[OFFER] Various Gigabyte Z170-HD3-DDR3 BIOSes with Coffee Lake support

I have had a couple of requests for my modded BIOS so here it is.

DISCLAIMER; I take no responsibility for any problems associated with the use of this BIOS, you must do the pad mods on the CPU to protect the motherboard CPU socket pins or you will permanently damage your motherboard with a Coffee Lake CPU!



[Edit] The checksum has been corrected so this BIOS can be flashed with Q-Flash

F20mod.zip

SHA1 for the Zip: f96a8fb11527e39cf13ca4fe94136b406733db79
SHA1 for the modified BIOS: 12b101c9fa8a0e5a70700ee7065ba1678346e618

Mods on the BIOS:
Speedshift Enabled by default
SGX Enabled by default
Intel ME changed to 11.7.0.1261
Intel RST OROM + EFI Modules updated to 17.0.0.3713
506E3 Microcode CA updated for Skylake
906E9 Microcode AE updated for Kabylake
906EC Microcode AE added for Coffee Lake (9x00 Series 6/8 cores, P0 Stepping)
Updated EFI GOP Driver SKL-CFL - 9.0.1080
Updated OROM VBIOS SKL-KBL - 1062
Applied PCIe patch
Changed SKU to Z370
Set all cores sync
HT Patch (up to 16 CPU cores)
Patched ACPI tables

WARNING: The GA-Z170-HD3-DDR3 motherboard has 4 x Vishay SiRA12 MOSFETS on the low side which are rated for 20 Amps each @ 70°C for a combined total of 80 Amps, therefore I recommend to set PL3 TDP Limit (Package Power Limit) to 50W in the BIOS to avoid accidental overheating of the VRM’s.

EDIT by Fernando: Thread title shortened (was too long)

Hi, would anybody be able to give me some advice would this BIOS need modifying to work with any stepping of 9x00 series CPU, the change log says it supports CPUID : 906EC 6/8 Core P0 stepping.

However looking at the processors I wanted to is an i5-9400F, but this has CPUID : ‎906EA.

Would this BIOS need modifying to support it?

Thanks.

@ipdialup

Here is a new Gigabyte Z170-HD3-DDR3 modded BIOS specifically for all 9400F revisions (9400F P0 906EC, 9400F U0 906EA, 9400F R0 906ED)

Mods on the BIOS:
Speedshift Enabled by default
Intel ME changed to 11.7.0.1261
Intel RST OROM + EFI Modules updated to 17.8.0.4438
506E3 Microcode D6 updated for Skylake
906E9 Microcode CA updated for Kabylake
906EA Microcode CA added for Coffee Lake (9400F U0)
906EC Microcode CA added for Coffee Lake (9400F P0)
906ED Microcode CA added for Coffee Lake (9400F R0)

Updated EFI GOP Driver SKL-CFL - 9.0.1080
Updated OROM VBIOS SKL-KBL - 1062
Applied PCIe patch
Changed SKU to Z370
Set all cores sync
HT Patch (up to 16 CPU cores)
Patched ACPI tables

[Edit] Corrected the checksum so that the BIOS can now be flashed with Q-Flash

F21fmod.zip

SHA1 for the Zip: c660392759d047f5b4c2e681e8ef3d9e2a0be432
SHA1 for the modified BIOS: c71b868f838135ee9e1429fd912c6e59a73131bc

Thanks that’s brilliant, I will order the CPU now, then flash the BIOS, and try swapping it over :slight_smile:

Thanks for your help just to confirm I have it working today, I ended up with a U0 version, used some Capton tape to isolate the PADs all working a treat feels quite a bit faster than the old i5 6400 I had in there before.

Nice to move to latest GEN CPU without having to spend a load on new mobo/ram etc…

Quick Q, do you know if this BIOS would also support the i5 9600KF ?

Thanks.

@ipdialup The only Coffe Lake CPU’s that won’t run with that BIOS are 906EB - all B0 revision CPU’s.

shixinyuan made this great post to clear up any confusion;

@chinobino
How long did you run the Z170-HD3 with the 9900k .
Are there any problems with the daily use ?
Thank you

@benobi I ran the 9900K in that motherboard for about 3 months.

Just remember that this board is designed for quad-core and cannot run the 9900K at full speed as the VRM will hit maximum temperature and power draw.

If you set PL3 to 50 Watts you can protect the VRM and the CPU will still clock up to 5 GHz on light loads - on heavy loads it will reach ~2.8 GHz (AVX) to ~3.6 GHz (non-AVX) on all cores depending on the specific program but you must also have sufficient cooling.

@chinobino Okay thanks . I plan to use the 9700k.

Updated both the F20 and F21f modded BIOS to allow flashing using Q-Flash.

@chinobino , hello, tell me please, will skylake (i5-6500) still working on this BIOS? Have it any advantages in comparison with f5b?

@lighteagle Yes it will work with either of these modified BIOS although you can also download the official BIOS from Gigabyte for that CPU.

The F20.x and F21.x BIOS are for Kaby Lake support and have the newer red GUI with some differences, notably SpeedShift is enabled (and can be disabled).

@chinobino , thanks for answer. One more thing, is it "unlocked BIOS", which can overclock non-K cpu?

@lighteagle No, the only BIOS than can overclock non-K Skylake CPU are F5b & F5c (as long as you don’t change the CPU microcode).

Does anyone know if this BIOS will work with a GA-Z170-XP-SLI?

No it won’t, you are better off making your own modified BIOS using Revlaay’s tool or CoffeeTime.

Hey, you think it can be done this way (Q-Flash method) on all gigabyte mobos? In my case Z170X-DESIGNARE

Yes it is possible, however it is much easier to just use the modified version of EFIFlash.

Hi chinobino, thank you for posting the Bioses and info. But I’m confused if my I3-9100F, ist supported by your F20 or F21f.
Your quote of shixinyuan lists the 9100F twice, once as 906EB,B0, and once as 906EA,U0. So now I’m confused which one is correct, or if there are 2 different revisions.
I already isolated my cpu pads according to your graphic with nail-polish, but with both, F20 and F21f I couldn’t successfully boot with the CPU.
Now I’m wondering if it’s because of the not supported i3-9100f or because my CPU-pad isolation wasn’t perfect.
Also I asked myself, when I compare your graphic for the CPU-Pads, it differs from from some images of coffee time mod i found on the web, but since you already had them working I trusted your instruction.
But now I just came across an Info which states, “for revision B0 processors, a pinmod is not required” Is that true and is i3-9100f one of these B0 CPUs?
If I already did the mod, does it work with and without the pinmod, or should I undo the mod?
I hope you can help me out, of nicest of all in case if a different biosupdate, would it be possible to provide it for me? If not, I of course understand, but I’d be happy if you could answer my other questions if possible.
Thanks!

@feilsch_hering Hi, as you noticed there are two 9100F CPUs.

The first (906EB) B0 revision has an S-spec of SRF7W (check your CPU box stickers or CPU heatsink) and is a true quad core die, which means it doesn’t need pin isolation or the SKTOCC mod.

The second (906EA) U0 revision has an S-spec of SRF6N and is a hexacore die that failed validation and so 2 cores were disabled, if you have one of these you need to do the pin isolation and possibly the SKTOCC mod, depending on which motherboard you have (many Gigabyte and MSI motherboards do not require it).

Neither of the BIOS I uploaded have support for 906EB, which might be the reason you can’t get the CPU to post.

Svarmod made a BIOS with 906EB support which I will link to below, you will need to flash with EFIFlash;

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170-HD3-DDR3
Based on: F21f
ME: 11.6.0.1126
Microcodes: 506E3, 906E9, 906EA, 906EB
Tested with: G3900, i5-8600k by @svarmod
Note: For 6-core CPU need isolate/remove RSVD pins in socket, like image below, to prevent damage mb.
OC from bios for unlocked 6-core cpus works correct.

CFL_MOD_Z170HD33.rar

Mirror:

CFL_MOD_Z170HD33.rar