Asus Adds Kaby Lake Support to 87 Of Its 100-Series Motherboards

News
By
Published

Asus pushed out a series of BIOS updates for 87 of its 100-series motherboards that add support for Intel’s upcoming Kaby Lake processors.

Latest Videos FromTom's Hardware
Michael Justin Allen Sexton
Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    87+ motherboards with 100-series chipsets? Did the world really need that many board variants from a single manufacturer? Sounds pretty crazy.
    Reply
  • wildfire707
    And it excludes my Z170-WS board. No BIOS update, yet again. The ASUS message seems to be that workstation boards cost more than twice as much and are not worth their time...some day maybe my motherboard will report the CPU temperature correctly.
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    "If you plan to purchase one of these motherboards for a new Kaby Lake CPU in the future, you will want to make sure that it supports Asus’s USB BIOS Flash Back utility. The utility will enable you to update the BIOS without a CPU or RAM installed. Otherwise, you will also need to purchase a Skylake CPU to update the BIOS, assuming the board doesn’t come with the update pre-installed."

    In other words ASUS BIOS updates is a messy minefield. All the boards should support this Asus’s USB BIOS Flash Back Utility. If they can make a board that accepts BIOS updates without a CPU or RAM it should be universal. Even when Kaby Lake is finally available. If you wait to buy a motherboard which is supposed to be designed for the CPU. You have no guarantee that it will work.

    This is the sort of thing that makes less knowledgeable people blow hundreds of extra dollars on an OEM computer rather than a cheaper and superior one they build themselves.
    Reply
  • 18691098 said:
    87+ motherboards with 100-series chipsets? Did the world really need that many board variants from a single manufacturer? Sounds pretty crazy.

    I agree. Sounds insane to have 87+ variants. Then again, that's the beauty of capitalism. Maybe they should read Ford. The customer can have any color, as long as that color is black.
    Reply
  • IInuyasha74
    18691359 said:
    "If you plan to purchase one of these motherboards for a new Kaby Lake CPU in the future, you will want to make sure that it supports Asus’s USB BIOS Flash Back utility. The utility will enable you to update the BIOS without a CPU or RAM installed. Otherwise, you will also need to purchase a Skylake CPU to update the BIOS, assuming the board doesn’t come with the update pre-installed."

    In other words ASUS BIOS updates is a messy minefield. All the boards should support this Asus’s USB BIOS Flash Back Utility. If they can make a board that accepts BIOS updates without a CPU or RAM it should be universal. Even when Kaby Lake is finally available. If you wait to buy a motherboard which is supposed to be designed for the CPU. You have no guarantee that it will work.

    This is the sort of thing that makes less knowledgeable people blow hundreds of extra dollars on an OEM computer rather than a cheaper and superior one they build themselves.

    Well it is really beyond Asus's control to ensure that all motherboards purchased after a certain date come with the updated BIOS. The PR rep said that by the time Kaby Lake is released, Asus will be producing these boards with the updated BIOSes. There isn't any way to tell, however, when you buy a board from a retailer how long that retailer has had that board.

    It would be nice for to have the USB Flash Back functionality on every motherboard. Several already have this feature, but it requires some extra hardware on the motherboard and gets left off low-end SKUs.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    18691371 said:
    I agree. Sounds insane to have 87+ variants. Then again, that's the beauty of capitalism. Maybe they should read Ford. The customer can have any color, as long as that color is black.
    Without going to the other extreme, I can see the need for 4-5 variants per chipset (ATX, mATX, ITX and one or two 'specialty' variant such as high-end enthusiast for the Z-series, with and without extra bells and whistles such as built-in WiFi) and that would already reduce the lineup to a more sensible 30ish variants, less than half as many.
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    I laugh when people cry about 'too many models'. If Asus had trouble selling these boards, they would have less models. They make a crap ton because they sell.
    Reply
  • Therefore Kaby Lake will work and perform fine on Windows 7.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    18692306 said:
    If Asus had trouble selling these boards, they would have less models. They make a crap ton because they sell.
    They'd likely sell just as many if not more with same or better margin if they focused on somewhat fewer models to reduce their development, manufacturing and warehousing costs then passed part of the savings to customers.
    Reply
  • jackt
    when the 200 serie ? should me this month right ?
    Reply