Kaby Lake on Z370 and Coffee Lake on Z270 – It fits, but does it work?
It has already been well reported that Coffee Lake CPUs will not be backwards compatible with Intel’s existing Z270 series of motherboards, despite the fact that both chipsets use Intel’s LGA 1151 socket. Even so, nobody has been able to test this to see whether or not this is true, or if Z370 motherboards will work with existing Kaby Lake CPUs.
Hardware.info has been given early access to Z370 motherboards and a Coffee Lake CPU and has put this to the test, revealing what happens to Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake CPUs if they are fitted into motherboards with the incorrect chipset.
In the image below it is clear that Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake use the same LGA 1151 pinout, with both CPUs fitting into both Z270 and Z370 motherboards with ease. Hardware.info confirmed that they were using a Celeron G3930 to represent Kaby Lake, though they did not mention any of the other hardware that they used to protect the vendor from any backlash from Intel.
In their testing, it was found that the system was able to power on and do a self-test, though a complete system boot was not possible. When Kaby lake CPUs are used in Z370 the system will not boot and enter into an infinite boot loop. The same thing happened when a Coffee Lake CPU was used on a Z270 motherboard.
(Kaby Lake (Left), Coffee Lake (Right))
Thankfully using an LGA 1151 CPU on the incorrect chipset did not result in any blue smoke or damage to either the CPU or motherboard, though it is clear that Kaby Lake/Z270 and Coffee Lake/Z370 are not inter-compatible.
You can join the discussion on Kaby Lake/Coffee Lake’s lack of inter-compatibility on the OC3D Forums.
Kaby Lake on Z370 and Coffee Lake on Z270 – It fits, but does it work?
It has already been well reported that Coffee Lake CPUs will not be backwards compatible with Intel’s existing Z270 series of motherboards, despite the fact that both chipsets use Intel’s LGA 1151 socket. Even so, nobody has been able to test this to see whether or not this is true, or if Z370 motherboards will work with existing Kaby Lake CPUs.
Hardware.info has been given early access to Z370 motherboards and a Coffee Lake CPU and has put this to the test, revealing what happens to Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake CPUs if they are fitted into motherboards with the incorrect chipset.
In the image below it is clear that Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake use the same LGA 1151 pinout, with both CPUs fitting into both Z270 and Z370 motherboards with ease. Hardware.info confirmed that they were using a Celeron G3930 to represent Kaby Lake, though they did not mention any of the other hardware that they used to protect the vendor from any backlash from Intel.
In their testing, it was found that the system was able to power on and do a self-test, though a complete system boot was not possible. When Kaby lake CPUs are used in Z370 the system will not boot and enter into an infinite boot loop. The same thing happened when a Coffee Lake CPU was used on a Z270 motherboard.
(Kaby Lake (Left), Coffee Lake (Right))
Thankfully using an LGA 1151 CPU on the incorrect chipset did not result in any blue smoke or damage to either the CPU or motherboard, though it is clear that Kaby Lake/Z270 and Coffee Lake/Z370 are not inter-compatible.
You can join the discussion on Kaby Lake/Coffee Lake’s lack of inter-compatibility on the OC3D Forums.
