Guide: Running CoffeeLake/Refresh CPUs on Sky\KabyLake motherboards.

[ZachNap]

Thank you for creating this guide, I successfully got an i5 9600k running in my gigabyte z170n gaming 5 mini itx motherboard. I've never done anything like this before and I'm super glad that everything worked on my first attempt.
I also created a to-scale template for the pin mod that I used to cut out all my pieces of kapton tape. I have a PDF of the template attached below along with a picture of my cpu with the pin mod.

While typing this I notice that I actually misplaced the piece of kapton tape on the left side. My computer seems to be running fine, I'm not sure if it's okay to leave it like that or if I should take the cpu out and fix that.

 

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My i5 9600K with pin mod

 

PinModTemplate.pdf

[1van]

@ZachNapI'd place it properly, just to be sure, even if it may not be as dangerous as misplacing the piece on the right side. Thanks for the feedback.

[Remiix_Dripgxd]

On 10/29/2020 at 6:41 AM, 1van said:

@Remiix_Dripgxd Judging by your question it does not look that you've read and understood the guide. If you proceed like this the chance is high you'll just brick you board or even damage it. I won't be able to help you.

There is a video above where the guy mods his Asus Z170 Deluxe, with all the steps shown, including flashing.

Ok, so after reading your response last week I came to the conclusion I needed to learn a lot more about this before I could proceed. After reading this guide again more carefully and another guide on win-raid and reading multiple forums and watching a few videos I found on YouTube, I was successfully able to make a modded bios file for my motherboard and get a good understanding of what I was actually doing. But then I came to another roadblock, that roadblock being actually flashing the bios onto the board, I cant find a link anywhere to Download the correct version of AFU, all the ones I have found either don't load at all or state that the file I'm looking for is no longer available. I Just need to know where I can find the correct version of the software.

[1van]

@Remiix_DripgxdASUS boards can't be normally flashed via software due to locks, as the guide says (see 5.1), probably, not clearly enough.

AFAIK Z170 Deluxe has Flashback feature which you should use to flash the modded bios. Or you could buy an SPI programmer. Again, there is a video above where the guy mods his Asus Z170 Deluxe, with all the steps shown, including flashing. Enable subtitles if needed.

 

Btw, follow the CoffeeTime download link from the guide, there should be some AFUs and FPTs available there.

[Remiix_Dripgxd]

On 11/4/2020 at 12:13 AM, 1van said:

@Remiix_DripgxdASUS boards can't be normally flashed via software due to locks, as the guide says (see 5.1), probably, not clearly enough.

AFAIK Z170 Deluxe has Flashback feature which you should use to flash the modded bios. Or you could buy an SPI programmer. Again, there is a video above where the guy mods his Asus Z170 Deluxe, with all the steps shown, including flashing. Enable subtitles if needed.

 

Btw, follow the CoffeeTime download link from the guide, there should be some AFUs and FPTs available there.

Thanks for everything, that video really made everything super easy, it turned out That just renaming the cap file made the flash unbelievably easy. from there, 2 pieces of Kapton tape and a piece of copper tape to insulate and short the processor pads and everything ran as if intel actually intended it. my 9700k is running cool and smoothly at a 5.2ghz overclock under water. This all proves to me that intel is a pack of money hungry bastards, there's no reason this couldn't have been made to work from the factory.

[SirGunther]

Looking for some assistance on getting a 9900k to boot.

 

Like a few others here, I have an Asus Z-170 Deluxe MB. Watched the video, in Korean with English subs, and it was very very easy to follow. Pinmod was tricky, but manageable. I have tried modifying the 2xxx Bios using various iterations of the CoffeeTime app. One of the only things that failed were the ACPI tables, but as the guide mentioned, not an issue as long as one of them was 'ok' and patchable. I tried 'tricking' the system with older versions of Coffeetime by adding/renaming the more updated microcodes from the github that was linked. I have also attempted without HT. Using the newest version of CoffeeTime I tried adding my own MAC, SN, and UUID as well. I used the Flashback utility to load every bios that was tested.

I can still drop a 6700k into the socket and it will post, but the 9900k, no such luck. I have considered doing the full Kapton Tape mod since it mentions the v1 and v2 socket differences, perhaps this is one of those incompatible situations? Also, just for good measure, as the pinmod map out suggests to use all colors for best compatibility, perhaps this would be the solution worth trying out? Would an SPI programmer actually make a difference in this case? My impression is that this would only be required in my situation if I were to use the WinRaid variation of the tool as I tried to rename the .bin as a .cap and the MB refused the update, any clarification on that?

 

One thing I will mention is that at one point I did have a 3xxx version Bios loaded onto this MB. Rolling back hasn't seemed to be an issue as mentioned the 6700k was able to post. The ME version is also in the compatibility range.

Any suggestions up to this point would be hugely appreciated.

[Orof]

Hello dear forum members!

It has been a long time (6.5 years) since I installed Xeon processors on the LGA771 boards that work to this day.

Today I upgraded the 6700K I had so far to the 9900K on the Z170 board (which is not officially supported). 

 

Note that there are some updates (due to the update of CoffeTime software to version 0.92) and additional distinctions that I discovered during the attempts to install the processor. Each motherboard requires a different installation, but for the sake of clarification to the guide here I will mention the highlights for Gigabyte boards

1. First download the BIOS files and the Coffetime 0.92 software as shown in the manual, along with the FlashProgrammingTool (FPT) software. Place them in folders on drive C.

2. Prepare the BIOS using the software with administrator privileges, as shown in the following image:

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Note that both the ME and the VBIOS + GOP must be updated so that they can work with the processors (as well as the appropriate microcodes, and make sure it is saved!). In the EXTRA label I added a memory expansion to 128 GB. Also important - in MAC1 add the MAC address of your Intel network card and keep the number for yourself (can be found in the network card properties)

3. If your operating system is installed on NVMe, and the NVME is in MBR format and not GPT - you will need to convert it to GPT before executing the mode, using RECOVERY mode with MBR2GPT command:

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3. Excellent, you have the BIOS, the SSD drive in the appropriate format and you are ready to flash the bios. Before that please make sure you have a backup BIOS (before flashing) on an flash disk if you need to back up to the previous BIOS (as I did). Now comes the step of using FPT to flash the BIOS (in other boards the way may be different, like using Programmer). It is important not to disconnect the computer from the power supply at this stage otherwise the BIOS will be Corrupted. Once the flash is complete, you are ready to install the CPU.

Shut down the computer via FPT only using the fptw64 -greset command, and before the computer turns on after the restart turn it off and do not let it turn on. Disconnect it from the power supply and remove the battery.

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5. Before installing the CPU, you will need to cover some of its pins according to the board (Gigabyte covers the most), and connect some of them (depending on the board):

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Here is the mod I made using stickers from  kind seller of Aliexpress who also brought tweezers:

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6. Install the processor on the board. Put the cooler on for a moment and make sure the board goes up (if you can, I used the board's number bulbs to make sure it goes up) before you put everything together (if it does not go up you may not have flashed/customizes the BIOS properly, or you may not have put the microcodes properly). If it comes up, turn it off and reassemble the computer.

7. Make sure the cooler is seated properly and turn on the computer, enter the BIOS

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8. Great, you're almost done! In my case the CPU was at too high a voltage (1.4VCORE) which put a load on the VRM and they also crash. This is of course not normal and the VCORE should be lower. In the BIOS use Adaptive Vcore and download at least 0.07-0.1V (in my case, play with it to see that the CPU does not get too much voltage) and check the stability. Monitor the temperature of the VRM and CPU using HWinfo. my board VRM temps do not exceed 70c under full load, the the CPU is cool as well.

9. Congratulations!

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PS - My old Mugen 2 (which still cooled the Q9300) cools this processor well (better than 6700K! Thanks to the fact that the processor is soldered to IHS as opposed to 6700K) and is silent. I get higher and more stable frames with the computer, my brother can encode movies at 2x higher speed, and I can be with a quiet mind for a few more years until I have to upgrade. The computer is stable after I have fixed the voltages. Was very enjoyable and worth it! Just make sure you have a board with VRM good enough for that and be prepared for the complexity of the process.

Too bad Intel did not let us just install the CPU in a normal way (because as you can see, it works great), but for that there is Modding

I would be happy to assist with any question / request!

Regards,

Or Cohen

[1van]

@SirGunther there might be still a problem with ACPI or other patches, because of your antivirus interference, path naming etc. Try to use the most modern CoffeeTime version and add it to antivirus whitelist. Everything should be green, without any errors. Sometimes Flashback does not work, especially if you tried flashing several modded bioses already. It might have left some "wrong" parts from previous bioses. Try getting an SPI programmer (CH341A).

@Orof thanks for the report! Please put images in spoiler tag (eye icon in the editor).

 

[ZachNap]

I recently picked up an i9 9900k to slap into my gigabyte z170n gaming 5 mini itx motherboard and I haven't been able to get it running 100% stable. I think my cpu voltages aren't behaving as they should, not sure if its something to do with loadline calibration, maybe some weird bios gremlins or if my motherboard's power delivery is beyond it's limits. I only encounter instability under loads that absolutely peg my cpu such as stress tests or CAD rendering.

If you have any advice or know or any resources let me know!

[Orof]

On 1/5/2021 at 7:07 AM, ZachNap said:

I recently picked up an i9 9900k to slap into my gigabyte z170n gaming 5 mini itx motherboard and I haven't been able to get it running 100% stable. I think my cpu voltages aren't behaving as they should, not sure if its something to do with loadline calibration, maybe some weird bios gremlins or if my motherboard's power delivery is beyond it's limits. I only encounter instability under loads that absolutely peg my cpu such as stress tests or CAD rendering.

If you have any advice or know or any resources let me know!

Also encountered it with my testing (z170x-gaming 5). I reckon it is because the vrm are getting too hot. 

Please do the following:

Turn OFF llc (load line calibration) 

Undervolt the cpu with adaptive voltage (-0.06v-0.1v)

 

My vrm are cool as ice with those settings, rock steady

[Notsag]

Hola, tengo una z270 msi gaming m3, me gustaría actualizar a procesadores de 8 nucleos, es posible?

[ZachNap]

On 1/7/2021 at 3:58 AM, Orof said:

Also encountered it with my testing (z170x-gaming 5). I reckon it is because the vrm are getting too hot. 

Please do the following:

Turn OFF llc (load line calibration) 

Undervolt the cpu with adaptive voltage (-0.06v-0.1v)

 

My vrm are cool as ice with those settings, rock steady

I hand tried using adaptive voltage u til your suggested it, used a -0.1 offset with adaptive voltage, LLC set to standard (it only has standard or high) and its running fantastic. The i9 is running so well that I was actually able to bump the frequency up to 4.9ghz on all cores.

 

VRM temps are all very good unless I'm running synthetic stress tests or rendering in 3dsmax where my VRMs will peak at 105°c. I don't do a lot of rendering on my system so it should be fine for now but I do play on upping the vrm coolibg even more in the near future.

 

Also, I'm surprised with how cool this cpu runs, I thought it was going to be a furnace but the temps typically level out at 65°c under 100% in my shoebox sized case.

[GeorgettaCZ]

Hell-low folks ! Love you all ! Greetings from Prague, Czech Repebulic !

 

It's great that such a geek forum works! Myself? I am more of a freak than geek but still I'm in love with electronics and pushing it to the edge! It's actually my best and only way to relax and regenerate myself... 

 

Recently I purchased ASUS Maximus IX Apex, a Z270 motherboard with 2 bios chips for easy "disaster" recovery, also known for some records in LN2 overclocking back then. Now, the only problem with this board is that it only has 2 RAM slots. And since I wish for 64GB of RAM, the only way is to mod the bios, obviously! I am currently running this board with Core i5-7400 and a single OEM module of 8GB@2400MHz only to update the backup bios for the latest version (v1301) and then flash the modded bios file into the primary chip.

 

And YES, I created the modded .CAP file with the latest CoffeTime 0.92!! Thank you for that! It's easy-to-use GUI is such a pleasure to work with! It works with .CAP files directly which speeds up all the work. Such a great tool!!! I applied the patches, relaced the ME version etc. and of course replaced microcodes for the Core i7-9700KF that I am expecting to get tomorrow, hoping for the SRG16 (R0) version. I will apply the HW mod and try to boot it tomorrow. I will let you posted!!

 

Regards, GeorgettaCZ

[GeorgettaCZ]

Well, while waiting for tomorrow, I downloaded the v1301 bios .CAP file with size of 16386kB, edited it with CoffeeTime0.92 and tried to save it. Here I found a size difference between the saved modded files. If saved as .CAP, it has the same 16386kB as the original file. If saved as .BIN, it has 16384kB whis is probably alright.

 

Now, when I try to flash my modded .CAP file with afudos 3.05.04 with /GAN parameter, I get "3 - Error: ROM file size does not match existing BIOS size." Trying to flash my modded .BIN file passed the flashing with no errors except for one thing.The ME version in the original .CAP file v1301 is 11.8.50.3399. Though downgraded from 11.8.50.3399 to 11.7.0.1229 with the CoffeeTime0.92 tool, after flashing still shows 11.8.50.3399 in the BIOS, even after full power down. Checking the modded file with UEFI Tool, shows its 11.7.0.1229. The ME Recovery was removed in the CT Tool. Is it possible that it checks/compares also the ME version in the backup bios? Any ideas?

 

Regards, GeorgettaCZ

[GeorgettaCZ]

Hallo!

 

Well I just spent the whole night reading and testing but I only experienced more and more issues. Bellow you can see multiple pictures made during my "night shift"...

 

1. I flashed a ported and modded bios (Maximus X Apex v.2402 to Maximus IX Apex) from here: https://community.hwbot.org/topic/184577-asus-maximus-ix-apex-and-coffee-lake-cpus/page/17/ since many people there confim its a working file. I only checked the file with CoffeeTime tool 0.92 to update microcodes to DE and eventually apply more patches if applicable. Then I used an old 1GB FAT(default) formatted USB flash drive with LED indicator. I copied the file and renamed to M9A.CAP. Guess that stands for Maximus 9 (Apex). First I seated my new i7-9700KF, with all the insulation an connection, of course. Then I pushed the drive with M9A,CA in the "BIOS" hole, plugged the PSU back. The LED on the USB blinked so I pushed/hold the flashback button for couple seconds but the USB did not blink (being read by the board) any more. So I gave up on flashback method, removed the i7-9700KF (R0) and reseated the i5-7400. Then I booted FreeDOS and used afudos to flash the ported v.2402 into the primary BIOS. After restart my Apex 9 booted in Apex 10 jacket...

2. Before I started to flash I also went through the user guide and soldered 2 wires with a switch between the #SKTOCC and GND pin near the Nuovoton chip, you know, to be able to "apply/remove" this mod without too much soldering. According to 3.2 CPU Pinmod of the guide I soldered The wires wer soldered flawlessly and nicely point to point. Unfortunately this did not work for me. It just makes no difference. I can boot with my i5 with pin mod on/off with no problem, but once I fit in the i7 and press Start button, it actually starts and stops after @seconds, only RED CPU LED blinks once and the fans spin, no matter if the pin mod is applied or not...But there is a matrix according to which is this board compatible with i7-9700K (both P0 and R0), tested and cnfirmed fully working.

 

3. Shortening of the 2 pins between the SMDs near the South Bridge cooler that should work as a HW BIOS unlock also made nothing. So I am using rather the software unlock patch.

 

Okay, so my board has 2 bioses. One is flashed with the stock MAXIMUS-IX-APEX-ASUS-1301.CAP, the other with a ported/moded and confirmed working .BIN file All necessary mods are applied on both the cpu and the motherboard. Resistence measured, everything seems sldered and connected accordingly so there is not much of things I can do think of that go wrong...

 

Can you help me, please, research and find what is wrong? Any idea will be appreciated.

 

Regards, George

 

[1van]

@GeorgettaCZHello! I had this board working perfectly with a M10A ported BIOS by dsanke (probably the same one that you mention), using i7-8700, i7-8700k, and i7-9700k. I did not solder anything on the board, just applied the insulation and the jumper to the CPU, according to the guide. The only difference is that I flashed it using the SPI programmer, not a software. This seems to be the problem in your case. Find an SPI programmer with a 2mm pitch cable to connect to the motherboard and flash the mentioned ported BIOS. The programmer and the cable are linked in the guide.

The board is indeed confirmed working by multiple people including myself, so the fault is somewhere on your part

[GeorgettaCZ]

Hallo 1van!

 

Thank you very much for your input! So according to the pictures, would you say my CPU mod is okay? I also removed all the soldering changes from the board itself, its back in its out-of-box condition now.

 

Regarding the flashing, I already own the cheap CH341A based USB SPI flasher with the flashing clip and I also have some experience with these toys already, so there shall be no problem. Only couple questions here!

1. I guess, I should remove the coin-cell battery for the flashing process, is that correct?

2. Since the secondary bios chip is more easily to be clipped and flashed, I think I will flash this one and leave the primary chip, hidden bellow the PCIE slot, untouched. So as long as I keep the switch set for the secondary bios, I will be fine, correct?

3. So you would suggest me to use the ported file from the Maximus X Apex? Okay, I will try to find that one and flash it...

 

Thank you again! I'll be waiting and looking for your reply!

 

Cheers!

[1van]

@GeorgettaCZ the guide has all the answers really, I'd like to not have to double check and reconfirm anyone who's attempting the mod each time. It's up to you.

[1van]

An important update: CoffeeTime v.0.99 (14.05.2021) has been released! 16-threaded CPU support has been added for many motherboards where it was previously unavailable.

The change log and the download links are below.

Spoiler

v.0.99 (14.05.2021)

• 16-threaded CPU support for any LGA1151-1 motherboard make and BIOS (including MSI) has been added. It includes a fix of MflashPei module for MSI 100 bioses to allow starts 6-cores CPUs on it. Both methods provided by dsanke.
• Corrected ACPI patch for MSI 100. It updates only part of important tables (GUIDS С118... and C38F...) to prevent bios crash. Research of this issue continues.
• Added "MSI Abnormal ME warning" fix, which removes this message on boot from MSI boards with disabled ME.
• Added fix for Clevo Z370, which bypass automatic system shutdown when ME was disabled.
• Added "Default RAM frequency" NVRAM setting. It allow to change RAM frequency for system boot and may provide better compatibility for 1440 CPUs with different RAM. Drop to defaults applies every time CMOS was cleared.
• Removed "NVMe" and "ASUS 12T blocker" fixes, cause they no more needed using new 16t support method.
• Microcodes of SKL/KBL/CFL updated to last EA revision.

Spoiler

CoffeeTime v.0.99 - Yandex.Disc

CoffeeTime v.0.99 - MEGA

 

[Vinay Pundith]

Hi all,

I'm planning to do this mod on a Shuttle XPC Z170 board, but there are a couple of things that are confusing me.
1) I see mentions of the CPU voltages not matching between the 6/7th gen CPUs and the 8/9th gen ones. Will it still work on a board like mine where the CPU voltages can't easily be changed? (actually maybe I can change it, have not booted up the system in a while. But do I need to change the voltages)?

2) The CPU pin mod chart has different colors for different board manufacturers, but Shuttle is not one of them. What brand's pinmod does it correspond to, or am I supposed to apply all the color pin mods?

Thanks in advance.

[aniuks33]

On 10/29/2020 at 10:18 PM, ZachNap said:

Thank you for creating this guide, I successfully got an i5 9600k running in my gigabyte z170n gaming 5 mini itx motherboard. I've never done anything like this before and I'm super glad that everything worked on my first attempt.
I also created a to-scale template for the pin mod that I used to cut out all my pieces of kapton tape. I have a PDF of the template attached below along with a picture of my cpu with the pin mod.

While typing this I notice that I actually misplaced the piece of kapton tape on the left side. My computer seems to be running fine, I'm not sure if it's okay to leave it like that or if I should take the cpu out and fix that.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

My i5 9600K with pin mod

 

PinModTemplate.pdf 448.52 kB · 12 downloads

Hi, just a quick question. I'm currently running i7 6700K on Gigabyte Z10 gaming k3 and planning to do a BIOS mod to be able to run 9700K. Why did you connect 2 pins (GREEN as per pinmod). I thought it supposed to be left as is or am I wrong here? Looks like pinmod doesnt show any GREEN squares next to Gigabyte boards... Also have you used the very latest BIOS F23f? 

[itsakjt]

Got Coffee Lake refresh i5 9600KF working on ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger. Been using the system for 3 days with a RTX 2060 Super under multiple day to day situations and haven't faced a single issue. The CPU has no troubles overclocking as well. 

Also, I soldered a tiny wire for the socket occupied (SKT_OCC) mod near the SuperIO chip (followed pin 102 -SKT_OCC trace to the nearest ground pad) - as shown on photo. This board does not have the RSVD pins as on LGA 1151v1 socket connected anywhere and hence pin isolation is not required. In case you are not comfortable with the SKT_OCC mod, you must connect the pads as instructed on the original post. In my case, I don't require any modifications on the bottom of CPU and it is just plug and play with any LGA 1151 CPU. I have kept 6th and 7th gen CPU support as well. The modded BIOS should support any CPU from the lowest end 6th gen to the highest end 9th gen. 

It is insane how Intel deliberately cripples very much capable hardware by doing such minor changes in the socket. 

 

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[aniuks33]

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On 7/2/2021 at 1:02 PM, aniuks33 said:

Hi, just a quick question. I'm currently running i7 6700K on Gigabyte Z10 gaming k3 and planning to do a BIOS mod to be able to run 9700K. Why did you connect 2 pins (GREEN as per pinmod). I thought it supposed to be left as is or am I wrong here? Looks like pinmod doesnt show any GREEN squares next to Gigabyte boards... Also have you used the very latest BIOS F23f? 

Quick update :

Managed to install i7 9700K onto Gigabyte Z170 gaming K3. 

Double the performance of my old system (i7 6700K).

Had to do some undervolting as this CPU required more power hence higher temperatures.

Benchmark apps used: Cinebench and OCCT , HWInfo for temperature monitoring. Managed to get my system stable at 1.23V @ 4.6Ghz All Cores , 1.21V worked fine on Cinebench but produced errors in OCCT under load. Was worried about VRMs as it's not a high end Z170 board but with undervolting managed to keep it in 99-105C range.

When gaming VRAM temps are around 75-85C range so it's good. I still think I may be able to tweak CPU voltages to be able to squeeze out max performance of this upgrade (undervolting). If you guys have any tips on undervolting please let me know. 

 

BIOS used : latest F23f however I had to use the programmer and physically connect it to the chip in order to flash modified BIOS. I have left both Skylake and Kabylake microcodes in the BIOS. 

When used FPTW64 I didn't experience any errors while flashing but system just refused to accept new CPU. CH341 programmer did the trick.

 

In terms of pinmod I had isolated all pins as per pinmod as well as "yellow" coloured pins just to be on a safe side. No pins shorting (green colours in pinmod) was necessary.

 

My Windows and Mac setups are running flawlessly so far. 

 

PC Specs:

Gigabyte Z170 Gaming K3,

Intel i7 9700K at 4.6Ghz All Cores

MSI Radeon 580 8 GB

Corsair Low Profile RAM @ 2400Mhz - 16GB

CPU Cooler: Hyper212X, Oldie but goodie:)

ABWB 801.11AC Wi-Fi Bluetooth (PCIE) BCM94360CS2 Combo card

Samsung 830. -Windows 10

Samsung 860 Evo - MacOS

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1van]

@itsakjt@aniuks33Please put the images under the spoiler tag (eye icon). Thx.

[erikbarbarik]

Thank you for this guide. I was planning on putting together a whole new build but was put off by the crazy prices of GPUs (other components seem to have increased steadily in price as well compared to the last time I built a PC which was way back in 2016). I still wanted to scratch my upgrade itch and after reading this guide and seeing the success of everyone posting in this thread I gave it a shot and everything worked! 

 

I started with a i5 6600k + gigabyte z170n gaming 5 motherboard and I was able to swap in an i7 8700 (non k). I used the F23f bios and a modded version of efiflash to flash the bios onto my motherboard. I followed the pinmod guide and covered the pins as indicated for gigabyte boards, I also shorted the 2 pins just to be sure.

 

I set an undervolt of -0.15 using adaptive voltage as previously mentioned in this thread and everything seems to be working great.

 

From 4c/4t to 6c/12t, hopefully this lasts me until the end of 2022/2023 when all the new stuff comes out.

 

Current specs:

Intel i7 8700

Gigabyte z170n gaming 5

G. Skill Ram @ 3200 cl16 2x 8gb

MSI Gaming X GTX 1070

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 in dual fan configuration

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