Envy 750-114 processor upgrade - Kaby Lake

[jackypop]

I currently have an Envy 750-114 desktop, which has an i5-6400 processor. I am curious as to whether I would be able to upgrade to a 7th-generation Core processor (Kaby Lake), since it has the same socket.

I realize that this line of processors does not appear to be officially supported, and thus any such upgrade would be liable to void any warranty on this system, but the warranty is just about expired anyway. The TDP of a 7th-generation processor appears to be comparable to that of the current processor (many of them appear to be 65 W, such as the i5-7500 or the i7-7700). My concern is less about official support and whether such an upgrade would work at all (particularly as to whether any issues may arise). I have the 2B47 1.04 board, with BIOS version A1.08.

[Big_Dave]

@jackypop

Most motherboards with the 1151 socket are typically capable of supporting Kaby Lake processors. However, that doesn't mean that all manufacturers will support Kaby Lake on the 1151 socket motherboards.  The existing processor support list for your motherboard doesn't include Kaby Lake processors.  Additionally, I can find no mention for Kaby Lake processor support in the last BIOS update fix information.

[jackypop]

Okay. I guess that if I tried to make that upgrade, it would be at my own risk, unless it's actually been tried with success. That said, I'm guessing that the worst-case scenario would just be that it wouldn't boot with the new CPU, as long as the TDP is the same.

[Big_Dave · Accepted solution]

@jackypop

Your PC has the Odense motherboard.  Some other model HP PCs have the Odense 2 motherboard and I could find no reference to Kaby Lake processor support.  HP needs to do a lot of testing with the new processors before the older lines of PCs could possibly support these newer processors.

[jackypop]

Okay. Thank you for your help.

[jackypop]

As a follow-up, would there be any issues (other than the obvious ones with the warranty and the Windows 10 license) if I swapped the motherboard for a Z280 uATX board? (I am fully aware that doing this would void my warranty and require me to get another license for Windows 10.)

If I get one with two m.2 slots, would I be able to use the wireless adapter from the current board with the new board, and then put in an SSD in the other m.2 slot?

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

Z280 uATX board?   You must mean Z270.

Some of the new Z270 chipset motherboards have two m.2 slots. Some will allow one of the slots to operate in either SATA of PCIe mode. I would venture to say that if the slot operates in PCIe mode then many PCIe m.2 devices would work depending on how the BIOS reacts to the device. There might be lane assignment issues and PCIe version support levels that would need to be negotiated by handshakes. It's too early to tell right now and compatibility will vary by motherboard manufacturer.

One of the motherboards that I have researched will support Intel Optane Storage m.2 storage cards with the m.2 slot set to SATA mode and RAID mode set for storage functionality. (similar to the old Intel hardware caching scheme). 

[jackypop]

Okay. Thank you again for your help. And yes, I did mean Z270. I must have mixed it up in my head.

Anyway, thank you for your help and your patience.