this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
1 points (100.0% liked)

r/overclocking - for those who like to push their chips a little harder

9 readers
1 users here now

All things overclocking go here. Learn to overclock, ask experienced users your questions, boast your rock-stable, sky-high OC and help others!.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
The original post: /r/overclocking by /u/Stopnoticing88 on 2025-06-08 19:53:15.

Hi everyone!

I’m planning to upgrade my system by installing a Coffee Lake R0 stepping CPU (QTJ1 – similar to an i9-9900K ES/QS) on a Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 rev 1.1 motherboard. I want to make sure I understand the risks and requirements before flashing anything or touching the hardware. πŸ˜… In Russian we call ES cpu mutants 🀣

βš™οΈ Current Setup: Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming K3 rev 1.1 (UEFI)

BIOS: F2c (custom mod based on original F2, from 2016)

CPU: Intel i5-6400 (running with BCLK overclock, which I’d like to keep as a fallback option)

🎯 Goal: To get a QTJ1 (Coffee Lake R0, 9th gen-like chip) running on this Z170 board with minimal risk, and ideally without any physical pin mods.

❓ Questions: Pin modding: Is it required? Or is it enough to just mod the BIOS with CoffeeTime, assuming the board already supports custom firmware?

Intel ME version:

What ME version should I install for compatibility?

Does it matter if I plan to disable ME afterward (as many guides suggest)?

Should I update ME before flashing BIOS, or after?

BIOS modding base:

Can I safely use my already-modded F2c BIOS as a base for CoffeeTime patching?

Or should I revert to a clean official F2 BIOS before starting the modding process?

Avoiding newer BIOS versions:

F22 and newer don’t add 9th gen support anyway

They might remove BCLK overclocking support

Include performance-hitting security patches (e.g., Spectre/Meltdown)

May prevent rollback to earlier versions like F2c

βœ… What I want to keep: The ability to fall back to i5-6400 with BCLK OC in case the QTJ1 doesn't boot or is unstable

Avoid flashing anything irreversible or bricking the board

πŸ’¬ TL;DR: Has anyone successfully run QTJ1 or similar R0 Coffee Lake CPUs on a Z170 Gaming K3? Any advice on:

BIOS version

ME firmware version

Stability

Rollback safety

Any first-hand experience, links to guides, or CoffeeTime configs would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

no comments (yet)
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
there doesn't seem to be anything here