With just a week left in Intel's Skylake platform launch, we have received information from Benchlife that the standard Non-K (Unlocked) chips will feature overclocking support. While the first round of processors will be based around the Z170 chipset and K-Series, Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K processors, the rest of the line which is expected to debut a few weeks later will feature several regular (locked) and low TDP processors.

Intel Will Allow Overclocking on Skylake Non-K Processors With Adjustable BCLK

Over the past few years, we have seen motherboard makers include and exclude overclocking support from Intel chipset based products. In the past, the unlocked processors have featured a fully unlocked multiplier which allows users to tweak their processors. In some cases, Intel has disabled their non-K series processors multiplier but that still leaves the base clock frequency to be adjusted, given the motherboard makers include support to adjust them. These tweaking features are fully enabled on the high-end Z-Series motherboards but Intel advises motherboard makers to disable these features on the entry level chipsets such as H/Q/B Series.

A few years ago, motherboard makers silently enabled these features on entry level chipsets and branded them as the Non-Z OC boards. These boards were fitted with BIOS that enabled overclocking and manual tweaking for both locked and unlocked Haswell chips. The H87 and B75 motherboards which are quite cost effective aren't usually made for overclocking but providing same overclocking features as the high-end Z-Series boards, these products do become a bit attractive for users that don't want spending large amounts of cash on costly boards. The motherboards were launched in mass quantities but Intel later restricted the sales of such products and started blocking Non-Z OC boards. Intel was met with large criticism from the consumer market and board makers since the refused to allow a feature that actually was earning more sales for them by allowing budget users more features. Even though Intel had a point that entry level boards weren't fitted with proper cooling or voltage modulation units to support high-end overclocking but totally restricting such feature was seen as a negative turn for Intel.

A year later, the feature returned with ASUS (more AIBs followed) launching new Non-Z OC boards in the market. This meant several things but it showed that Intel had listened to their AIBs and allowed custom boards by AIBs without any restriction. We further saw the openness of Intel when it comes to custom AIB products when ASUS, ASRock and Gigabyte devised their own version of the LGA 2011-V3 socket known as OC Socket that had more contact pins than the reference 2011 count to offer more stability and better overclock. Such sockets are already confirmed for the LGA 1151 socket that is going to feature support for Skylake chips and ASUS already has several boards prepped with custom socket designs that offer better overclock, stable performance than the regular LGA 1151 socket.

Also coming back with the Z170 chipset is support for overclocking on Non-K chips. Since there are going to be several processors in the line that aren't going to feature full overclocking support, motherboards will allow tweaking as much as possible in the form on BCLK adjustments. Of course, the range to which this BCLK can be adjusted will solely depend on the motherboard maker but overall, Z170 chipsets will offer the best overclock performance even for locked chips. The news goes off to tell how Intel is fully allowing custom boards, not just in terms of design but also socket designs and fully overclocking support BIOS's.

Intel Skylake Processors Lineup: