Overclocking on B660 Of K-CPUs

[Vineet Anand]

Why is it that we can't overclock 12600k or any k variant cpu on a b660 motherboard? Is it a hardware limitation or a software limitation of a motherboard? Is there any way to do so? Please Explain.

[RONOTHAN##]

Intel has the settings to increase the multiplier on those boards locked down. More than likely it's a hardware limitation or else someone would have broken it by now. 

 

That said, it is actually possible to overclock a 12600K on a B660 board, just not any B660 board. There are some motherboards that have external clock gens on them, and what you can do with this is increase the BCLK and effectively overclock the chips without touching the multiplier. You can even do this on the non-K SKUs like the 12100 and 12400. 

 

Does this make a sense to do with a K SKU? No, it's only 2 boards currently (2 more coming in the near future) and they're all about the same price as a low to mid range Z690 board. Multiplier overclocking is a lot less annoying to do, so I wouldn't want to do this unless as a last resort. 

[Shimejii]

Hardware Locked. If you want to OC you have to buy the Z series Boards. Intel Always has done this to make sure you spend more money, Usually the cheaper boards are designed to handle the cheaper CPUS that dont have much voltage.

 

There is BCLK OC but dont do that, its sketchy and can mess up stuff if you arent careful, and overall most CPUS dont have much headroom anymore.