Skylake Xeon (C232/C236) - Possible like non-K OC?

[salkcin]

Hello,

 

Does anyone know if the Xeon E3 v5's has the same potential of bclk overclocking like the non-K Skylake i3/i5/i7 has with new modified bios?

I guess we could assume that the architecture of Xeon E3 v5 is similar to the Skylake i3/i5/i7 with a seperate bclk signal, which is what makes the bclk oc possible.

 

I know Intel have made a change so Xeon E3 are no longer supported on consumer platforms like H110-Z170 chipsets and only C232/C236 chipset based motherboards, so they're strictly intended for workstation/server use.

 

However Asus and MSI are indicating to me, that they think otherwise. It could be attractive since Xeon E3 v5 CPU's are i7's at a cheaper price (also it's possible Xeon's are better bins that overclock better).

A Xeon E3-1220 v5 is ~220$ compared to a i7-6700 which is ~400$.

 

Asus, Gigabyte and MSI have the following "consumer" C232/C236 coming up:

Asus E3 Pro Gaming V5 (C232 chipset - ATX) - Link: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/E3-PRO-GAMING-V5/

Gigabyte GA-X150-PLUS WS (C232 chipset - ATX) - Link: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5704

Gigabyte GA-X150M-PLUS WS (C232 chipset - mATX) - Link: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5705

MSI C236A (C236 chipset ATX) - Link: http://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/C236A-WORKSTATION.html#hero-overview

MSI C236M (C236 chipset mATX) - Link: http://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/C236M-WORKSTATION.html#hero-overview

 

All of these boards seems targeted to the consumer looking at the fancy design and the price seems to be around 150$! Also Asus and MSI include support for their own overclock software with the boards.

 

Looking at a common "green pcb" workstation C232/C236 motherboard I noticed they all have 3 or 4 phase VRM design which would be bad for overclocking, but sufficient for the Xeon E3 TDP. Gigabyte seems to have taken the same route, so no overclocking with their C230-series boards I guess, but looking at both Asus and MSI they have both designed their boards with 8+ phase VRM's which would be great for overclocking. On a platform that would not be able to overclock that design choice seems to makes no sense. The motherboards certainly seems ready for this bios mod and overclocking.

 

What do you think. Will this Skylake non-K OC be for only Z170 boards, or will this get to the C232/C236 platforms as well?

 

Sidenote: All boards also support Core i3 series, so one could wonder if the boards would also support i5 or i7 with bios update.

Edited December 20, 2015 by salkcin

[der8auer]

Yea Nick Shih (ASRock) already showed on facebook that it's possible to overclock these Xeon on the C23x Boards. I guess it's just a matter of time until we will see the BIOS out in the wild.

[salkcin]

Yea Nick Shih (ASRock) already showed on facebook that it's possible to overclock these Xeon on the C23x Boards. I guess it's just a matter of time until we will see the BIOS out in the wild.

 

That's really great news!

 

Unfortunately Asrock only have C236 motherboards in their industrial motherboard line. The Asrock C236 WSI is priced at ~650$ (first price I've seen on the internet), so they are pricey and not intended for enthusiast. Same story with Supermicro.

Good news for some is that they have C236 ITX boards available from Asrock for those who want mini-PC's.

 

For now it seems Asus and MSI are the best bet for overclocking Xeon E3 v5, if a modified bios becomes available.