Updating Z87 MB bios to support devils canyon

Hardware Hub Motherboards
1

Hi, I'm currently building a pc for a friend but am concerned about updating the motherboard bios...

I was able to pick up an i5 4690k for a good price along with an MSI Z87-G45 Gaming.

On the MSI website it states that with a bios update, the motherboard can support the new Devils canyon cpus, however my only concern is that the bios update will require a standard haswell processor to be installed.

Is this the case, or can i carry out the bios update with the i5 4690k installed?

Thanks in advance! 

2

I have heard of many people having this problem, if you can't find anyone with an old haswell you can always take it to a computer store and have them do it for you. 

Another thing to keep in mind even with the update, issues such as overvolting have been reported. Make sure to monitor this after you install the 4690K, otherwise your friends CPU might be a bricked memory. 

Good luck, sorry you got pushed into a corner with this one. 

3

This is a question you should be asking MSI but as i5 4690k is just a pre oc'ed i5 4670k i dont see the motherboard not booting with that cpu.

4

lets give the ansewr to this then.

The msi boards have not something like usb flashback like Asus boards have. They only have M-flash which can be runed from inside the bios.

Long story short, you will need a supported cpu, to update the bios first.

Grtz Angel ☺

5

Thanks guys, I think I'll just exchange the Z87 motherboard for its Z97 counterpart.

It's a shame but I guess my friend will just have to wait a bit longer :/ 

6

Just picked up an I5-4690K and an ASRock Z87 Fatal1ty Killer for a spare system.

Board came with UEFI P1.10.  ASRock lists 1.40 needed for Devil's Canyon CPUS.

Board posted w/ 4690K fine with the P1.10 firmware fine.

YMMV, but it's not uncommon for newer CPUs to work before the bios update.

7

Ah then you are probably lucky, but i would definitely recommend to update the bios, Because, some older bios versions, can overvolt the DC cpu on stock speeds.

till now i readed some issues about this. with Gigabyte Z87 boards.

But im not sure if this is an Gigabyte only issue, so its allways good to check twice.

8

I updated the EUFI first thing (one of them, I left the backup eeprom stock).  I would suspect older BIOS' not being able to match VID pin combinations to the proper voltage for newer CPUs wouldn't apply as often with socket 1150/Haswell since the CPUs now possess fully-integrated voltage regulators.  Thus the main benefit from the update would be having the latest microcode updates for the chip to work around any errata.  When these start to matter though, proprietary OS vendors that support their products provide their own solution to make sure that's updated.  As for linux etc., Intel lets you download directly from them the update file that the kernel will use to make these changes.