Considering a switch to B660 board with an external clock generator for BCLK OC.
Considering a switch to B660 board with an external clock generator for BCLK OC.
So, before anyone say, "don't do it, it's not worth it", let me briefly explain. My friend is building a PC, I'm helping her with advising which parts to buy and building them later, she's going with i5-12400 because R5 5600 is only a bit cheaper here. So, I have a chance to sell my Asus Prime B660M-A Wifi D4 to her for a bit less than MSRP, she's already buying my old air cooler because she'll be buying a tray 12400. The B660 board with external clock gen is MSI MAG B660M Mortar MAX WIFI D4, if I sell my Asus B660, I would only need to add about $40-50. (The MSI board is around the price of an Asus TUF B660 board) From the benchmarks I've seen, the 12400 OC could get as fast as 12600K and 12700 or bit less, which is amazing. For reference, in my country, 12600K is about $120 more expensive than 12400. My plan is, by getting this board and IF 13th gen non K would also be BCLK OC-able, in 3 years I'd upgrade to 13400 or 13700 depending on the performance gain, worst case scenario I'd find a used 12700K or 13600K much later. I know that chances are, 13th gen non K would not be BCLK OC-able, it's a big if, but it's not impossible. I'm new to overclocking, so please enlighten me. Is BCLK overclocking safe for the long term? I've read that BCLK overclocking could damage other parts (other than CPU) and I'd like to sell my parts when I upgrade later. Is BCLK overclocking also applicable to unlocked/K CPUs? Is BCLK OC still doable now? Would you say this whole thing is worth it? Additional information that might be relevant: I only game, hence the 12400, in 1440p with an RX 6800 XT. The fps is satisfactory for most games, but my CPU can't keep up with my 6800 XT in CP2077 (w/o RT). So, if future games are as heavy or more than CP2077, my stock 12400 is in trouble.
Absolutely love it for the sake of the challenge! This chip is tough to locate in the US, but I’d love to see one available near the MSRP. It’s secure, just don’t push too hard—begin with settings from someone else’s lower-end overclock and only increase the OC once it’s stable. Yes, this board was built for unlocking CPUs, but unlocked ones can also boost BCLK. I’m not sure if it works with 13th gen yet—I’ll check. Because beyond the thrill of overclocking and faster performance, you’re also giving a helping hand to someone else’s project.
It's quite similar to what traditional overclocking offers. Starting from the 6th generation Intel, the BCLK and PCIe clocks have been completely separated. The PCIe clock is often the source of odd problems during BCLK overclocking. BCLK mainly influences the core clock, cache clock, memory clock, and a few internal Intel timers that don't really impact performance—those issues usually appear only when pushing 200+ MHz BCLK, not with the ~125MHz you'll see on a 12400F. Still, if you're aiming for a -K SKU, a Z690 board is recommended because multiplier overclocking becomes much simpler there. Intel might have already failed to support it on 13th gen CPUs (like the B660M Mortar Max with a 13600K). 12th gen chips should work if you use the right BIOS, though recent microcode updates seem to have broken compatibility—so a 13th gen chip probably won't either. BCLK overclocking is especially important for 12th and 13th gen K SKUs, since AVX features automatically cap performance. There are some workarounds, but most motherboards don’t support them; Gigabyte doesn’t seem to have a viable solution, and I haven’t found one that works on my Z690 Unify-X. You might need an older BIOS version, which you can find on HWBot forums for compatible boards. From a price perspective, US rates make it feasible to buy a Z690 board with a 12600K for a similar cost to a non-K OC board. Then you can enjoy better performance without extra overclocking effort, and you’ll be ready for future Intel releases that might allow more aggressive overclocking.
Some people are completely out of their depth with overclocking. They probably won’t notice anything unusual—maybe just some weird USB behavior or a minor glitch. It’s nearly impossible to harm the hardware with BCLK OC, especially not using a BCLK generator. That generator only impacts the CPU’s RAM and cache, not other parts. If you’re boosting the PCIe clock (the real BCLK), you might risk storage corruption, which is why it’s best not to run your operating system during testing. Stable RAM speed helps too. To really damage hardware, you’d need extreme voltages or temperatures—far beyond normal use. Degradation starts sooner than you think, but if you stay under 1.45V per core, voltage, heat, and temperature will be safe.
I really overlooked that update—new BIOS for 13th gen could affect it. The MSI MAG B660M Mortar MAX WIFI DDR4 costs around $212. A Z690 board such as MSI Pro A and Gigabyte Gaming X is about $251. In my country, 12600K is roughly $322, and there aren’t any used ones available. It’s a costly investment even after selling my 12400, you’d need to add around $160 for the upgrade. So, I believe the most affordable way to boost performance remains BCLK OC. Thanks for sharing that info—it’s really helpful, and I’m still weighing all my choices.