You guys know that on several occasions I have mentioned in our reviews and news that there is no valid enough reason for Coffee Lake (Mandatory 300 chipset) to not work on the Series 200 chipsets, and perhaps even series 100 chipsets. This thesis has now been confirmed, the myth debunked.
Over at the overclock.net forums, there is a thread running that ended up a bit of a guide. Some Tweakers have been fooling around with Software, BIOS, Management engines, and iGPU settings and drivers and guess what? With a CPU microcode, iGPU's UEFI GOP driver, and a hand full of Management Engine bootstraps on the side of the motherboard BIOS recognizes Coffee lake 8th Generation processors.
Coffee Lake is now completely working on 100/200 series motherboards. There, however, is a side note to make as the modders only used a Core i3 8100 for testing, but that processor they even got working on an ‘older’ Series 100 motherboard, which crazy stuff when you think about it.
Intel never talked about this and refused to allow motherboard partners to support older generation motherboards. With each new processors series (generation), Intel simple forces you to buy a corresponding motherboard and chipset. It’s good money, as you are required to purchase a new motherboard. Compare that to AMD, Zen 9 and even Zen 2.0 will very likely work on the current X370 motherboards.
Source: Overclock.net Forums and guide here via TPU.
