A Look At the BIOS
ASRock’s UEFI bios implementations is one of the best I have had a chance to use, it has a wonderful mix of features and very easy navigation. Everything is where you would expect it to be. The background is animated as well, the stars twinkle on and off, which I find is great, instead of sitting there wondering if I have completely hung in the bios or if i just knocked a cable loose.
The addition of QR codes/barcodes for additional bios information is also a nice touch to this bios. Giving users a quick outlet to more information about settings. There’s still a decent amount of information as to what settings do, but sometimes for the less indoctrinated more knowledge is what’s needed.
Continued down the OC Tweaker section we see memory settings. Showing full XMP/AMP support for memory modules. Also supporting multiple profiles per stick in the cases that they are present.
You can also use the DRAM Frequency option to force clock speed along with set timings from XMP/AMP profiles. Sadly despite their advertising of 2600+ OC memory option there isn’t a Frequency multiplier in this section to allow it. The board is still capable of it, but it’s going to require more knowledge and increaseing the Bclk in the traditional Overclocking manner.
Under the DRAM Timing Control subsection we get to see a nice complete section for memory timings, and sub timings. Three options are provided for memory settings in this section, Auto, Quick, and Manual. Auto sets timings off of SPD settings or the XMP/AMP profile selected. Quick allows for changes to the main memory timings without confusing users with the advanced sub timing options. Manual of course gives you access to everything.
Also included is the ability to view the timing profiles for the chips in each socket. Including the sub timings for the sticks. Which some bioses tend to omit.
Moving on we see the advanced tab of the bios. Like I said earlier Its straight forward, no double subsection guessing games in this bios or duplicate settings subsections where things only work in one place yet show up in two.
I am a rather big fan of the tools sections of the bios as well. While the Online Management guard isn’t something I generally have a requirement for at this time in my life, its certainly handy for parents looking to restrict internet access.
The big features that really stand out have to do with bios profiles and flashing options. The instant flash option allows you to use existing media to like a usb flash stick with an image on it, to update the bios. It searches the media and finds the images for you even, then gives you a list of them to choose from.
Don’t have it on a drive already? Then use the Internet flash option, it works like a dream. If you use this option it will contact one of ASRock’s servers and download the latest stable bios and install it.
The profiles section not only allows you to have 3 configured profiles for quick access but allows you to save current profiles to a drive. Or reload those settings. What a time saver when your benching or going from bios revision to revision.
The wonderful options just keep coming. Full on fan settings in the bios. One of those things that’s been a bane of many boards I have owned in recent years. There’re options to let them be controlled by bios as well, but the default seems to be full on. That or it’s remembered that it’s my preference after setting it once, though having gone through 4 bioses and still having it show up set to full on is execellent in my book.
There’s not usually alot of interesting options under the boot tabs of bioses. However this is one nice little option nestled down at the bottom. The settings for the Crashless Bios. Which works like a charm. Its enabled by default and you can set the amount of crashes you want before it boots under safe settings to allow you to go into the bios and make some changes. It works flawlessly, in fact if you already know you messed up after a boot or so, you can watch the debug display and trigger the reset switch a few times and be back in the bios in under a minute.
You can guess why I like this so much if your an overclocker. Less time wasted trying to recover from an unbootable setting means more productivity during your benching sessions.
Nothing to special to see here, your standard security options for password control. Also the UEFI options for using windows 8 are shown here. The secure Boot option.
They’ve really put together a wonderful BIOS experience. Which they are continuing to improve on both functionality and stability wise. Short of High end power control options. Everything you could ask for is here and easy to access.
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