Biostar Introduces Non-K CPU Overclocking With HyperOC

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Biostar announced that its HyperOC technology will be implemented across four of its Z170 Skylake motherboards.

It was recently discovered that, with the right motherboard, any Skylake CPU could be overclocked by increasing the system’s base clock. At the time, it wasn’t clear which motherboards would be capable of overclocking these CPUs, but board manufacturers have been working to add overclocking support for non-K processors on their products.

Shortly after that report emerged, ASRock released a list of motherboards with overclocking support for Skylake processors. Now, Biostar is also adding overclocking support for these CPUs with its HyperOC technology. Simply, this feature extends overclocking support to non-K processors.

As non-K CPUs have locked multipliers, you must overclock by raising the base clock. Biostar demonstrated this with a few CPU-Z screen shots showing the base clock increased anywhere from 20 to 60 percent. Your overclocking results will vary depending on your CPU, however, and you shouldn’t expect to match these overclocks exactly.

HyperOC will be enabled on the following four motherboards after a BIOS update.

Biostar Gaming Z170XBiostar Gaming Z170TBiostar Gaming Z170WBiostar Hi-Fi Z170Z5

The BIOS update should be available now for download.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • toddybody
    Unlocked multipliers make OC wonderfully easy...I still dont understand why someone would buy a locked CPU and OC via BLK when a much easier (universally supported) feature already exits.

    Are -K skus really that much more expensive?
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    17179851 said:
    Unlocked multipliers make OC wonderfully easy...I still dont understand why someone would buy a locked CPU and OC via BLK when a much easier (universally supported) feature already exits.

    Are -K skus really that much more expensive?

    Yes. For example, right now the i5-6400 (2.7 GHz) is $189.99 and the i5-6600k (3.5 GHz) is $279.99. That is an extra $90 you can toss into your GPU or just pocket for something else. The i5-6400 does have a relatively low clock speed, but the i5-6500 (3.2 GHz) is only $204.99, so even getting the part with the higher multiplier you are saving $75. If I thought I could get about 4 GHz out of either of these lower-end Core i5s, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them instead of the i5-6600k.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    For Skylake in the US, prices are greatly inflated over MSRP right now. Supply has not met demand.

    Besides, BCLK overclocking was the thing to do with 1st Gen Intel chips, basically the entire lineup was overclockable to some extent.
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Yes, in most cases they are. The real interest, to me anyhow, will be to see if these features get extended to the non-Z motherboards, which will really offer something for a lot less. If you can overclock these chips on a non-Z board with a locked chip, that opens serious performance up for budget builds.
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    Honestly, the one I really want to play with is a Core i3. I don't like Core i5s much because I love hyper-threading, so I really want to OC a Core i3.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    17179851 said:
    Unlocked multipliers make OC wonderfully easy...I still dont understand why someone would buy a locked CPU and OC via BLK when a much easier (universally supported) feature already exits.
    How is multipliers which are only available on K-CPUs more universal than BCLK which works on everything from Celerons to i7, K or otherwise?

    How much easier can overclocking be than ramping up BCLK? That's how it used to be done until Intel tied BCLK to SATA, PCIe, USB, etc. with locked P2/P3/P4/Core2.

    BCLK overclocking should also be possible on B170 and H170 motherboards.

    It does not get much more potentially universal than that.
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    BCLK overclocking might be available on other boards with a BIOS update, but none of the OEMs have confirmed that any of their non-Z170 motherboards can overclock yet. ASRock mentioned it to us, but we are waiting for something more definite.
    Reply
  • blazorthon
    Unlocked multipliers make OC wonderfully easy...I still dont understand why someone would buy a locked CPU and OC via BLK when a much easier (universally supported) feature already exits.

    Are -K skus really that much more expensive?

    Pointless question is pointless; you can look at prices on your own time.

    Furthermore, if someone wants a budget build, then an i3 that can likely overclock to nearly 5GHz is a very enticing option. It''ll be even more so if we get BCLK overclocking on the lower end chipsets too like ASRock claims is possible.
    Reply
  • tkhsda
    Bclk should work on every board. It has I all of the ones I've used. It just got a little complicated when it got changed to incremental increases (I've seen 12.5,25,33,42.5,50,etc) skylake is unique because the chipset lets us go back to 1mhz increases.
    Reply
  • dudmont
    Can't wait to see what the xeons will do. They're highly binned chips to start with. 1230 v5 for 245 might get you well over 4 ghz. Sounds like a bloody bargain to me. K chip appears to be pointless in Skylake series.
    Reply