Request for help updating BIOS on a Z170 board

[einpoklum]

This my first tweakers.net post, so hello everyone and sorry for writing in English. I'm an expatriate here in Amsterdam and don't speak the language (yes, that means I'll be reading answers using Google translate...)

Which brings me to my problem/question.

My PC sort of burnt out in this big power outage Amsterdam experienced last month. Now I need to replace, at the least, my motherboard and CPU. I've been thinking of buying a Z170 motherboard and a Skylake i5-6600K. Then I noticed that an i7-7600K costs only 10 EUR more, and that with a newer BIOS, it's compatible with Z170 boards as well. Great! Except... that Alternate.NL told me they sell their boards with stock BIOS, hence no Kaby Lake CPU support.

If I were back home, I would probably find a friend of mine with a Skylake to help me do a BIOS upgrade. But I'm in the Netherlands now...

How would you suggest I try and get that BIOS upgrade for the motherboard? Do you think I'll be able to find someone to help me with that as a favor? Or a computer store which would do this for me for a small fee? Or even - perhaps some official ASUS outlet which could do that?

Alternatively - are there online/physical stores which sell Z170 boards with up-to-date BIOS versions which support Kaby Lake processors?


Any input/suggestions would be very much appreciated. (And I hope I chose the right forum for the question.)

[ Voor 14% gewijzigd door einpoklum op 06-02-2017 10:12 ]

[UltiemePCNerd]

Sharing is caring! Doorgeef Skylake CPU
People here are sharing a skylake celeron just for updating the bios. All you have to do is pay for the costs to send it and after you are done you send it to the next guy.
Btw, what power supply did you have? If the power outage fried your cpu etc. I would think you have a bad quality powersupply and should replace it.

[Extraxyz]

Afuture will flash the BIOS update for free

[prutser001]

Are you sure your current CPU is 'burnt out' ? This hardly every happens. Maybe you can still re use your old CPU.

[einpoklum]

UltiemePCNerd: Thank you for the reference, that's a very nice idea. I guess Socialism still has roots in the Netherlands, that's good to know :-) ... unfortunately, with the list of people waiting for the processor it looks like it'll be a couple of weeks before I can get it, so I'll try to follow Extraxyz's advice if I can get a BIOS-upgraded board directly.

To answer your other question, it was a old(ish) Corsair VS550W I got my hands on at some point. I was careless in not having a surge protector, on a socket that's not grounded (old apartment).

Extraxyz: Thanks, I didn't know about them. How can I ask them to flash the BIOS, though? Contact their customer support first, or make some comment during the purchase?

[einpoklum]

prutser001: No, I'm not entirely sure. If you follow the link in my original message, you'll notice I'm seeing hangs during boot and errors or hangs during memtest - but if I only use a single core, memtest runs fine; and I'm able to boot Windows 7 (rather than Linux) for some strange reason. So while it could theoretically be just a motherboard issue, I'm almost certainn the CPU is at fault.

An option I didn't quite consider is that it may be an issue with my _current_ PSU. It's some brandless 500W unit. I suppose there's some slight chance it might be giving me trouble.

[MichaelvD]

Why not look at a Kaby lake ready Z270 Motherboard ?
categorie: Moederborden

[UltiemePCNerd]

einpoklum schreef op maandag 6 februari 2017 @ 11:47:
prutser001: No, I'm not entirely sure. If you follow the link in my original message, you'll notice I'm seeing hangs during boot and errors or hangs during memtest - but if I only use a single core, memtest runs fine; and I'm able to boot Windows 7 (rather than Linux) for some strange reason. So while it could theoretically be just a motherboard issue, I'm almost certainn the CPU is at fault.

An option I didn't quite consider is that it may be an issue with my _current_ PSU. It's some brandless 500W unit. I suppose there's some slight chance it might be giving me trouble.

A corsair vengeance 400w will do great. They also have surge protection. Otherwise you could go for a bitfenix whisper 450w, which is fully modular.

[Verwijderd]

Got the same mobo for update the bios go to asus website and ( https://www.asus.com/nl/M...GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/ )
and download the latest bios (3016) copy your downloaded file to your usb stick. Next run bios f2/delete after enter ez mode (f7) go to tools and then asus ez 3 flash ulity next by usb select your file and start 5 mins work

edit: sorry for my bad english and if u connect internet with cable u dont need to download the bios files.

[ Voor 14% gewijzigd door Verwijderd op 06-02-2017 14:22 ]

[br00ky]

Schopje naar PMG, want met aankoopadvies heeft dit weinig te maken.

[Mister E]

einpoklum schreef op maandag 6 februari 2017 @ 11:44:
Extraxyz: Thanks, I didn't know about them. How can I ask them to flash the BIOS, though? Contact their customer support first, or make some comment during the purchase?

ordered a motherbord there 2 weeks ago. first i contacted CS to check if they had that option. they told me yeah sure just write it down when ordering in the comments section. received it last week, everything worked perfect .

[einpoklum]

MichaelvD2203: On Alternate.NL they were quite a bit more expensive (example), and I didn't feel I needed Optane support or the extra PCI lanes. But thanks for the link, I'll see if I the price difference is the same here as well.

cano66: Your English is not that bad :-) As for your suggestion, I don't think I can enter BIOS setup without having a supported CPU already in order to run it. That's probably why the "Sharing Is Caring" initiative which UltiemePCNerd mentioned is necessary.

Mister E:: Indeed, they have that option. Good to know.

UltiemePCNerd: Those are good suggestions, but I'm planning to stick a GTX 780 Ti in there (which is not in the box right now), so I may need more wattage than that to be on the safe side (I write CUDA code and though it's already not so new, it's still a solid card for testing).

[UltiemePCNerd]

einpoklum schreef op maandag 6 februari 2017 @ 15:33:
MichaelvD2203: On Alternate.NL they were quite a bit more expensive (example), and I didn't feel I needed Optane support or the extra PCI lanes. But thanks for the link, I'll see if I the price difference is the same here as well.

cano66: Your English is not that bad :-) As for your suggestion, I don't think I can enter BIOS setup without having a supported CPU already in order to run it. That's probably why the "Sharing Is Caring" initiative which UltiemePCNerd mentioned is necessary.

Mister E:: Indeed, they have that option. Good to know.

UltiemePCNerd: Those are good suggestions, but I'm planning to stick a GTX 780 Ti in there (which is not in the box right now), so I may need more wattage than that to be on the safe side (I write CUDA code and though it's already not so new, it's still a solid card for testing).

The Whisper 450 or vengeance 400/500 will be absolutely fine.
A good ~450w psu will run SLI 1080's with a I7 if you wanted to (without overclock) so i think a single 780ti will be fine
Edit: if you really want to be safe (as the card draws roughly 220 watts during gaming) you could always get the vengeance 500.
You'll be fine though.
(~100+220+~35=355 watts)
I don't assume your going to be using synthetic benchmarks like furmark and prime95?

[ Voor 9% gewijzigd door UltiemePCNerd op 06-02-2017 16:07 ]

[einpoklum]

UltiemePCNerd: I used this calculator, and when I added all of my other components, it says 570W. this one also says 550W or so. Note that I accounted for overclocking the CPU to 4.6 GHz and a small voltage increase.

As for benchmarks - I'm not sure I know what you mean. Right now I'm working on this - lightweight compression scheme decompressors and other DB-related GPU kernels.

[Verwijderd]

einpoklum schreef op maandag 6 februari 2017 @ 15:33:
MichaelvD2203: On Alternate.NL they were quite a bit more expensive (example), and I didn't feel I needed Optane support or the extra PCI lanes. But thanks for the link, I'll see if I the price difference is the same here as well.

cano66: Your English is not that bad :-) As for your suggestion, I don't think I can enter BIOS setup without having a supported CPU already in order to run it. That's probably why the "Sharing Is Caring" initiative which UltiemePCNerd mentioned is necessary.

Mister E:: Indeed, they have that option. Good to know.

UltiemePCNerd: Those are good suggestions, but I'm planning to stick a GTX 780 Ti in there (which is not in the box right now), so I may need more wattage than that to be on the safe side (I write CUDA code and though it's already not so new, it's still a solid card for testing).

Yes you can. Google asus crashfree bios 3 it is posible with your mobo to enter bios without cpu

[Verwijderd]

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1012219

[UltiemePCNerd]

einpoklum schreef op maandag 6 februari 2017 @ 17:05:
UltiemePCNerd: I used this calculator, and when I added all of my other components, it says 570W. this one also says 550W or so. Note that I accounted for overclocking the CPU to 4.6 GHz and a small voltage increase.

As for benchmarks - I'm not sure I know what you mean. Right now I'm working on this - lightweight compression scheme decompressors and other DB-related GPU kernels.

PSU calculators are unreliable.
If you google 780 TI power draw you will see it will draw about 220w.

[einpoklum]

Thank you everyone for the great advice and links - you've all been extremely helpful!

Eventually I bought a 7600K and an ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming from AFuture.nl . Their price was lower than what Alternate.nl offered, and based on comments here I made a comment asking for the BIOS to be upgraded. Hopefully that'll work out. If it doesn't I guess I'll have a chance to try cano66's suggestion and try a CPU-less BIOS upgrade.

[stin00]

Why not spend about 20 euro's more for a brand new Z270 board? The pricewatch: Gigabyte GA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming is very interesting and saves you any incompatability issues.

[mrgnex]

+1 for a Z270 motherboard. Easier and not that more expensive.
A 780 Ti apparently has a peak power draw of 260 W (non overclocked). According to this link it can draw a 400 W total power consumption when overclocked. I would grab a solid 450+ W PSU. They aren't a lot more expensive and it gives you that extra piece of mind.