7th Gen on z170

[alexlea444]

I am starting to purchase the parts to my first pc build, and I have already purchased my motherboard, the Z170X-GAMING 7 from Gigabyte. I got it for roughly $140, compared to its MSRP of roughly 225 dollars. After buying that motherboard, however, the i5 7600k became almost the same price as the 6th generation equivalent. Although I have seen in the past that there are ways to run 7th gen on z170 motherboards, is it worth it to get the newer generation processor? And, if so, how exactly do I upgrade the BIOS and still manage to overclock the chip?

 

[bignastyid]

You need to have bios f20 or newer to run a 7th gen cpu. If it has an older bios version it will not post and updating the bios on that board would require a skylake cpu. The bios update will not remove the ability to overclock a K(unlocked) cpu.

 

[alexlea444]

You need to have bios f20 or newer to run a 7th gen cpu. If it has an older bios version it will not post and updating the bios on that board would require a skylake cpu. The bios update will not remove the ability to overclock a K(unlocked) cpu.

Does the BIOS update itself depend on the motherboard? And, if so, how can I update it with my motherboard?

 

[bignastyid]

Updating the bios requires a cpu compatible with the bios version that is on the board. Some boards will put the bios version on a sticker on the cmos chip or the motherboard box. Without one of these there is no way to tell what bios rev is currently installed on the board.