Older gaming PC CPU problem

[_Al_]

I have an MSI Z390 Gaming Pro motherboard in my PC. It’s struggling with the i5 9400F so I went on their website to see if an ebay special could spice up the machine a bit. This page lists processors compatible with the board.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-Z390-GAMING-PL...

By way of sense check, the existing i5 is listed as compatible. Happily the i9 9900KF 3.6GHz with 5GHz boost is also compatible. That should wake it up a bit (a lot). Both chips are LGA 1151, coffee lake.

It arrived today, went to install, lined up the markings, it doesn’t fit.

The recessed tabs in the side of the processor are in the wrong place, about 3mm offset from the i5.

What have I missed?

[eltawater]

You may have bought a fake chip:

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/hf3u0i/bou...

[geeks]

Pictures please

[_Al_]

Yup - it’s a fake one. Looked at some others online and it’s clearly different. Interestingly it didn’t come off eBay. I wanted to avoid this exact risk so went somewhere I thought I could trust. Won’t name and shame #rules but hopefully they’ll refund.

[Steven_RW]

_Al_ said:

Yup - it’s a fake one. Looked at some others online and it’s clearly different. Interestingly it didn’t come off eBay. I wanted to avoid this exact risk so went somewhere I thought I could trust. Won’t name and shame #rules but hopefully they’ll refund.

Unfortunate. 9900k is a cracker of a chip. Runs a bit hot so wants a good cooler if you are going to lean on it. I'd just find a seller with good feedback and buy from them on ebay. Hopefully you can do that once the refund has come through. Or you could just buy from CEX. They have 9900k for £195 and 9900KF for £180 both with a two year warranty. I ran a KF back in the day and really felt it was solid and powerful. Paired it with a 2080ti and then a 3090.

[_Al_]

Steven_RW said:

Unfortunate. 9900k is a cracker of a chip. Runs a bit hot so wants a good cooler if you are going to lean on it. I'd just find a seller with good feedback and buy from them on ebay. Hopefully you can do that once the refund has come through. Or you could just buy from CEX. They have 9900k for £195 and 9900KF for £180 both with a two year warranty. I ran a KF back in the day and really felt it was solid and powerful. Paired it with a 2080ti and then a 3090.

That’s reassuring thanks, as the i9 is the best this machine will take without new MB/PSU so been hoping it’s as good as The Internet says it is.

I’ve got an AIO triple fan (330mm?) water cooler (brand new, cheap, well reviewed, future proof). I suspected as with most things that are new, cheap and effective it’d last about 40 seconds, but it’s been great so far.

For graphics have a 3060Ti, which is SO MUCH overkill for the rest of the system, but a used graphics card seemed like a risk too far given the price point and that they can have a hard life mining. *cough* manmaths

I didn’t actually realise CeX had a 2 year warranty. I got a Quest 2 from there ages ago and it’s been basically as good as a brand new one.

[_Al_]

Interesting. Seems that a firmware upgrade is required to run an i9. Tried it, failed. Contacted the manufacturer (MSI) who said “it was probably sold as a system originally and we locked the bios on those”.

Quite why you’d do that I have no idea, but is there any way to unlock it? It’s a long way out of warranty!

[frisbee]

You can buy pre-programmed bios chips and swap them or program them yourself if you have a programmer. Not too bad if it's socketed, horrible if it's soldered...

It seems like a relatively common problem though:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/no-bios...

[_Al_]

frisbee said:

You can buy pre-programmed bios chips and swap them or program them yourself if you have a programmer. Not too bad if it's socketed, horrible if it's soldered...

It seems like a relatively common problem though:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/no-bios...

Looks like mine can be swapped out, and they’re available for £10! That makes the “business case” for a new board harder to justify!

Thanks for that, will give it a go. I mainly use this machine to educate myself on computers and finding out things like this keeps it interesting!