Modders get Coffee Lake quadcore working on 100 Series motherboard

Modders have managed to get a Core i3 8100 quad-core, a chip from Intel’s eighth Core generation, working in combination with 100/200 Series chipsets. According to Intel, the processors are not compatible.

The Core i3 8100 ran stably on the 100 Series motherboard, members of the Overclock forum reported. The members managed to get the quadcore working by using Coffee Lake microcode and the correct version of the Management Engine in combination with the motherboard. To make the integrated GPU compatible, the video bios and Graphics Output Control driver had to be updated to the Coffee Lake versions. In addition, there were problems with the non-functioning PCI-e x16 interface, which had to be fixed.

The modders note that the trick probably won’t work with every Coffee Lake processor. For example, they do not recommend using the modification in combination with the Core i5 8600K and Core i7 8700K, as they require more power. The Core i3 8100 is a quad-core without HyperThreading with a TDP of 65W. The Coffee Lake hexacores in the K series have a TDP of 95W and the Core 8350K of 91W.

According to Intel, Coffee Lake processors are only compatible with 300 Series chipsets. Like the 100/200 Series predecessors, they use the LGA 1151 socket, but the 300 Series has more pins assigned to the chip’s power supply and can handle more current. The modders describe their steps on Win-Raid.