Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Modders Get Intel's Coffee Lake CPUs To Run On Incompatible Motherboards (pcgamer.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the do-it-yourself dept.

Paul Lilly reports via PC Gamer: It took some time and a whole lot of tweaking, but modders have finally figured out a way to get Intel's Coffee Lake processors running on older motherboards based on Intel's Z270 and Z170 chipsets. Even though Coffee Lake is pin compatible with older LGA 1151 motherboards, the official word from Intel is that the power requirements differ, and as such Coffee Lake only works in newer motherboards based on Intel's Z370 chipset. [T]here is a forum post on Overclock.net that outlines how it can be done. It is a fairly involved process and specific to ASRock motherboards, which the modders claim "have proven to work well" with the steps that are outlined. In short, getting a Coffee Lake processor to run in an older motherboard requires making tweaks to the CPU's microcode, the iGPU's UEFI GOP driver, and some Management Engine bootstraps. The modders were able to get a Core i3-8300 processor to boot in a couple of older boards, but not a Core i7-8700 chip. That is a higher core chip, of course -- six cores instead of four -- which seems to suggest that the power issue is related to driving higher core counts.

11 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. i7-8700 by vux984 · · Score: 3

    Kudos to the modders for making the i3 series even work; that's a pretty cool feat on a technical level.

    But I've got a i7 8700K; and I can't really imagine even wanting to hack it into an older motherboard... under any circumstances.

    Its sort of like figuring out how to install an american v8 into a Porsche 911. There's modders who do that... but I can't fathom why.

    1. Re:i7-8700 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      .. because the Porsche engines have a defect (the IMS bearing) that can destroy the engine at basically any time. A Porsche with a blown engine is cheap, and a GM V8 is also cheap, not to mention that it makes more power and weighs less than the original Porsche engine (though the GM motor's center of gravity might be a bit higher).

    2. Re:i7-8700 by Khyber · · Score: 2, Informative

      Uhh, AC being modded down for a correct answer to "I can't fathom why Porsche owners throw a non-Porsche V8 into it" is bullshit, oh ye idiots with mod points.

      Porsche had to settle a lawsuit regarding their shit IMS bearings, and it settled in 2013.

      Fuckwit mods.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    3. Re:i7-8700 by Bearhouse · · Score: 2

      Engines with the replaced IMS are usually fine, (and it's not too hard or expensive to do; but do it BEFORE it fails...)
      Otherwise your're pretty much right; but note sticking in that Corvette V8 is not as easy and cheap as the people who sell the kits make out.
      And...the kits are far from complete - you'll still need to buy a ton of stuff.
      Finally, after all that work, you end up with a Porsche with questionable resale.
      But....a lot of fun!

      Ah yes; make sure you get the LS (Corvette, Camaro) version not the LQ (used in truck). Latter has Fe block, not Au.

  2. why? by bloodhawk · · Score: 2

    I know playing and hacking tech for fun is a thing. But really why even bother trying this? it isn't like the motherboard is the most expensive component when doing an upgrade. Surely their are better projects to waste ones time on?

    1. Re:why? by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know playing and hacking tech for fun is a thing. But really why even bother trying this?... Surely their are better projects to waste ones time on?

      Getting Linux to run on a toaster is of questionable value when a Raspberry PI is so inexpensive, but people still want to do it.

      It's called a hobby.

    2. Re:why? by sg_oneill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Its a hobby.

      It also shows up Intel as kind of being full of shit and intentionally going out their way to stop people simply doing a chip-swap upgrade to foist unnecessary MB upgrades. If you read the original discussion thread on the overclock forum, it appears intel has been a bit deceptive about pin outs in order to discourage people working this out.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    3. Re: why? by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Funny

      What are you talking about? Chicks really dig it when you hack an old motherboard to support a late-model CPU.

  3. modern chicks by stooo · · Score: 2

    That's the modern kind of chicks I like ;)

    --
    aaaaaaa
  4. Who is buying new Intel anything right now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who would buy flawed hardware from Intel at this point when new chips that supposedly fix meltdown issue are supposedly only months away?

    If I were in the market for new hardware right now I would seriously be looking to AMD.

    Personally starting to get tired of Intel's antics.

    - Failing to own up to Meltdown and false equivalences
    - ECC not available on normal non-xenon processors
    - Having to fuck with inf files to get "desktop" chipsets to work on server versions of Windows
    - Management engine comparatively nobody uses yet everyone gets to suffer thru vulnerabilities.
    - Stunts like TFA

  5. TFS and TFA are misleading. by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    The forum post gets it right.

    They cannot and did not make tweaks to the microcode. They took the coffee lake microcode blob from Intel and put it into the older gen board. So that board was presenting the right microcode for the CPU.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.