ASUS Z370-G & New i9-9900k - How to update BIOS??

[kepico]

Hello, odd question maybe as I have never encountered this;

So I bought a new ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-G (Gaming WiFi) mboard, was about to put an intel 8th gen CPU in it but instead when the 9th gen CPUs were announced went ahead and pre-ordered an i9-9900k.

Ok, so I know from reading the Z370 board needs a BIOS update to work with 9th gen Intel so I placed the most recent on a USB drive thinking I'm all ok and just waiting to get the CPU to start my new build.

However today after looking over some random Amazon reviews someone asked a similar question about needing a BIOS update and one of the responses mentioned that yes you need a BIOS update but the update would have to be done with 8th gen CPU already in place?

I never thought about this for some reason, I had always performed BIOS updates w\ correct CPU in place. So did I mess up, for some reason I thought I could put it all together with the i9 CPU and it would take me to the BIOS screen and tell me blah, blah CPU not supported and I would update the BIOS then, is that not possible?

I saw that some ASUS boards have something called a FlashBios that I think would work but I don't think my board has that?

 

[Johan45]

Just a quick look and it doesn't appear that you do have USB BIOS Flashback on the board so that's out. Typically when going from one gen to another your board is just not going to boot at all without proper BIOS support. I would see if you can get a friend or local PC shop with the proper CPU to update it for you.

 

[EarthDog]

you need a BIOS update but the update would have to be done with 8th gen CPU already in place?

Correct. You can try putting it in and see if you get to the bios, but likely that is a no go. If you re lucky it was an already updated board. Find the bios chip and typically there is a sticker on it showing the version.

Buy the cheapest 8th gen around or borrow one or take it in to a shop who can do it for a small fee.

 

[kepico]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Well, at least that saves me from putting it all together pre-maturely then. So I would need to get one of the Z390 boards then to be ready out-of-the-gate. I don't think I want to mess around with getting another CPU just to update the BIOS as it appears my rather large fan\HS assembly (Noctua D15-S) is going to be something I want to install once and thats it. It might be easier to sell this mboard on Ebay.

I was thinking ASUS because my current system (Maximus VI) has been really stable and I like all the BIOS features.

So then if you don't mind (and I really hate asking this as everyone has their own opinion) does anyone have any suggestions on a good mboard brand w\some nice features?

Catch is I need a MIcro-ATX board for my case, the only Z390 Asus board I see in MATX is the TUF Z390M, but I don't think the TUF series has as many features as the ROG series.

I don't really plan on overclocking at all and I don't game at all I do however do heavy video editing so even though I won't OC I was always led to believe that the higher-end boards (such as ROG) are still faster than the lower series boards and I don't plan on upgrading this for at least a few years.

Here is the rest of the components I have ready to go with this new build;

EVGA Geforce GTX1070 (already in my system)
The previously mentioned D15-S fan\HS (for the new build)
Vengence LPX DDR4 3200 32gb (for the new build)
2 Samsung SSD + 2 very large storage drives (already in my system)
and of course the i9-9900k

Thank you so much for any input, really appreciate the expertise!

 

[kepico]

Well guess not many options in MATX & Z390 right now, looks like these 3;

GIGABYTE Z390 M GAMING or MSI MPG Z390M GAMING EDGE or ASUS TUF Z390M-Pro Gaming

 

[EarthDog]

Without overclocking, it doesn't really matter. Pick the one that has the features and look you want. If you cant choose, go cheaper. Any of those boards will handle a stock 9900k.

 

[kepico]

Great, thanks so much for the help! Really saved me a lot of trouble!

 

[trents]

You will see no real life discernible difference of performance between an expensive board and an inexpensive board if you are not overclocking.

And it really is not difficult to remove and reinstall an air cooler on a motherboard. Especially if you do it before putting the motherboard in the case. In fact, it's always a good idea to put the system together outside the case to make sure everything works before installing everything. I would still look at buying a cheap 8th generation Celeron or Pentium on ebay for flashing the bios. After doing that you can turn around and sell it as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Cele...h=item467b648d82:g:vC8AAOSwIWxaxNWf:rk:2:pf:0

The other option would be just to return the Z370 from where you got it and eat the return shipping and restocking fee. If you got it from Amazon, they are pretty easy to work with for returns.

 

[DaveB]

You will see no real life discernible difference of performance between an expensive board and an inexpensive board if you are not overclocking.

In my experience with recent AMD and Intel platforms, I've found there's little to no difference when overclocking between cheap and expensive boards.