Ever Wake Up in the Morning and Want a Faster CPU

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Ever Wake Up in the Morning and Want a Faster CPU, but Intel said, "No."

Thanks to the work of a lot of smart people you don't have to accept that answer. Some of the time at least. In this instance we're talking specifically about an ASUS ROG Strix Z270G Gaming MotherBoard. RAM and other details don't matter much here. This is all about the CPU.

As it came from the factory, that LGA 1151 Socket on the Z270G MotherBoard was only ever supposed to see 7th Generation Kaby Lake CPUs. Turns out it didn't have to be that way. But Intel made it that way (probably along with MotherBoard manufacturers too).

Did you know you can run 8th and even 9th Generation CPUs, AKA Coffee Lake, on it? It's not a drop in solution. It takes some work, but it can be done.

OK, rambling over, here's the nitty gritty. Oh, and this works for other MotherBoards too, with slightly different instructions, but just like batteries in the past, "Not Included" here.

Three Key Ingredients

The three key ingredients here are CoffeeTime (with version .99 from 2021 being the latest version), AsProgrammer (with version 2.12 being the latest as of 2026), and a CH341 Programmer (any number of which are available), but do this mod before using the one referenced: https://wiki.chucknemeth.com/usb-devices/ch341a/3v-ch341a-mod.

How to...

  • AsProgrammer
    • Set to SPI
    • Icon with Green Question mark to query the chip, it'll show a short list, pick the W25Q128FV

Winbond W25Q128FV (yup, if you can read it off the chip, that'll be the model #)

Super cool thing is that ASUS put a small (2.00mm Pitch) "10 Pin" (one pin is actually missing, for keying, so 9 pins) Header, so no need for one of those wonky clips. Instead, because inevitably that size connector won't be available to someone doing this, it could prove equally frustrating, or even more, because the heatsink would have to be removed to latch a clip onto the chip.

                W25Q128FV (TOP VIEW)

              ┌─────────┐
       /CS  1 │●       8│ VCC
 MISO / DO  2 │        7│ /HOLD or /RESET
       /WP  3 │        6│ CLK
       GND  4 │        5│ DI / MOSI
              └─────────┘

| Chip pin | Function                    |
| -------: | --------------------------- |
|        1 | `/CS` — Chip Select         |
|        2 | `DO / IO1` — MISO           |
|        3 | `/WP / IO2` — Write Protect |
|        4 | Ground                      |
|        5 | `DI / IO0` — MOSI           |
|        6 | Clock                       |
|        7 | `/HOLD or /RESET / IO3`     |
|        8 | VCC — 3.3 V                 |

Graphics

There seem to be quite a few different opinions on what to do with which CPU, but the below worked for the ASUS (from https://github.com/xtomasnemec/ASUS-TUF-Z270-Mark-2-ReBarUEFI-CoffeeTime)

.CAP VS .BIN

.BIN: The file 'format' used with AsProgrammer

.CAP: The file 'format' used / needed by ASUS when using the BIOS / UEFI Flash 3 (or whatever it is called)

.CAP is 2 Kb larger than the .BIN, and contains some stuff specific to ASUS flash utilities. The .BIN is the straight up 16 MB File that gets flashed to the Winbond chip.

Other Tools and Resources

UEFITool: For Viewing and Editing a BIOS File, beyond just viewing the Hex

FD44Editor (version 0.9.2): For Viewing and Saving unique 'personal' settings on an ASUS MB

IMHex: Open Source Hex Editor

ReBarUEFI Project: Rambles a bit, confusing at time, but better than most out there, effort was put into it.

CH341: If you're tired of all the moronic sellers on Amazon selling stuff they have no clue about or whose website's don't work, here's what you want.

CH341 (Wikipedia):

CoffeeTime (of course):

Repository of Info: https://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?f=1&sid=3a13e4e254d128d86aabb66205e85451&start=3380&t=602278&utm_source=chatgpt.com

Connect Pin Explanation

ChatGPT psyco-babble explanation;

== Coffee Lake AB35 / AC35 SKTOCC Modification ==

On Z170/Z270 motherboards, socket contact '''AB35''' is '''SKTOCC# (Socket Occupied)'''. The motherboard expects this signal to be pulled to ground when a CPU is installed.

* '''AB35''' — SKTOCC# CPU-present detection input on Z170/Z270.
* '''AC35''' — VSS, ordinary ground.
* Kaby Lake CPUs internally ground AB35.
* Coffee Lake CPUs do '''not''' ground AB35 because SKTOCC# was moved to another contact.
* Bridging '''AB35 to AC35''' therefore grounds the Z270 motherboard's CPU-present input.
* The CPU silicon is not involved; AC35 is simply a convenient adjacent ground connection.
* On ASUS/ASRock/Biostar 100/200-series boards, a missing SKTOCC modification is documented to cause failure to power/POST with Coffee Lake CPUs.
* Random reboot / '''"CPU has been changed"''' behavior has also been reported on Coffee-Lake-modified ASUS boards, but has not been conclusively tied to an intermittent SKTOCC connection.

Human Version:

  • AC35 on the 'socket' is connected to 'Ground' (AKA VCC). As a VCC / Ground source, it is simply conveniently located next to AB35.
  • AB35 on the 'socket' needs to be pulled low, as this 'signals' the presence of a CPU. Normally a Kaby Lake generation CPU would do this. But a Coffee Lake CPU won't do this. Thus the need to do it 'manually' via the conveniently located AC35 connector.
  • Just FYI: A Coffee Lake CPU uses AC38 to do the exact same thing a Kaby Lake CPU does with the afore mentioned AB35. AC38 isn't used by Kaby Lake and AB35 isn't used on Coffee Lake CPUs. It's almost like this was planned ahead of time. Hmmm, so the question now is: How evil is Intel?

Matrix Level Humor

On the same day this was written, Linus Tech Tips did a story that cited this exact subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXK-F0SjC_E

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