I have noticed that many motherboard reviews on reputed review websites just gloss over one of the most important aspects of a motherboard - the BIOS/UEFI. Nowadays most websites give a short video tour of the BIOS/UEFI, and usually just say that the BIOS all the options expected from a motherboard, and it ends there unless they had some serious issues. But in reality, when one explorers all the options overa period of time, a lot of issues are unearthed.
Now with the BIOS being phased out in favour of UEFI, the issue is even more relevant. These Taiwanese manufacturers seem to take great pleasure in designing gaudy interfaces, and at least in the BIOS there was some consistency in look, feel and functionality. But, with UEFI the manufacturers seem to be designing with little or no respect to usability. So for the benefit of others, please feedback on your motherboards BIOS/UEFI, paying special attention to the problems faced, and good features. Here is mine :-
Manufacturer : MSI
Model : 890 GXM-G65
BIOS version :- Currently running on 1.8 as it seems to be the most stable. Have tried all later BIOSes also.
Issues
[1]. Many Linux distributions install media cannot boot in AHCi mode. Have to revert to IDE mode to install them.
[2]. RAM timings are incorrectly set at 1600 MHZ. Even though 1600 Mhz. is not officially supported, when the RAM gives a XMP profile, the motherboard should set the timings from the profile. Confusing Advanced Memory settings. Now way to check what AUTO timings are currently set. There is an option but it seems like it is giving incorrect values.
[3]. Sleep issues in Linux. Probably related to USB 3. But, even with USB 3 disabled, the issue occurs sometimes. Most probably due to poor ACPI implementation.
[4]. Poor fan control. It can do automatic fan control for CPU fan, but not for SYS fan. The SYS fan speed cannot fine tuned, it can be only set it to off, 25%, 50%,75% or full speed.
[5] Cool and quiet does not work as advertised when CPU voltage is set to AUTO. However, when the voltage is manually set it works perfectly.
[6]. Extremely poor English help text. I am not expecting high-class polished and sophisticated explanations, but simple help text which is grammatically correct is all I expect. I am sure it is not difficult to hire a few people who know English properly to help with the writing BIOS. I am actually surprised at this because Afterburner is on of the best written overclocking tool, with well written documentation. When a company cuts corners even in such simple things, one tends lose faith in their products.
Good things
[1]. Simple old-school BIOS. Very fast and easy to navigate.
[2]. Excellent set of tweaking options, maybe even more than necessary!
[3]. OC genie overclocking tool seems to work pretty well.
[4]. Supports HDD which exceed the BIOS limitation of 2.2 TB.
Now with the BIOS being phased out in favour of UEFI, the issue is even more relevant. These Taiwanese manufacturers seem to take great pleasure in designing gaudy interfaces, and at least in the BIOS there was some consistency in look, feel and functionality. But, with UEFI the manufacturers seem to be designing with little or no respect to usability. So for the benefit of others, please feedback on your motherboards BIOS/UEFI, paying special attention to the problems faced, and good features. Here is mine :-
Manufacturer : MSI
Model : 890 GXM-G65
BIOS version :- Currently running on 1.8 as it seems to be the most stable. Have tried all later BIOSes also.
Issues
[1]. Many Linux distributions install media cannot boot in AHCi mode. Have to revert to IDE mode to install them.
[2]. RAM timings are incorrectly set at 1600 MHZ. Even though 1600 Mhz. is not officially supported, when the RAM gives a XMP profile, the motherboard should set the timings from the profile. Confusing Advanced Memory settings. Now way to check what AUTO timings are currently set. There is an option but it seems like it is giving incorrect values.
[3]. Sleep issues in Linux. Probably related to USB 3. But, even with USB 3 disabled, the issue occurs sometimes. Most probably due to poor ACPI implementation.
[4]. Poor fan control. It can do automatic fan control for CPU fan, but not for SYS fan. The SYS fan speed cannot fine tuned, it can be only set it to off, 25%, 50%,75% or full speed.
[5] Cool and quiet does not work as advertised when CPU voltage is set to AUTO. However, when the voltage is manually set it works perfectly.
[6]. Extremely poor English help text. I am not expecting high-class polished and sophisticated explanations, but simple help text which is grammatically correct is all I expect. I am sure it is not difficult to hire a few people who know English properly to help with the writing BIOS. I am actually surprised at this because Afterburner is on of the best written overclocking tool, with well written documentation. When a company cuts corners even in such simple things, one tends lose faith in their products.
Good things
[1]. Simple old-school BIOS. Very fast and easy to navigate.
[2]. Excellent set of tweaking options, maybe even more than necessary!
[3]. OC genie overclocking tool seems to work pretty well.
[4]. Supports HDD which exceed the BIOS limitation of 2.2 TB.