Question Mobo and cpu compatibility

[Boxxerz]

I have a P8Z68-V LE mobo, the support pages say it supports i7 gen2 processors. It also says it supports i7 3770 if I upgrade the bios.
I found an i7 3770 (gen3) on sale for nearly $200 off! But I cannot confirm that it will be compatible since it's a gen3 processor.

the mobo is older and I'm wondering if maybe they didn't update that it can support gen3 (maybe gen3 wasnt out at the time), or if the mobo really just can't support past gen2.

 

[MPF-Dean]

The base of the compatibility pyrimid is the sockets.

Do they match for cpu and mobo i.e socket 1151 etc etc etc

 

[Boxxerz]

Yes both are 1155 socket type.

Everything appears completely compatible, however this mobo is from a 7 year old build. I successfully upgraded the ram and the GPU, however my CPU (i32120) is now bottlenecking.

I am not sure if the gen2 vs gen3 processor makes a difference in the board or not and wouldnt have even thought twice about it, except the Asus support page said it supported gen2 processors.

Google hasn't been much help.

 

[Karadjgne]

2nd Gen is Sandy-Bridge, 3rd gen is Ivy-Bridge. Both are socket lga1155. When the Ivys were released, updated bios microcode allowed for 3rd gen processors to be used on 2nd gen mobo's. The bios really didn't change much other than the addition of a few instruction sets and an updated cpu recognition table, so it's the same basic bios used for all lga1155, the only differences being how it looks for different models.

If you flash your bios to the last published (somewhere around October 2013) then it'll include all available lga1155 processors.

Your original bios was written before the release of the Ivy-Bridge cpus, so only contains 2nd Gen info.

There are some design differences, but generally the Ivys are stronger clock for clock than Sandy's. But given the choice of an overclockable i7-2600k/2700k or an i7-3770, on your mobo I'd take the 2nd Gen and some OC to @ 4.2-4.3GHz before taking a locked 3.5GHz Ivy.