[News] 7th Gen Core "Kaby Lake" Won't Work on 300-series Chipset Motherboards

[StyM]

https://www.techpowerup.com/237136/7...t-motherboards

The upcoming Intel 300-series chipset, and LGA1151 socket continues to be a source of chaos for PC builders. While the 100-series and 200-series chipset based motherboards support both 6th generation Core "Skylake," and 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors, they will not support the upcoming 8th generation Core "Coffee Lake" chips. What's more, the upcoming 300-series chipset motherboards, which were earlier believed to feature backwards-compatibility for "Skylake" and "Kaby Lake" chips, will not support them, according to a Hardware.info report.

The LGA1151 socket between the two platforms remains unchanged, down to the package notches, which are designed to prevent you from installing a processor on an incompatible motherboard (eg: LGA1150 processors on LGA1151 motherboards). This isn't even a case like the incompatibility between LGA2011 and LGA2011v3, where the latter features DDR4 memory I/O, compared to the former's DDR3. Platform segmentation, and synthetically keeping up with a product development cycle, by forcing people to upgrade motherboards every two generations, appears to be Intel's primary motivation. The Hardware.info report, however, doesn't rule out the possibility of 300-series chipset motherboards getting support for older LGA1151 processors in the future, through BIOS updates.

[Charles Wirth]

I can confirm this, many pins were moved to make way for the changes in core count and power delivery.

If you put a CFL in a Z270 it will kill the chip. I have not tried to put a KBL in a Z370.

Tempting but do not try it.

[arisythila]

Interesting that they are keeping the 1151 socket unchanged...

Should have at lease rekeyed it or something, so you can in no way put a 8th Gen into a 7th Gen board or vice versa.

Just happy they are bringing 6-core to the main stream.

[zanzabar]

I can confirm this, many pins were moved to make way for the changes in core count and power delivery.

If you put a CFL in a Z270 it will kill the chip. I have not tried to put a KBL in a Z370.

Tempting but do not try it.

so no new key like 2011 got?

[EternityZX9]

Well, kinda figured this would happen at some point. They want us to keep buying their products, won't happen if everything is backwards/forwards compatible.

But that's OK for me with my update to Kabylake in May. I don't plan to upgrade again for another 5 years from now...

[adamsleath]

I can confirm this, many pins were moved to make way for the changes in core count and power delivery.

If you put a CFL in a Z270 it will kill the chip. I have not tried to put a KBL in a Z370.

Tempting but do not try it.

interesting times.

revisions coming left right and centre...in a micro-incrementally rapid fashion.