Is It Recommended to Flash the BIOS on New Builds?

TomBrooklyn

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Jun 21, 2007
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In general, is it advisable to flash the BIOS on a newly built computer?

Why, or why not?



More specifically, it is advisable to flash the BIOS for the following newly built computer with:

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V LX
EZ Flash 2: Yes
BIOS: American Megatrends 0401 , Dated: 7/15/11
OS: Windows 7 and all updates installed
Drivers: All Installed
Working: All working so far
SSD: No. Will add later
Video Card: No. Will add AMD FirePro 4900 later.
 

al360ex

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Hello,

Some people will tell you that you should only flash your BIOS if something goes wrong.

I more or less agree with that. I think that if you don't experience any problem and don't plan on doing any overclocking, you should not flash it.
If you do plan on overclocking, then I'd do it. New BIOS versions usually means easier overclocking.

I hope this helped,
al360ex
 
I'd recommend flashing a brand new build since a lot of quirks get worked out in the first weeks/months of a release. Then, only if needed to support some specific thing.

I'd connect to an UPS first too unless you have a failover BIOS.

Edit: Just saw it was Z68 - check manufacturer's webiste to see the differences between your bios and the latest and only update if there is something you need.
 

al360ex

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That's not really necessary because his motherboard has "ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3" on it. It works really well to recover/reinstall a corrupted BIOS.

Also, I've done a lot of BIOS flashing, and unless you are very unlucky, nothing will go wrong. I had a problem only once, and it was my own fault : i accidentally pressed the restart button on my PC. Since my motherboard had 2 BIOS, it was not a very big deal, but still...Don't flash your BIOS during a thunderstorm or just after updating drivers/doing updates because sometimes they make the PC restart automatically.
 

v90k

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It's good practice to flash the bios to the latest version so that you get the most up to date version when putting together a new build. Is it neccessary? it really depends on what changes/fixes that the newer version applies. If it fixes bugs and gives a performance/compatibility boost then it's a no brainer. If it's to add or improve a feature you probably won't use then its up to you.

A good example is back in 2007 evga nforce i750 required a bios update to fix bugs and system hangs. The next version only fixed a bug with people trying to use 8 gigs of RAM. I just did both because I like keeping everything up to date but others may feel different.

I just completed a new build using a p8z77 ws and didn't update the bios with the 0601 version till a few days later. I read the notes and all it was was ram voltage string updates. My system ran fine but who knows what ill run into since I had it OC'd. Either way its win/win so yeah.
 

TomBrooklyn

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I forgot to mention, I would like to experiment with overclocking. Your reply is helpful, al360; as are all the others. Thanks to all for your opinions.




I didn't even know that. I'll have to look into what that is and how it works. It sounds good.