Z77 Pro4-M - update BIOS?

[highcountryrider]

New build has been up and running for about a month now. No problems up to this point, other than me asking a lot of questions on this forum!

Board came with BIOS v. 1.20. I see that on the ASRock website that the available BIOS updates are up to v. 1.60. As a rule I've always followed the concept that if the system is working well with the current BIOS do not update just to update. Up until now.

Questions I have:

1. Should I update?
2. If so, which method is best? ASRock's Instant Flash, Windows or DOS?

Here is the link to the Z77 Pro4-M's BIOS update page. Would appreciate if anyone could tell me if there are any items listed in the BIOS versions 1.30 through 1.60 that would make it advisable for me to update.

My system specs are in the signature. As usual, TIA for any replies.

[parsec]

OMGawd, dude, you like gotta have the newest UEFI-thing man, its got like updated CPU code 'n stuff, and does writes OA 3.0 key, and all kinds of updates 'n junk toow.

(Why do I always call you dude, I don't know...)

Mighty fine question, with my usual convoluted answer. Seriously, the descriptions given are poor, such as "update CPU code" or "writes OA 3.0 key", what does that mean? Google our brains out for answers, hopefully.

So updates are always good too, right? Did you notice ASR removed that new INF file installer that did not work for either of us? Only for Windows 8 now.

I agree the "no broke, no fix" philosophy is good, but of course I still have the latest UEFI in my board (11 versions total in nine months, not counting beta's, is that good or bad?)

I can't see anything that I would call essential, or even nice to have, in that list, for the average (not insane) user. No need to fix video card compatibility, right? Your 830 SSD benchmark was great, you use AHCI mode, so no RAID, and the new RAID Option ROM won't do anything for you. Apparently some changes for Windows 8, which might be good if you use Windows 8. The "No K OC" is worthless for your CPU.

Do you have the Fast Boot option in your UEFI now? I have it and I think it is goofy. Can't use Ultra Fast except in Windows 8, and setting to Fast made my POST time double, as in it seemed to POST twice, so I disabled it and it boots faster than ever IMO, seriously.

That "Auto detect PCIe Link Speed" is weird to me, when did we need to set it? That sounds like a fix, but who knows?

BTW, I've always used the Instant Flash option, and it has worked fine for me each time, never a problem. That is in the UEFI, or as a stand alone option that you can start during POST, F11 starts it I think. You just put the new UEFI file (unzipped of course) on a USB flash drive, and put it in USB 2.0 port (since USB 3.0 might not be active during POST.) Any UEFI update will wipe any non-default settings you have done, and saved UEFI profiles are also gone, unless you save them in AXTU, the OC DNA feature, which I think worked for me once or twice. I have about six UEFI versions on a USB flash drive, and Instant Flash lists them all, although people say they cannot flash to earlier versions, which I have not tried.

[highcountryrider]

Yo, parsec. Bet you wondered if I had packed it in after my last go around of info overload! I did find one weird thing with the XFastRAM drive. When the latest batch of MS updates came out last week there was one that would not install. Evidently it uses the System temp folder to store files while installing and since that was being stored on the x drive (RAM) it said the path was invalid. When I disabled putting the System and User Temp files on the RAM drive the update installed with no problem. I'm only using the RAM drive now to store IE and Firefox cache. Might dump the whole thing.

Looks to me like I don't have any pressing reason to update the BIOS yet with my current configuration. I'll keep my eye on it and if something new shows up I'll consider an update. Thanks for the info.

[parsec]

Sounds good HCR. I did find my FFox disappearing cache problem, and it was related to the RAM Drive. In my case, just turning off the FFox cache and leaving the RAM drive on, caused the problem. More details to it, but that's the basics. IF you do quit using the FFox cache on the RAM Drive, you must at first completely stop the entire RAM drive, reset the FFox cache to whatever, and then start the RAM Drive fresh, if you want to use it.

That thing with the installation not knowing where the temp folders were is just sloppy, lazy programming. The program should of gotten the path to the temp folders, as other programs do.