Overclocking i5 6400....

[alanp1995]

I'm planning to buy an i5 6400 and wanted to invest in a Z-series motherboard, can any Z motherboard overclock this processor? Looking to get the cheapest one possible in the UK. Would also like it to be ATX to be able to SLI my GTX 950's in the future when I get more money saved. Thanks in advance.

[Guest]

It depends on who you buy from ASRock still can, you just have to flash an older bios

[Aereldor]

It isn't a good idea. Intel blocked this through microcode updates through Windows updates and BIOS updates for each manufacturer. Strictly speaking, you can dial back to an older version of Windows and use an older BIOS, but you might lose out on some functionality by not updating.

However, instead of getting a Core i5 6400 and a Z170 motherboard, rebalance your budget. Get an H110 motherboard and a Core i5 6600 (non-k), or even a Core i7 6700 (non-k) if you really need the CPU horses.

Also, why are you looking at GTX 950s in SLI? A single GTX 970/R9 390 is faster and costs the same, and a lot of games don't even support dual-GPU configurations. Not to mention, VRAM doesn't stack in SLI and Crossfire, so you'll be stuck with 2GB of VRAM.

 

Furthermore, simply having an ATX motherboard doesn't make it support SLI. Motherboards that support SLI are actually far more expensive due to how NVidia is with the technology and licensing- they want their cut, and they want a lot of it. AMD's crossfire can be found on cheaper motherboards, but it's still a jump in price.

 

Instead of spending all this extra money, get a budget motherboard, like the Gigabyte H110M-A - since motherboards don't impact performance and this has all the features a consumer/gamer needs - and simply spend the rest on a better CPU and GPU.

[WebPlayz]

17 minutes ago, alanp1995 said:

I'm planning to buy an i5 6400 and wanted to invest in a Z-series motherboard, can any Z motherboard overclock this processor? Looking to get the cheapest one possible in the UK. Would also like it to be ATX to be able to SLI my GTX 950's in the future when I get more money saved. Thanks in advance.

Well. You can't really overclock it. I think the voltage is locked. so you could do a bclk to like 105

[GreezyJeezy]

7 minutes ago, Killstreak said:

Well. You can't really overclock it. I think the voltage is locked. so you could do a bclk to like 105

im pretty sure intel patched that.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

im pretty sure intel patched that.

reverting to an older bios version STILL works

[WebPlayz]

11 minutes ago, GreezyJeezy said:

im pretty sure intel patched that.

Not if you kept the bios like ME on my friend system

[Guest]

ASrock have their "Hyper BLCK Engine" which allows you to overclock locked CPUs.

For example this board: http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20B150%20Gaming%20K4Hyper/

[alanp1995]

9 hours ago, Aereldor said:

It isn't a good idea. Intel blocked this through microcode updates through Windows updates and BIOS updates for each manufacturer. Strictly speaking, you can dial back to an older version of Windows and use an older BIOS, but you might lose out on some functionality by not updating.

However, instead of getting a Core i5 6400 and a Z170 motherboard, rebalance your budget. Get an H110 motherboard and a Core i5 6600 (non-k), or even a Core i7 6700 (non-k) if you really need the CPU horses.

Also, why are you looking at GTX 950s in SLI? A single GTX 970/R9 390 is faster and costs the same, and a lot of games don't even support dual-GPU configurations. Not to mention, VRAM doesn't stack in SLI and Crossfire, so you'll be stuck with 2GB of VRAM.

 

Furthermore, simply having an ATX motherboard doesn't make it support SLI. Motherboards that support SLI are actually far more expensive due to how NVidia is with the technology and licensing- they want their cut, and they want a lot of it. AMD's crossfire can be found on cheaper motherboards, but it's still a jump in price.

 

Instead of spending all this extra money, get a budget motherboard, like the Gigabyte H110M-A - since motherboards don't impact performance and this has all the features a consumer/gamer needs - and simply spend the rest on a better CPU and GPU.

Okay so going by all the comments here, it's not really possible anymore. So going away from Overclocking.... If I want to SLI my 950, what would be a good board and recommended wattage....? I already have 1 Asus Strix 950 OC. Thanks!

[iDeFecZx]

6 minutes ago, alanp1995 said:

Okay so going by all the comments here, it's not really possible anymore. So going away from Overclocking.... If I want to SLI my 950, what would be a good board and recommended wattage....? I already have 1 Asus Strix 950 OC. Thanks!

Sell it and get a 970. Itll be better in the long run

[chiwas]

11 hours ago, alanp1995 said:

I'm planning to buy an i5 6400 and wanted to invest in a Z-series motherboard, can any Z motherboard overclock this processor? Looking to get the cheapest one possible in the UK. Would also like it to be ATX to be able to SLI my GTX 950's in the future when I get more money saved. Thanks in advance.

Pick any of these. And I would recommend 6500 which is like $10 more expensive and 500MHz faster by default.

I got my 6500 stable at 4.7GHz/1.37v.

But before you jump into non-k skylake overclocking there are some drawbacks like disabled c-states, turbo mode, iGPU and temp readings for each core...

40% - 50% overclock on $200 chip is amazing, and you'll definitely feel the difference in games, specially in CPU demanding titles.

 

11 hours ago, Aereldor said:

It isn't a good idea. Intel blocked this through microcode updates through Windows updates and BIOS updates for each manufacturer. Strictly speaking, you can dial back to an older version of Windows and use an older BIOS, but you might lose out on some functionality by not updating.

Not true. They disabled SkyOC via BIOS only.

[Imakuni]

11 hours ago, alanp1995 said:

I'm planning to buy an i5 6400 and wanted to invest in a Z-series motherboard, can any Z motherboard overclock this processor? Looking to get the cheapest one possible in the UK. Would also like it to be ATX to be able to SLI my GTX 950's in the future when I get more money saved. Thanks in advance.

Are you okay with:

1. Having to use an older Bios and never receiving updates ever again.
2. Not being able to monitor your temperatures.
3. Not being able to use AVX.
4. Not being able to use the iGPU.
5. Having all the power saving states disabled.

If you said no to any of the above, then locked 6th gen OCing is not for you. You sure you want to do it?

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, alanp1995 said:

Okay so going by all the comments here, it's not really possible anymore. So going away from Overclocking.... If I want to SLI my 950, what would be a good board and recommended wattage....? I already have 1 Asus Strix 950 OC. Thanks!

What part of 'Bad idea' was I unclear about? I even took the trouble to explain why you shouldn't do it. To simply ignore that is more along the lines of rude and dismissive than it is ignorant.

 

Sell it. A 950 is about $150 new, and you should be able to sell it for at least $100, and if it's under warranty, probably closer to retail price. Put in an extra $50 and get yourself a 390, rather than waste $150 on a new 950, $50 on a new power supply, and $100 on a Z170 SLI motherboard. 

 

Instead, sell your 950, and buy a single 390 instead. If your power supply checks out- fantastic. If not, buy anything from the models recommended in this whitelist that can provide at least 500 watts of power.

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/404921-strmfrmxmns-psu-whitelist/