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What Features you need from a board ?

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I'm just more familiar with Asus BIOS'. Sorry for confusing the issue. My Gigabyte board has an AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) BIOS, too.
 
I'm just more familiar with Asus BIOS'. Sorry for confusing the issue. My Gigabyte board has an AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) BIOS, too.

This is the most confusing part lol, I thought all the BIOS is the EXACT same thing ? Normally whats the difference between among all ? Except the " looks " of it.
I do find ASUS / ROG and MSI BIOS looks more nice, Gigabyte ones looks weird lol...and I'm surprise there are some Gigabyte boards which still doesn't feature UEFI ( UEFI is the colorful user friendly version right ? )

But I mean overall the features , settings are the same isn't it ??
Ok for example, the Fan control via the BIOS, doesn't all other brand board company have it as well ?
But I do like the ASUS's AI SUITE II Fan Xpert really nice to use, but that's the Mobo's Program / Software I guess? Not the BIOS right ??

Like MSI's OC Genie, is that part of MSI's BIOS or is it a Mobo Program / Software but only MSI board has it actually, and sometimes it even feature a button on their boards.
 
Because there's too many different opinion about ASRock, some said they are poor quality boards and not reliable some said they are among one of the best lol.
I don't know anyone who even own one before so I wouldn't know. I'm still rocking on my ASUS which is my first build lol...
Then again as I mentioned, ASRock boards are surprisingly LOT cheaper than the rest and pack with amazing features. This is why I find it's hard to trust, let's face it we are in reality, we pay what we get for lol.
But then again ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI could be over charging us especially ASUS boards as I know I felt they are way overpriced.

In your opinion, would you pay EXTRA just to get the ON/OFF button on the board if you're going to use the board inside a case ??
Though recently I did ran into one issue, I thought my casing ON/OFF button died / faulty. So there was no way for me to start up my PC !
Or least to find out whether is my board or my casing button. But luckily it was just a loose connection, I only had to unplug the front panel ON/FF wire from the board and reconnect them and it's been working like a charm so far.
What if one day my casing's ON/OFF button really is busted and my board doesn't have an ON/OFF button, what do I do then ??

And the Debug code, what does it really do ??
I don't OC and such, do you think it's best that I least get a board with one ?
So far mine doesn't have one, I guess I'm able to live without one so far till now.

Back when ASRock first started they had some quality issues, but these days they're a top tier motherboard. All manufacturers are going to have equipment that fails at some point, it's part of having a computer.

They're definitely the best price for the features you get, of the top tier companies, no doubt there.

No, I don't care if there's an onboard power button if it's going into a case. You can always use a screwdriver across the two pins where your case power button hooks to if you need to troubleshoot, I've had to do that for motherboards without an onboard button when testing them on the bench.

The debug code tells you what is keeping the system from booting, when you have issues getting into the BIOS. It's something you can live without, but it's nice to have if a hardware problem arises.
 
And the Debug code, what does it really do ??
I don't OC and such, do you think it's best that I least get a board with one ?
So far mine doesn't have one, I guess I'm able to live without one so far till now.
If the front panel speaker is hooked up on the motherboard it will also give you beep codes for trouble shooting hardware problems, all motherboards have this option.
 
i've had three ASRock boards now and have absolutely no complaints. The first one was a 3-in-1 socket board that supported sockets AM2, AM2+, and AM3 back when I had my Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition. The second one was a Z97 Pro3 that my roommate managed to put his foot through, and now the replacement for that board is a Pro4 that they sent me instead of a second Pro3. As far as features, my dream list definitely includes a surplus of SATA, maybe a few SATA Express slots if that ever becomes a thing, plenty of PCIe slots, a debug display, onboard power and reset in case the ones of the tower go bad (this happened to me before and I ended up having to pay Best Buy $150 to diagnose the damn thing because it was when I wasn't as keen on computers as I am now), and I'd like to have at least one or two USB Type C ports, if not then at least USB 3.1 in general, and a header for front panel USB 3.1 as well.

I personally would prefer onboard Wi-Fi as opposed to having to buy a separate card. It's just easier, and that way I don't use up a PCIe slot. The rooming in my house is kind of awkward, I'm the only one with a desktop and I have it upstairs where it gets quite toasty due to the rising nature of hot air. It'd be nicer to have built in Wi-Fi instead of having to buy a card, use up a PCIe slot, all to make sure I'm not running cable lines through my living room to have internet downstairs in the spare room. The watercooled VRM thing ASUS has going on is definitely something I wouldn't mind having just because either. Though it seems like a bit of unnecessary additional heat your loop has to get rid of.
 
Back when ASRock first started they had some quality issues, but these days they're a top tier motherboard. All manufacturers are going to have equipment that fails at some point, it's part of having a computer.

They're definitely the best price for the features you get, of the top tier companies, no doubt there.

No, I don't care if there's an onboard power button if it's going into a case. You can always use a screwdriver across the two pins where your case power button hooks to if you need to troubleshoot, I've had to do that for motherboards without an onboard button when testing them on the bench.

The debug code tells you what is keeping the system from booting, when you have issues getting into the BIOS. It's something you can live without, but it's nice to have if a hardware problem arises.

About the Debug Code, how Specific can it actually be ?
Let's say hmm if possible my PCIE lane is giving problem preventing me from boot up, will I able to tell by the Debug Code ?
What if my GPU died or something. Or maybe my CPU as well ? Will it show up in the Debug Code ?
If it's rather specific like how car these days then it's super useful.
Because for cars, if one of your sensor ( almost any sensor in the engine, gearbox or whatever, ranging from from ABS, Air Bag even your Alarm System ) is faulty, if you hook up to a laptop ( OBD II reader ) it will show you EXACTLY what is faulty.
It's really super easy to diagnose a faulty component / sensor now in cars as long it's electronic component of course.

If the front panel speaker is hooked up on the motherboard it will also give you beep codes for trouble shooting hardware problems, all motherboards have this option.

Ah those, normally those OEM / Pre Built PC have it lol, I didn't know it's a feature for all boards...if it's a self built one, how do I get this feature ? Will it work if I plug in headphones to my front panel jacks ? Though I have a dedicated soundcard for my front panel and rear.




EDIT : On more thing I just notice that, one of the ASRock Z170 Extreme 6 Motherboard, it doesn't have any USB 2.0 at all at the rear I/O...only a header on board for the front panel !
That's kinda bad isn't it ?? What if my case's front panel USB is faulty, then I wouldn't have any USB 2.0.
Why you want USB 2.0 you ask ? If not mistaken, I recall let's say if you format your PC, so everything got deleted, how you going to work your mouse and keyboard with USB 3.0 ?
As I recall, on my current board. I have to install the USB 3.0 Drivers first before it can even work ! But it does have a PS2 connector...but I don't have a PS2 keyboard / mouse....
Or is there some change in the new Z170 board that doesn't require you install the USB 3.0 Driver yet it will still work ?
 
If the front panel speaker is hooked up on the motherboard it will also give you beep codes for trouble shooting hardware problems, all motherboards have this option.

Ah those, normally those OEM / Pre Built PC have it lol, I didn't know it's a feature for all boards...if it's a self built one, how do I get this feature ? Will it work if I plug in headphones to my front panel jacks ? Though I have a dedicated soundcard for my front panel and rear.
Front panel of the motherboard. https://www.google.com/search?q=Fro...rd&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
frontPanelDiagram.jpg
 
About the Debug Code, how Specific can it actually be ?
Let's say hmm if possible my PCIE lane is giving problem preventing me from boot up, will I able to tell by the Debug Code ?
What if my GPU died or something. Or maybe my CPU as well ? Will it show up in the Debug Code ?
If it's rather specific like how car these days then it's super useful.
Because for cars, if one of your sensor ( almost any sensor in the engine, gearbox or whatever, ranging from from ABS, Air Bag even your Alarm System ) is faulty, if you hook up to a laptop ( OBD II reader ) it will show you EXACTLY what is faulty.
It's really super easy to diagnose a faulty component / sensor now in cars as long it's electronic component of course.

This is a bit dated, but still serves as a perfect example:
http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=16017

The motherboard manual will list all the codes (at least the important ones) if you have a Debug display onboard.
 
if you think the power button on the case is bad, just unplug the thing from the board and jump the two connecters with the tip of a screwdriver or butter knife.
the power section of the board is made up of the mosfets, chokes and things, normally next to the socket, next to the rear in/out panel.

yes, I have a list of features that I would like, it tends to limit me to the top of the line boards.

the issues with the bios are how they are arranged and what they call things.
I had an asrock board, when I was just learning this stuff that I had to get rid of because jumping back and forth between boards, I would get confused, now I could get along with it, I just wouldn't like it.

I use asrock boards, they have been wonderful and asrock has been good to me.
when intel released devils canyon, I preordered cpus and motherboards, when the kits arrived both boards had the same issue, asrock shipped me two the next day, no question, no credit card, nothing, just we'll ship them in the morning.
I have a number of asrock boards and have had no other real issues other than what I have caused my self.

my asus boards are great also.
the only issues I have had were the nics on the early release crosshair 5 formulas, those were replaced promptly and the 6 I have of those have been jewels.
my crosshair 5-f's and ch5-f-z boards have been pushed about as hard as a board has been pushed and have not failed yet.
I know of only two people here on this forum that have hammered them as hard or harder than these have been and those are johan45 and mandrake and that has been under extreme cooling.
 

Ah a completely different connector then.

This is a bit dated, but still serves as a perfect example:
http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=16017

The motherboard manual will list all the codes (at least the important ones) if you have a Debug display onboard.

Wao, that's a very long list, I've check some of the more new ones not much difference.
Seems like this is more specific for AMI BIOS boards and if not mistaken, I think ASRock too uses AMI BIOS.

if you think the power button on the case is bad, just unplug the thing from the board and jump the two connecters with the tip of a screwdriver or butter knife.
the power section of the board is made up of the mosfets, chokes and things, normally next to the socket, next to the rear in/out panel.

yes, I have a list of features that I would like, it tends to limit me to the top of the line boards.

the issues with the bios are how they are arranged and what they call things.
I had an asrock board, when I was just learning this stuff that I had to get rid of because jumping back and forth between boards, I would get confused, now I could get along with it, I just wouldn't like it.

I use asrock boards, they have been wonderful and asrock has been good to me.
when intel released devils canyon, I preordered cpus and motherboards, when the kits arrived both boards had the same issue, asrock shipped me two the next day, no question, no credit card, nothing, just we'll ship them in the morning.
I have a number of asrock boards and have had no other real issues other than what I have caused my self.

my asus boards are great also.
the only issues I have had were the nics on the early release crosshair 5 formulas, those were replaced promptly and the 6 I have of those have been jewels.
my crosshair 5-f's and ch5-f-z boards have been pushed about as hard as a board has been pushed and have not failed yet.
I know of only two people here on this forum that have hammered them as hard or harder than these have been and those are johan45 and mandrake and that has been under extreme cooling.

Ah I know what you meant by the settings placement in the BIOS. I'm currently on ASUS, well honestly even during the first time when I entered the BIOS myself, I didn't felt completely lost.
Was quite user friendly ( I was using Advance Mode not EZ Mode ). It's lot more simple than I expected. UEFI BIOS is seriously lot better than the Legacy ones lol.

Damn sounds like ASRock have great customer service in your country, I doubt it for me here. Where you're from ?
I should give ASRock a chance maybe in future. But I'm still kinda feel more comfort with ASUS for now. But I guess we can't always stick to only one brand, for we may never know the difference !

About the ASRock board, I saw some of them only have USB 3.0 for the rear I/O and the USB 2.0 are only for the Casing's Front Panel.
If that's the case what if all sudden one day my front Panel USB is dead and I didn't notice it, then I was formatting my PC, then I won't able to use my mouse and keyboard then ??? Since the rear is all USB 3.0 and as I recall, least for my current board.
My USB 3.0 won't work until I re-install the Driver ! I've tried, during the format, my keyboard and mouse was plugged into USB 3.0, it didn't work. I can't even use it in the BIOS section, let alone during Installation of Windows....
Or are Z170 boards different ??
 
Wao, that's a very long list, I've check some of the more new ones not much difference.
Seems like this is more specific for AMI BIOS boards and if not mistaken, I think ASRock too uses AMI BIOS.

As I stated earlier, the link was simply an example of debug codes. They can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and motherboard to motherboard.
 
your usb mouse and keyboard will work fine before driver install in the rear usb 2.0 ports.
and as I remember the usb 3.0 ports will revert to 2.0 standards with no usb 3.0 driver installed.
 
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