Intel shuts down the cheap overclocking party
I have resisted commenting on the story about how Intel is closing the door when it comes to overclocking non-K series processors. At first I didn't think it was a big deal. There has always been politics between what Intel wants and what Motherboard makers deliver and that interaction is shady at best.
Thing is, the more I think about it the more concerned I get.
As the article states a loophole exists in the UEFI (BIOS) code that allowed people to overclock Intel CPUs using the BCLK (or Base Clock). Fact is: you have always been able to do that since the inception of BCLK. Some processors would clock better than others and I also noticed that some motherboard makers would disable BCLK adjustments either by removing the option or by causing the system to crash when you make a change.
Overclocking with the BCLK is an advanced feature and will alter the clock of EVERYTHING and anyone who tells you different doesn't understand how it works. Some CPUs respond well to BCLK adjustments and certain motherboards are less sensitive to being ot of frequency. In those instances you can really make a system fly, mostly due to the higher multipliers used on these non-K CPUs.
That’s basically a kinder way of saying: You shouldn’t be overclocking these CPUs, so stop it.
Why this matters: Since December, overclockers have been able to run lower-priced CPUs above their rated speeds by cranking up the bclock setting on a chip. Intel normally charges more for such capability, so budget-minded overclockers were overjoyed. That party, though, is about to end.
Intel is in the right to block overclocking. The way they see it they gave us unlocked processors and have their accounting department cook the books to show it was a good thing. Sure, they are expensive and 90% of people using them either never touch the overclocking controls or send everything back broken because they shoved a PBnJ into the socket pins and blew it up. (yes, I just called them idiots).
The part of this that bothers me the most is the future. Without "some" kind of overclocking beyond what the K SKU can provide there is virtually nothing to further the PC hobby with the casual enthusiast. Sure you can spend the bucks and buy the good stuff (highly recommended btw, 10/10 would do again) but that leaves nothing for the budget people to experiment with and thus removes any desire to actually buy the good stuff.
I'm sure there is a deep rooted reason and for all this and anyone who has done a support call with Intel will know where cost savings have gone.
Related Web URL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3031255/hardware/it...
