I7 875k on an unupdated motherboard

[websurfer80]

hi, I currently have the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3P motherboard, I don't know the current BIOS version but I'm sure that it's not the F10 Version.
I have an i7-875k CPU on the way, and on Gigabytes site it says that the CPU is supported on the F10 BIOS. So, my question is, will the CPU work on the motherboard before I update the BIOS or not. I don't have any other LGA 1156 CPU.

 

[tecmo34]

I would say you have about a 20% chance of it working as an unsupported CPU but unlikely it will boot.

I would highly recommend contacting Gigabyte now and asking the method to update your BIOS ahead of time or once you get the chip. This way you have a game plan to be ready for.

 

[davcon]

There are various methods to update your board
The easiest in my opinion is the @BIOS utility

http://www.giga-byte.ca/Support/Motherboard/Utility_DownloadFile.aspx?FileType=Utility&FileID=52

once you have installed the above download bios version F10 to your desktop
open @BIOS and load the F10 bios

if you haven't done so i recommend you update the chipset and lan drivers for your mobo as well
You might have to adjust some memory settings on mobo bios if your running anything higher then 1333MHz after bios flash

that's it!

 

[websurfer80]

There are various methods to update your board
The easiest in my opinion is the @BIOS utility

http://www.giga-byte.ca/Support/Motherboard/Utility_DownloadFile.aspx?FileType=Utility&FileID=52

once you have installed the above download bios version F10 to your desktop
open @BIOS and load the F10 bios

if you haven't done so i recommend you update the chipset and lan drivers for your mobo as well
You might have to adjust some memory settings on mobo bios if your running anything higher then 1333MHz after bios flash

that's it!

There's an even eaiser way to flash the BIOS with Gigabyte motherboards, you don't need to have anything installed, you don't need to have bootable CDs/Flash disks. All you need is a FAT32 Flashdisk with the F10 BIOS File on it, then run the Q-Flash utility from the BIOS.

the main question here is will the system boot up with an unsupported CPU? most people that had this problem say that the system boots up, but it remains unstable until the BIOS is updated.

so hopefully the system will boot up long enough for me to update the BIOS.

 

[davcon]

Yes sir! i misread the part that you didn't have a another cpu.

 

[Quantu]

Is the 870 supported? If it is, the 875k will surely boot.

 

[websurfer80]

Here's the Compatibility List:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3241

i7-870 is supported.

 

[Quantu]

I think it may work well enough to bios update then. Get the bios file on a fat32 formatted usb, and as soon as you get it up to bios for the first time, hit <end>????? for the Q-flash utility.

Good luck.

 

[websurfer80]

Thanks everyone, I'll just have to wait for the CPU to arrive to test things out.

 

[websurfer80]

Good News....everything went fine.....the motherboard came with F5 BIOS but was able to boot with the 875K CPU...Next, i used a usb flash disk to update the BIOS to F10....So far so good...installed windows...system is rock solid.

 

[Quantu]

I'm glad it worked for you hope you love that 875k, i love mine....