Z170 BCLK Overclock (SkyOC) in Linux?

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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The question: Is it possible to do BCLK OC (baseclock overclock) on a Z170 board when running Linux?

The full story.

Wifey finally had enough (of Windows), and decided to make the switch to Linux (Ubuntu).

That system had the SkyOC BIOS, which allowed for a significant overclock even with a Non-K CPU - her i3 6100 @ 4.8 GHz was surprisingly quick!

Upon boot of the Ubuntu install media (18.04.1 LTS), the installer errored out saying the BIOS was too old, and refused to install. It was clear it was doing a BIOS version check, and rejecting versions prior to the BCLK OC lockout forced by Intel.

I updated the BIOS, which removed the ability for BCLK OC, and Ubuntu installed without a hitch. So by gaining Linux, we lost the ability to overclock. That’s a fairly steep trade-off and penalty … so if anyone knows if it’s possible to restore BCLK OC and run Linux, I’d be grateful!

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If I recall correctly you can force linux to not update the microcode. After that you could try one of the archived non k overclocking bios. https://overclocking.guide/intel-skylake-non-k-overclocking-bios-list/ I looked into it a long time ago in reference to overclocking skylake xeons.

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That’s probably not answer you want to get, but I was trying to install Linux on 6700T nonk OC-ed on Asus M8H for a few months and I failed. Some distros like Ubuntu doesn’t install, Fedora installed after some tweaking but failed to boot, Arch installer doesn’t even start… So I changed my platform and I can finally work on Linux without any problems. Maybe You will have more luck than I had.

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Totally fair response, and thanks for the insight.

We aren’t averse to picking up a K series CPU on the used market, but it might have been nice to continue to enjoy the benefits of an i3 6100 @ 4.8 GHz. :slight_smile: It was surprisingly potent.

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I did read a bit about this, and I was hoping there might be an easy button solution. I’m pretty nervous to try compiling my own kernel; my wife doubly so! :grin:

I think the better option is to accept that with Linux, we’ve lost BCLK OC. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go scour Craigslist for a used K series CPU … :grin: