14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the Z170 chipset from Intel will allow the entire Skylake-S series, not only the "K" model, to be overclocked. Yet right now only FSB has been confirmed as changeable.
In the current-gen chipsets and present-day Intel Haswells, only a small number of CPUs can be overclocked, like the ones specially built for enthusiasts as the Core i7-4790K. However, according to Benchlife, it seems that "Skylake" platform will change all that, and instead of limiting overclockability only to "K" models, it will allow the entire "Skylake-S" line to be slightly overclocked in tandem with the Z170 chipset.
This is indeed surprising, as it will encourage even non-enthusiast CPU models to have overclocking ability, even with limited clock speeds. In their experiments, it seems that they managed to change the FSB to 133MHz on a Core i5-6400T from a default clock of 2.20GHz (20 x 100MHz) to a Turbo Boosted 2.80GHz. It seems that the CPU-Z mistook the Core i5 with an i7 but the potential is there.
With the Z170 chipset, you can have it all
It also seems that besides the possible BCLK adjustments on the non-"K" series, the Z170 chipset will also allow Memory and Intel HD graphics to be overclocked as well. The will allow basically everyone owning a Z170 chipset motherboard to turn into a little overclocking enthusiast even when owning the blandest "Skylake" of them all.
Although this is indeed impressive more on the chipset behalf, we must remember the true overclocking ability of the Core i7-6700K which can run to a whopping 5.20GHz only on air cooling. We previously discussed about how easy it will be for the new platform to churn out clock speed without any advanced cooling solutions. Although it's unknown if the overclocked value has been reached with or without disabling Hyper Threading, probably not, it shows how easily the new architecture keeps up with the increased voltage without even flinching.
A later leak showed how the same insane Intel Core i7-6700K has been overclocked to 6.50GHz using liquid nitrogen, also with Hyper Threading turned off. We can confirm that even higher clock rates will be achieved if the Skylake is completely unshackled from any factory limits. Having "T" model overclocking friendly as well is even more encouraging, as we wait for the August "Skylake" release.
