Skylake i5-6400 on Z170 overclocking guide

13lake

This is from my post in the CPU+GPU discussion originally, however i think it warrants its own

First a warning, this guide does require anyone who wants to try it to be comfortable with bios tweaking, and the warranty definitely goes up in smoke if u do overclock .
The guide is focused on MSI motherboards because they are the only ones for which non-k skylake bioses do get updated and not shut down.

On the overclocking.guide website you also have bioses for different motherboard manufacturers, and guidesfor them both with video and without. 

All actual overclocking credit goes to der8auer, a professional german overclocker.

Step 1. for $190 buy i5-6400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117564
Step 2. for $118 buy MSI Z170-A PRO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130892 
Step 3. add whatever RAM you want (except please only get RAM sticks with lowest possible heatsinks)

Step 4.  Get 1 of these 3 cpu coolers depending on room in your case/looks etc, ... 

LEPA LPALV12-BK  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835494014 

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer i32  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835186140 

Gelid Solutions Antarctica  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426050 

Lepa - $43, Arctic Cooling - $35, Gelid - $42

Step 5. Go to this page :http://overclocking.guide/updated-msi-z170-non-k-overclocking-guide-new-bios/ 
Download the april 13th 2nd newest bios for the Z170-A PRO, and read the guide, and overclock following the instructions. 4 GHz is plenty for this cpu, but you can go to 4.4-4.5 easily.
Step 6. Go to this youtube video (in german atm, english version incoming) for a more detailed guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFpH75U3JUc 

Step 7. Don't forget to check your temps with hwinfo 32 while running prime 95 as explained above.

And there you have it : $190+$118+$40 = $350 versus $250+$118+$40 = $410 (for i5-6600k+same motherboard) 

My personal best buy mobo is the Gigabyte Z170X-UD3 @ $158 for 24/7 4.5GHz overclocking (for 6600k and 6700k OC)

If you do manage to find a MSI z170A-g43 get it instead of the pro, it's better and might even be cheaper.

The difference has diminished since launch and is only the cpu price thus $60, which is not an extraordinary difference.

As soon as the new AsRock Hyper series b150 and h170 arrive i'll do a price guide for them as well. 

Quizzical

Or for that price, you could get a B150 motherboard, use the stock cooler, use the budget room you've cleared for a Core i5-6600, not need to overclock it, not run into any problems with using features Intel is trying to break, and still come out money ahead.

Ridelynn

Actually I think it's a good guide - thank you for the writeup.

I don't have any problem at all with people doing this. Just so long as they realize exactly what they are getting into before hand.

13lake

Quizzical said:

Or for that price, you could get a B150 motherboard, use the stock cooler, use the budget room you've cleared for a Core i5-6600, not need to overclock it, not run into any problems with using features Intel is trying to break, and still come out money ahead.

It's a valid alternative, cheapest B150+i5-6600 is $60+$230, however similar to the Z170, the prices are out of wack for the cheapest motherboards, and half of them are missing (in contrast to europe for instance). The first ones i feel comfortable with buying start at $75. That's either $290 or $305 compared to the $350 for i5-6400+Z170.

Couple of things to notice, the MSI Z170-A PRO is heavily overpriced on newegg atm, and the cheaper but better model Z170-A G-43 missing completely (They are 80 euros before tax in europe)

That together with the lack of best bang for buck cpu cooler ever invented :http://www.lc-power.com/en/product/power-supplies/lc-cc-120/ (it's 15 euros before tax) makes this build way cheaper in europe than in US atm.

At the current prices, the difference is $40 between B150+i5-6600 and Z170+i5-6400 in favour of 6600. What you get with the overclocked 6400 is 4.5GHz vs [email protected]

Keep in mind if u get sick of stock cooler noise and bad cooling, you would probably be buying a hyper 212+ which is $30, which would drop the difference down to $10.

Ridelynn said:

Actually I think it's a good guide - thank you for the writeup.

Np, finally a post came that i thought was constructive enough to warrant its own thread

P.S. if you're wondering can that 15 euro LC power really handle 4.5GHz, the kicker is you buy this fan for 6.3 euros http://geizhals.eu/lc-power-lc-cf-120-pro-120mm-a1192082.html?hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=pl&hloc=uk&hloc=eu and replace the stock, and now you have a cpu cooler that destroys all other coolers <$50 and most above that

Ridelynn

I believe it on the heatsink. It looks almost identical to the 212, which has been my go-to for stock cooler replacement. Pretty much anything with heat pipes is going to beat the stock cooler by a large margin. The Intel stock coolers are only better than their integrated graphics.

13lake

It's a 212 clone which somehow ended at half the price and with even better cooling Cooler Master artificially upping the price on the 212 did not help (212 is actually 40 euros here, it sold in such high numbers, the importers and the shops decided to start scalping as well, nothing better than 3 companies scalping on a best price/performance product ...)

Intel stock coolers are horrible, on top of lousy cooling, they make the most annoying sound.