How to confirm buying motherboard with old chipset will have updated BIOS to support new processors?

[Bouowmx]

I am interested in ASRock DeskMini 110 (Newegg listing) with following CPU support. I want to use a Kaby Lake processor, and I do not have any Skylake ones. How can I confirm motherboard comes with updated BIOS?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

You can't be _sure_ until you try to boot the thing.

Although since Newegg is putting "Supports i7-7700K" in the product description, it's safe to assume they at least think they've got a stock of ones with updated BIOSes. I'd call Newegg and ask what the deal is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I bought one earlier in the month, from Newegg on ebay, and when I received it, it came with BIOS P1.50, which, when I tried to internet update it, said that I had the newest.

I believe that according to ASRock's web site, P1.50 is supposed to support KBL CPUs.

So I think you have a very good chance of it working OOTB with a new unit, for you.

Edit: I received my Kaby Lake G4600 Pentium dual-core with HT a day or two ago, and I installed it into my newer DeskMini unit that shipped with P1.50 installed. No problems, Win10 booted right up, and (I guess?) installed a video driver for the HD630.

No issues thus far, and the 3.6Ghz G4600 is certainly faster than the 2.8Ghz G3900 that was in there before.

 

[Bouowmx]

"Supports i7-7700K" was a good indicator. I contacted Newegg via phone and the representative gave me an OK on Core generation 7 support.

Motherboard worked with Core i7-7700 out-of-the-box:

On a final note, I am curious why motherboard supports Kaby Lake K (Core i5-7600K and i7-7700K) but not Skylake K.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

On a final note, I am curious why motherboard supports Kaby Lake K (Core i5-7600K and i7-7700K) but not Skylake K.

Hmmm... that's a damn good question.

 

[limsandy83]

Is there any guarantee this thing will work with Intel G4560/G4600?

How does the bandwidth between 288-pin DDR4 desktop memory and 260-pin DDR notebook memory compare at 2400 Mhz and comparable CAS/memory timings? Are they different just in size/form factor?

 

[lenjack]

Go to the board makers website, look under support for the board's bios revisions. You can see your bios revision during boot.

 

[Bouowmx]

Is there any guarantee this thing will work with Intel G4560/G4600?

How does the bandwidth between 288-pin DDR4 desktop memory and 260-pin DDR notebook memory compare at 2400 Mhz and comparable CAS/memory timings? Are they different just in size/form factor?

I think Kaby Lake support depends on where you buy. Newegg appears to have all updated stock, indicated by "Supports i7-7700K" in product description.

DIMM and SODIMM only differ in form factor. However, low-latency SODIMMs are more rare and expensive than similar DIMMs.

Note that my sample is dated to 2016-11-15, a while before Kaby Lake LGA.

 

[Bouowmx]

Go to the board makers website, look under support for the board's bios revisions. You can see your bios revision during boot.

Well yeah, I can do that. But my intent is to determine that before purchasing, so either I can search for another retailer or purchase a Skylake processor.

 

[cleverhandle]

Just to provide a recent data point... I purchased the Asus H170M-Plus board from Newegg a week ago along with a Kaby Lake i3. It didn't have the most recent BIOS (3016), released 12/29/2016. But it did have the BIOS (2002) released last September necessary to support Kaby Lake. (This was a relief, as the only Skylake I have is in my main desktop PC and I really didn't want to tear it apart just to boot the new system.)

edit: Also, Newegg's product page for the board didn't mention anything about Kaby Lake support. So don't assume that it's not there just because it's not listed.