Asrock's First Two Hyper-OC Non-K BCLK Motherboards Now Available

Due to the precarious state of Asrock’s Hyper-OC motherboards, and strong opposition from Intel, it appeared for a long time that these boards would never be released. Asrock has now released some of them, at least, but it may be for just a short time.

What Is Hyper-OC Again?

If you haven’t been keeping up on the Hyper OC boards, you might think they are just your run of the mill motherboards, but they actually have special overclocking features. The Hyper-OC series is comprised entirely of non-Z170 chipsets that typically cannot overclock. By equipping these boards with third-party clock generators, however, Asrock was able to give them BCLK overclocking features that only Z170 boards typically possess.

Thanks to the third-party clock generator, these boards are also able to overclock non-K Skylake CPUs. With the exception of a handful of Z170 motherboards, this is something that only the Hyper-OC series of motherboards can do. The few Z170 boards that can BCLK OC non-K CPUs can do so only with one outdated BIOS revision. This leaves the Hyper-OC boards as the best option for anyone who wants to overclock a non-K Skylake CPU.

Potentially Limited Availability

For now, two of these motherboards are available on Newegg and from other online retailers. The Fatal1ty Gaming H170 Performance/Hyper is priced at $125.99, but it is currently on sale for $95.99 after a mail-in-rebate from Newegg. The Fatal1ty B150 Gaming K4/Hyper is somewhat less expensive at $115.99, and it is also on sale at Newegg for $90.99 after mail-in-rebate. 

We have discussed both of these boards before, so for more in depth information on them, check out our other articles on the Hyper-OC series.

Image
ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming H170
Image
ASRock B150 GAMING K4/HYPER LGA 1151

Although these boards are available now, they could be removed from the market in the near future. Intel has been attempting to stop Asrock from manufacturing motherboards with this feature for several months now. At one point, Asrock called its line of non-Z170 BCLK OC motherboards the “Sky OC” series, but it was forced to cancel that product line. It later reintroduced the Sky OC series boards rebranded as the Hyper-OC series, but as Intel has intervened with this product line before, it is quite likely to do so again.

Given the strong opposition from Intel, it's possible that Asrock will be forced to discontinue the Hyper-OC product line. If Asrock manages to keep the Hyper-OC boards on the market, however, we will likely see several more of them in the near future.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Asrock Hyper OC Motherboards
ModelFatal1ty H170 Performance/HyperH170 Pro4/HyperFatal1ty B150 Gaming K4/HyperB150A-X1/HyperB150M Pro4/HyperH110-DS/Hyper
ChipsetH170H170B150B150B150H110
RAM Slots4 x DDR44 x DDR44 x DDR44 x DDR44 x DDR42 x DDR4
PCI EPCI-E x 16PCI-E x 43 x PCI-E x 1PCI-E x 16PCI-E x 43 x PCI-E x 1PCI-E x 16PCI-E x 43 x PCI-E x 1PCI-E x 16PCI-E x 43 x PCI-E x 1PCI-E x 16PCI-E x 42 x PCI-E x 1PCI-E x 16PCI-E x 1
StorageUltra M.26 x SATA-IIIUltra M.24 x SATA-III6 x SATA-IIIUltra M.26 x SATA-IIIUltra M.26 x SATA-III4 x SATA-III
RAID SupportYesYesNoNoNoNo
USB7 x USB 3.0 Type-AUSB 3.0 Type-C6 x USB 2.08 x USB 3.0 Type-A4 x USB 2.06 x USB 3.0 Type-A6 x USB 2.06 x USB 3.0 Type-A6 x USB 2.06 x USB 3.0 Type-A2 x USB 2.04 x USB 3.0 Type-A8 x USB 2.0
AudioRealtek ALC1150 + Purity Sound 3Realtek ALC892Realtek ALC1150 + Purity Sound 3Realtek ALC892Realtek ALC892Realtek ALC887
LANIntel i219VIntel i219VKiller E2400Intel i219VIntel i219VRealtek RTL8111GR
AvailabilityN/AJuly 2016N/AN/AJuly 2016July 2016

Follow Michael Justin Allen Sexton @EmperorSunLaoFollow us on FacebookGoogle+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • Math Geek
    Glad someone is brave enough not to bow down to intel. now we just need a solid review of the boards to know if it was even worth the wait.
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    awesome now make some server boards with this Hyper OC ability and watch intel crap a brick. give me those 8 core xeons that have low clocks but are under $450 with OC capability.
    Reply
  • iamacow
    you can't use XEON on the Z170, they are not supported. Intel made the chipset this way for this series. I had the same thought.
    Reply
  • Xaltar
    IAMACOW, JASONELMORE was talking about the socket 2011 Xeons, socket 1151 does not support more than 4 core CPUs ;)

    As for socket 1151 Xeons, ASRock's Fatal1ty E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC works brilliantly. I managed to clock my 6600k (may as well be locked on a non Z board) to 4.5ghz without breaking a sweat using the BCLK OC.
    Reply
  • EvilMonk
    You need an X99 chipset to support the 8 cores LGA2011 Xeons...
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    18189970 said:
    IAMACOW, JASONELMORE was talking about the socket 2011 Xeons, socket 1151 does not support more than 4 core CPUs ;)

    As for socket 1151 Xeons, ASRock's Fatal1ty E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC works brilliantly. I managed to clock my 6600k (may as well be locked on a non Z board) to 4.5ghz without breaking a sweat using the BCLK OC.

    Right, we seem to have a little confusion.

    @Jasonelmore: There wouldn't be much point on the 8-core Xeon processors for socket 2011-3, as all of those motherboards use the X99 chipset and can OC already.

    @iamcow: You are correct, you cannot use Xeon processors with any Z170, Q170, Q150, H170, H110 or B150 chipsets, which is rather limiting. But, as Xaitar pointed out, there is the iAsrock Fatal1ty E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC motherboard. It was technically part of the previous OC family mentioned in the article that was cancelled, but Asrock ended up shipping this one board anyway. It uses the C232 chipset, which is also sort of limiting, but it does let you BCLK OC the LGA1151 socket Xeon CPUs. I probably should have included a reference to it in this article, but here is a link to an older piece I wrote about that board.
    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-non-z170-bclk-overclocking-motherboards,31362.html

    @Xaitar: Awesome you got one of those boards. I'd honestly love to have one to play with, but I don't review motherboards and I don't have any need to build a new system right now, so I haven't got to yet. Although, I am somewhat surprised you didn't go for an LGA 1151 Xeon. Slightly higher cost, but you would end up with essentially a less expensive Core i7, and probably hit the same clock speeds. Still, glad you are keeping up. I think most people don't realize what that board can do.
    Reply
  • EvilMonk
    XALTAR intel has blocked the E3V5 Xeons to the C232 chipset so people would stop buying them and use them on desktop board to have hyperthreading and i7 performance for the price of the i5... you can't put an E3v5 Xeon on an h170 chipset that's why Asrock and Asus are making Gamer versions of the C232 chipset now...

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9877/asus-and-asrock-prep-gaming-motherboards-for-intel-xeon-e3-v5-processors
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    18190037 said:
    XALTAR intel has blocked the E3V5 Xeons to the C232 chipset so people would stop buying them and use them on desktop board to have hyperthreading and i7 performance for the price of the i5... you can't put an E3v5 Xeon on an h170 chipset that's why Asrock and Asus are making Gamer versions of the C232 chipset now...

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/9877/asus-and-asrock-prep-gaming-motherboards-for-intel-xeon-e3-v5-processors

    There seems to be a little miss understanding here. E3V5 is part of the name of a motherboard. I do understand the confusion, as E3 V5 identifies the Skylake Xeon CPUs as well, but when it is for the processors there is a space between E3 and V5. When it is the motherboard, there is not. I know, really easy to get that mixed up. Please see this link:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-non-z170-bclk-overclocking-motherboards,31362.html

    Asrock's Fatal1ty E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC, and it uses the C232 chipset and can overclock LGA 1151 Xeon CPUs.

    There is even more information on the LGA1151 platform in this article, which covers essentially every detail of these chispets from beginning to end.
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-skylake-processors-101,4498.html
    Reply
  • EvilMonk
    You seem to be confused yourself, the Xeon E3 is a serie as is the E5 and E7
    V1, V2, V3 is the Generation. They are now at Generation 5
    I'm a system administrator and work mainly with HP Proliant DL380 and DL580 Gen 8 and Gen 9 using Xeons E5 and E7 with V2, V3 and V4 CPUs.
    What you are talking about is a bunch of cheap asrock motherboard, taking the name E3V5 from Intel and that before today I've never heard off and will never again...

    Take a look on the intel website for yourself, so you can be less misinformed and enter the business world of intel...
    http://ark.intel.com/products/family/88210/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-v5-Family#@All
    Reply
  • EvilMonk
    And for your information you cannot use an Intel Xeon E3 12XX-V5 (I make it easier for IINUYASHA74 to understand) on any other chipset beside an Intel C232 or C236, since the V5 generation of the Intel E3 Xeons Intel blocked them to work only on the server / workstation C232 and C236 chipsets. Take a look if you don't believe me, none of the Z170, H170, B150 or other chipsets have any E3 12XX-V5 Xeon in their CPU support lists
    Reply