6800k build help please

elkido122

Senior member
Jan 10, 2015
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Thinking if building a new system with the 6800k CPU . I am considering the asrock x99 extreme 4 board which looks nice and fairly priced . I have seen people having issues with that board and the bios being to old for that CPU so it won't post into the bios. Anyone know of a board that is 200 or under that this CPU will guaranteed work in and not have a compatibility problem?thank you
 

Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
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Do you already have the 6800k? If not is there a particular reason you are choosing it? Both Ryzen and Intel's soon to be released chips offer better values/performance.
 

elkido122

Senior member
Jan 10, 2015
275
2
81
I already have my x99 motherboard ordered . I just need to know if the 6800k or the 5820k is more likely to work in the asrock x99 extreme4 upon first boot. Like not needing to worry if the bios will support the CPU . Thanks all
 

coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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I already have my x99 motherboard ordered . I just need to know if the 6800k or the 5820k is more likely to work in the asrock x99 extreme4 upon first boot. Like not needing to worry if the bios will support the CPU . Thanks all
Just to make sure, you are aware that in 10 days Intel is launching their new HEDT platform? (X299 chipset + Skylake-X chips?)

Not trying to direct towards anything, just making sure you know about the launch.
 

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
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I already have my x99 motherboard ordered . I just need to know if the 6800k or the 5820k is more likely to work in the asrock x99 extreme4 upon first boot. Like not needing to worry if the bios will support the CPU . Thanks all

From what I read, the 5820K will work, but the 6800K may not unless the BIOS has been updated. If it hasn't, you may need to buy a pre updated BIOS chip to install in the board, use a haswell chip to update the BIOS, then return the haswell chip before installing the 6800K, or simply buy a 5820K and realize the performance is basically the same anyway.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,559
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The cpu support page off the motherboard home page will tell you. Even if it days you need to update the BIOS, there is a chance the stock one will at least allow the chip to boot. I have seen it go both ways.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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I don't know about ASRock, regarding how fresh or how old a BIOS to expect in a retail motherboard. Here is my experience with other boards and their out-of-the-box support of die-shrink generations of processors (or lack thereof):
  • Supermicro C610 workstation boards came with rather current BIOSes which supported Broadwell-EP out of the box. I first purchased such boards a few months after Broadwell-EP was launched.
  • An Asus X99-A came with an old BIOS which supported Haswell-E/EP but not yet Broadwell-E/EP. Board was purchased very shortly after Broadwell-E launch. Asus has a BIOS flashing option which works purely with PSU attached to the board, but CPU and/ or RAM not necessarily installed. I used this option but the flashing process never terminated. I solved this by ordering an up-to-date BIOS chip and replacing the existing chip with it.
  • Earlier, an Asus Rampage IV Gene (X79 platform) came with an old BIOS which supported Sandy Bridge-E/EP but not yet Ivy Bridge-E/EP. Board was purchased a while after Ivy Bridge-E launch. That time, Asus's stand-alone flashing option did not work either, because they changed their BIOS image format halfway between the super-old BIOS that I had and the current BIOS that I needed. BIOSes with the new image format could only be flashed in the traditional way with CPU and RAM installed and working -> catch-22. I solved this by ordering an up-to-date BIOS chip and replacing the existing chip with it.
One of the reasons why I went with the Asus RIVG for the Ivy Bridge-E build was because I hoped that the stand-alone flashing option would work. But as described, Asus bodged it.

Even though I had been burnt once, I gave Asus a second try for the Broadwell-E build. At least I was aware of the fallback solution then, i.e. to order a BIOS chip from a specialized online shop. (I purchased from a German shop which ships internationally: www.bios-chip24.com. There are probably others.)

When I built the Broadwell-EP workstations, I had the opportunity to use a Haswell-EP for bring-up, but I didn't need to, due to Supermicro shipping with current BIOS, and their boards probably flying from the shelves.

@elkido122, as others noted, Skylake-X and X299 will be available soon. Performance of Broadwell-E/ X99 in productivity applications is very good, but performance/price is extremely bad. Performance/price of Skylake-X/ X299 will still be very bad, but possibly a notch better than Broadwell-E/ X99 unless you can find a good deal for the latter.

While reviews are not published yet, Skylake-X's single-thread performance looks to be a step above Broadwell-E due to higher clocks (at the cost of higher chip temperatures and of operating even further out on the energy-inefficient end of the power-frequency curve). Multi-thread performance will just depend on how many cores you are ready to pay for.

I/O of Skylake-X will regress relative to Broadwell-E in several SKUs: If you want more than 28 PCIe lanes from the CPU, Intel wants you to purchase at least the $999 SKU of Skylake-X, or a Xeon.
 
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rchunter

Senior member
Feb 26, 2015
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Some Asus X99 boards you can flash a new bios even without a cpu installed. Just put the bios on a usb flash drive and there's a special usb port on the back of the motherboard for it.
 

StefanR5R

Elite Member
Dec 10, 2016
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@rchunter, AFAIK all Asus X99 and X79 boards have this feature. But in two out of two situations when I needed it, it didn't work for me (because of reasons given in post #9).