boards got me higher clocks then maximus boards, its simply sillicon lottery

While, yes, the quality of the CPU has the largest influence (And hence, buying off silicon lottery would be the first step), providing a good chip dirty power will cause it to not clock as high.

[DarkSmith2]

Depends what you are planning to do with your RAM and which cooling solution you are aiming for. 2DIMM-only boards are mostly good overclockers. Maximus Hero X and Asrock Taichi are also quite popular overclocking Boards. 

 

But getting a coffeelake chip to 5.2GHz on a 24/7 overclock without custom loop/offset AVX stable is probably impossible.

[MRZL1]

3 hours ago, DarkSmith2 said:

Depends what you are planning to do with your RAM and which cooling solution you are aiming for. 2DIMM-only boards are mostly good overclockers. Maximus Hero X and Asrock Taichi are also quite popular overclocking Boards. 

 

But getting a coffeelake chip to 5.2GHz on a 24/7 overclock without custom loop/offset AVX stable is probably impossible.

This right here!!!

 

Most Z370 MOBOs with today's tech are more than capable of handling an overclock.

 

I came from a 2600k (back when Intel soldered the IHS aka QUALITY!) that I pushed as far 4.9GHZ using 1.35v (wasnt using offset voltage at the time aka 1.35v ALL DA TIME!) on a G1 Sniper 2 using 2x 8gb DIMM DDR3 1600. It was really high for my comfort as a 24/7 build so I dropped it to 4.5GHZ 1.13v. I couldnt get it 5GHZ stable for the life of me. But that is neither here nor there.

 

Hopefully you're sitting down while you're reading this, if not, grab a seat and a drink. I'm going to try and condense this as much as I can since this was my personal experience with the sandy overclocking adventure and like all other things, your mileage may vary. I'm only listing factors to keep an eye out for and not a direct approach on the methodology to the actual overclocking process since that can get very technical and i'm sure there are great guides out in the interwebs discussing this.

 

 

1) Silicon Lottery - This is the most important factor bar none, like a game of poker, you have to try and make due with the hand you're dealt. Some chips (get it? poker and computer both use chips LOL) are just better overclockers than others considering all other things being equal (RAM, cooling, mobo etc...). A good overclocking chip will be stable under full load with little to no extra voltage added. My personal advice, do not chase a number, you will be setting yourself up for failure if you do not reach it. DO NOT try to chase a magical core clock # at the expense of shoving voltage until it stabilizes. Take it a 100MHz notch down and see where you stand. If you're stable with little to no extra voltage juice added, leave it at that. Consider it your BiS (Best-in-Slot) overclock. The silicone gods can be very very cruel and a couple 100MHz will not make a noticeable difference performance wise in ANYTHING you do. Completely disregard what I just said if the purpose is to benchmark and place a spot on a benchmark leaderboard. This is also where exotic cooling methods such as Phase change, LN2 and Liquid Helium come into play.

 

2) Cooling - Not having adequate cooling will dictate how far you go. HEAT is always your enemy especially when you're pushing voltage to stabilize an OC. Getting the heat under control should take precedence over anything. HEAT is what will shorten to lifespan of components.

 

3) Motherboard - Now that you have your chip and cooling factors identified, IMO the aspect of any Mobo you should ONLY be looking at is the power delivery and how many phases it is utilizing if OC is all you care about. I did all of my overclocking without none of the modern day flash I see now on my ROG ZE X399. If i were to do it all over again with Sandy, I would have gone with something like a GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 which had 24 phases since it wouldve been a 24/7 runner vs the 8 phase the G1 Sniper 2 had. Also keep in mind that the phases aren't all dedicated for the CPU. Some goes to the RAM and other neighboring areas. For more in-depth understanding of this I would consider checking out some of Buildzoid's videos or Gamers Nexus as a whole. They both do a really great job diving down the rabbit hole as far the "Knitty Gritty" is concerned when talking about PCB construction/allocation of resources. To summarize, more phases = smoother power delivery = better OC.

 

4) RAM - This one is a mixed bag for me since I went thru 3 sets of different DDR3 modules before sticking with 2x 8GB Dominator Platinum DDR3 1600. As a general rule of thumb the less DIMMs installed, the slower the speed, the lesser the capacity and Single-Sided instead of Double-Sided, the better. The less stress you place on the memory controller in the CPU, the more overclock headroom you have on the CPU when chasing those last few hundred MHz.

 

5) PSU - The more efficient the better. My Corsair AX1200 is still running strong. DO NOT SKIMP on a PSU. Get 1 where your 100% load is equal to roughly half of the capacity the PSU is rated for. IE: 600W drawn at full load, 1200W PSU. 50% is usually where most PSUs are the most efficient and do not waste any excess power based on their respective 80 PLUS rating. I believe the higher the 80 PLUS rating, the more efficient they are when going past 50% but it does come with a cost.

 

6) UPS - Get one that will last you about 10 minutes based on the load your PC/Peripherals will draw at 100%. For me this magical number is 1500VA. You'd be surprised that usually in the event of a disaster, is when your PC will take the longest to save your work/shutdown. I live in an apartment complex and although I have never experienced any troubles with power (Brownouts, Blackouts, Surges etc..) it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it when youre in the middle of OC troubleshooting/backing up. Some UPS's will even filter the power before it reaches the PSU in your PC. Your PSU will forever thank you because it won't need to work as hard.

 

Experience is the sum of all your mistakes, and when it comes to overclocking, you WILL make some since it consists of a "Trial and Error" approach  (hopefully not the detrimental ones like frying your CPU). As the saying goes... Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. Hopefully this post helps you narrow down your choices as far components are concerned when considering overclocking as a priority. Please feel free to correct me/question anything i've mentioned. I'm here to learn as well.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

23 hours ago, FAQBytes said:

While, yes, the quality of the CPU has the largest influence (And hence, buying off silicon lottery would be the first step), providing a good chip dirty power will cause it to not clock as high.

that doesnt explain why some cpus clock better on cheaper boards with worse vrms

[DarkSmith2]

55 minutes ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

that doesnt explain why some cpus clock better on cheaper boards with worse vrms

well there are outliers in everything, this stuff gets mass produced. But generally speaking, you'll mostly have a decently higher chance with the "little" more expansive boards with good VRM's and decent coolers on it to not get limited cooling or clock wise. Silicon Lottery plays just a role in everything.

 

You can have two maximus hero x boards (or any other identical combination of boards) and one of them needs 1.25v vcore for 5GHz and the other need 1.3v with the exact same CPU. You have different types of power delivery and different sensors. F.e. most Asrock Boards will need "less" vcore than those from Asus, but the real power thats going through is higher than displayed/set. But those Fairchild VRMs used by Asrock are also really fast..

 

There are also cheap boards with "good" VRMs but bad cooling on it, will leed into great results but nothing you want to run a high 24/7 OC on. It will just die earlier without changing the VRM cooling solution. In theory mostly anything with a 8phase power delivery should be fine though. Its all about cooling, luck and longevity.

[SliceT]

In overclocking, either Asus or Asrock.
Gigabyte is alright but not really amazing bios for overclock.

MSI, once you start overclock some of the models they get all buggy.