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  • tamalero - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link

    So.. intel artificially blocks certain chips from being set up in certain mobos to push consumers to buy different chipssets/mobos?
    *pretends to be shocked*
  • speculatrix - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link

    Me too, I'm shocked, shocked, I tell ya'
  • brunosalezze - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link

    To suport the quad cores CFLs you only need to add the cpu microcode and upgrade the VBIOS. in the bios No HW mods required. But... to run the six cores and the Gs HW mods are needed.

    Someone may think that the quad cores CFLs are KBL i5s with a new stamp on it.
  • Lolimaster - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link

    They're Skylake.

    It's the same chip, just a newer stepping.
  • Flunk - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    They're all Skylake. Intel hasn't really built a new chip since Skylake. Cannon lake, the next chip design is 10nm. They've been spinning their wheels for the last 2 years.
  • diehardmacfan - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    This isn't exactly true, the uArch is Skylake but it's still a changed process and the power requirements are different. The current i9's are Skylake too, but you wouldn't expect them to be compatible.
  • ziddey - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link

    ME downgrade also required I think? Haven't tried 4c cfl.
  • mkaibear - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    So many people keen to throw shade at Intel, so little time.

    Intel stated quite explicitly - they knew that Coffee Lake would work on some 100 and 200 chipsets but not all of them - especially the higher power delivery CPUs and the ones which require better quality power.

    So rather than deal with a situation where they either had to say "yes this will work" and then deal with customer and OEM complaints, or a situation where they had to say "only these CPUs will work" and then deal with customer and OEM complaints, they instead chose to say "this won't work, you'll need a new motherboard" - that way at the end of the day they can warrant that people's boards will work with their CPUs.

    It's no surprise that enterprising(!) vendors have worked out how to make some of the lower spec CPUs work with the earlier boards. You'll note that the higher power CPUs are conspicuous by their absence.
  • shabby - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    This is only happening because of Ryzen, otherwise a new mobo would of been mandatory, so yes we'll throw shade at intel.
  • mganai - Wednesday, August 22, 2018 - link

    Not following. A new mobo IS mandatory for Coffee Lake.
  • Spunjji - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    Options at the customer's own risk are good; enforced lack of options is bad. The kind of person who is going to mess that up is also the kind of person who isn't going to try in the first place.
  • mkaibear - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    Have you *met* the general public? They will not only try in the first place, they will rant about how Intel sold them stuff which didn't work. It will never be their fault for not checking, it will always be the fault of the manufacturer.

    "It's the same socket it should just work" never mind all the additional power stuff which is necessary to support it.

    Options at the customer's own risk are not good. They lead to angry customers, angry resellers, and huge costs for the manufacturer.

    And how do we know this? Well, it happened, to Intel, between 2004 and 2008. Do you not remember what happened with the LGA 775 sockets? Different chips with different power consumptions didn't work in some motherboards and did in others, it all got dumped on Intel as it was "their fault" and they ended up publishing big lists of what did and didn't work across motherboards. Nevertheless they ended up getting it in the neck.

    Damned if they do and damned if they don't.
  • edzieba - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    Bingo. The irony is, if Intel inflated costs by shifting one of the socket notches and adding one NC pin (to make Socket H4 or 'LGA 1152') - meaning money wasted on new mouldings, new machinery, and new qual testing - then the entire furore would not exist.
  • Kvaern1 - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    Bullshit excuse. They could release the appropriate firmware updates to the motherboard vendors and have them sort power compatibility out themselves.
  • mkaibear - Monday, August 20, 2018 - link

    Er, firmware updates can't fix physical problems, like the power supplies not being able to push out enough clean enough power.

    Besides, that's exactly what Intel did back in the '00s, with socket 775 as I said - even with Intel providing all the info to motherboard vendors and the general public Intel still got it in the neck for supplying products which weren't compatible. Back then everyone was saying Intel should have simply said they wouldn't work... comme ci comme ca!

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