Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

[LECBOATER]

I bought this new ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 Motherboard this week (today is June 14, 2012), and it's still in the box. It has not been removed from the anti-static bag. I also bought my Intel corei5 2500K this same week. It is also still in its product box.

Before I unpackage everything and begin building the new system, I'm asking if I need to worry about updating the BIOS. I cannot find any reference to the Manufacturing Dates on any of the boxes or labels. I'd appreciate someone telling me where to look for that info and how to decipher the way dates are coded.

Or, can I be assured that the shipped BIOS version for this Z68 setup requires no newer BIOS than the one it comes with "out-of-the-box?" I don't have an Ivy Bridge.

On the outside of the ASRock MB box, on the front, narrow flap, there is a white label (approx. 2.5" x 2") with all kinds of numbers; Serial, Part No., etc. Could anything on that label be of help in deciding whether or not this MB is new enough to have come with a CURRENT BIOS, and therefore will not need a BIOS update immediately? Is the date somewhere on the MB itself?

Any help will be appreciated, greatly!

[JPP]

Re: Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

If you look on page 2 of the Quick Installation Guide you will find the Motherboard Layout.

22: "64Mb SPI Flash" is the BIOS chip.

Find that chip on your motherboard. It has a label saying what BIOS version is programmed on it. Odds are that it's version 1.20. ;)

That one works with the 2500K, it's up to you if you want to update.

[LECBOATER]

Re: Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

If you look on page 2 of the Quick Installation Guide you will find the Motherboard Layout.

22: "64Mb SPI Flash" is the BIOS chip.

Find that chip on your motherboard. It has a label saying what BIOS version is programmed on it. Odds are that it's version 1.20. ;)

That one works with the 2500K, it's up to you if you want to update.

EDITED: You didn't say whether or not there actually is an appropriate BIOS update for my MB, and where I might be able to download it.

Thank you very much for your reply! I was beginning to wonder if anyone would. lol

Do you have any idea as to why ASRock does not provide an updated, easy-to-find, and easy-to-understand list of BIOS updates for specific Motherboards, in a chronological order?

By the way, the "manual" and the "quick installation guide" are two of the most pitiful documents I've ever seen. They reduced the illustrations down so small that they are worthless! I'm a retired Sr. Tech Illustrator and have produced a good number of User Manuals. There is no good excuse for what they produced -- since people actually need to read the things! It's physical size could have been double that small thing, since the MB box was plenty big enough to hold it. Even the pdf version illustrations are way too small, with no excuse at all. That's my rant for today.

The only list I saw was so confusing that I dared not to download any BIOS. It had red lettering saying something about the update pertaining to the Ivy Bridge processor. There was no intelligible information that I could find specifically for my MB or CPU. I wrote more than once to the web 'master', a week ago, but haven't heard one word of reply. Getting timely, accurate support from ASRock seems very unlikely. All the more reason I really appreciate YOUR REPLY!

Thanks again!!!

[JPP]

Re: Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

Happy if I have been of some small help. :)

I don't know why they make manuals like they do, and I agree the BIOS update webpage and -info needs some improvement.

Having said that, I love my E3G3, I think it has a lot to offer at a very attractive price.

UPDATE:
Sorry I missed your question:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.asp?Model=Z68 Extreme3 Gen3&o=BIOS

That's the BIOS download page for the E3G3.

Current release version is 2.20; you may have to flash 2.10 first for the ME update, dunno. There's not much difference for the Sandy Bridge from 1.20 to 2.20 though. I would hate to be the one giving advice on whether to flash or not, I always flash to latest release version but that's just me ...

[profJim]

Re: Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

If you do flash to one of the 2.x bios versions, I think that you CAN'T flash back to an earlier bios.

In some threads, people didn't follow the flashing instructions when they flashed from a usb drive.
They removed the usb drive after the flash completed the first step and ignored or didn't see the message that said to leave the drive installed so that the next required step (Intel ME update?) could complete. When this happened, the only solution appears to be for ASRock to send them a new bios chip or to buy a new pre-flashed bios chip from a bios specialist on the web.

[WilliamM2]

Re: Does my -NEW- ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 MB require a BIOS update? Can't find board's Mfr'd Date

They seem to have switched all the new bios updates to the windows flash version only, to fix the issue of those not following directions. No USB stick needed, and in my case it did the two reboots automatically, without any issues. Although there is no reason to update the bios with a 2500K, you do get a much nicer looking UEFI if you do.