Should you update bios?

[Nikolay Rogchev]

Hi, I recently decided to buy PC and this time I wanted to build it myself. Of course this led to endless tutorials and learning about different hardware, so now I think I have the basic understanding of how things work.
A while ago I red somewhere that you should never update your bios unless you absolutely have to. In many tutorials people are updating the bios without any hesitations or warnings.

So my question is, is it good to update the bios regularly (like 2-3 times per year), or if it works and I don't have issues with it I should leave it as is?
 

[GenericFanboy]

Eh, just update your bios when you need to change stuff/want to change stuff. For the rest you wont really do much with it so its quite alright. 

 

Also, welcome newbie.

[Teddy07]

2 minutes ago, Nikolay Rogchev said:

So my question is, is it good to update the bios regularly (like 2-3 times per year)

It is very unlikely that a manufacturer will update the bios that many times. Manufacturer stop their updates in my experience after ~1 year, maybe 2 if you are lucky. I update somewhere after the first year just in case I want to upgrade my cpu in the future.

[D.U.F.F.]

-Censored-

[tech.guru]

49 minutes ago, Nikolay Rogchev said:

Hi, I recently decided to buy PC and this time I wanted to build it myself. Of course this led to endless tutorials and learning about different hardware, so now I think I have the basic understanding of how things work.
A while ago I red somewhere that you should never update your bios unless you absolutely have to. In many tutorials people are updating the bios without any hesitations or warnings.

So my question is, is it good to update the bios regularly (like 2-3 times per year), or if it works and I don't have issues with it I should leave it as is?
 

the reason people tell you only to update bios when needed, is because if a bios update fails you can end up with an unusable motherboard. bios update failures are quite common, loss of power during flashing is usually the cause.

 

premium motherboards now have a second chip so they can recover from a bad flash some have recovery procedures  however, recovering from a bad flash can be a long complicated process that may end up with an RMA or unusable board if you can not recover.

 

so its a risk versus reward scenario, if you are  impacted by issues with the old bios and its "worth" the risk to resolve the issue by a flash than by all means upgrade bios. i always look at release notes and make decision.

 

the second side note some bios upgrades will also reset the cmos settings. you will need to reconfigure the bios for things like XMP after a bios flash.

 

 

[Nikolay Rogchev]

I guess I will stick with the version in it. I ordered Asus TUF Gaming x570 Plus for Ryzen 7, so it will be compatible out of the box. Thanks for the info. If you guys have any tips on installation it will be greatly appreciated.

[Otto_iii]

Actually the one situation where updating the BIOS makes the most sense is with Ryzen 3000 to a 1.0.0.4 BIOS version. 

1.0.0.4 saw a large uptick in performance.  Just do it early on so if you have a problem you can promptly return/exchange the board.  Its very unlikely you will have a issue if you follow the guides exactly for said board.  Usually this includes making sure to format USB to Fat32, make sure to properly extract BIOS version if its zipped/compressed file type, and making sure to name it correctly, besides that its easy.

Check a couple guides if need be for X570 Asus boards if it makes you feel more comfortable. 

[aisle9]

5 hours ago, Nikolay Rogchev said:

Hi, I recently decided to buy PC and this time I wanted to build it myself. Of course this led to endless tutorials and learning about different hardware, so now I think I have the basic understanding of how things work.
A while ago I red somewhere that you should never update your bios unless you absolutely have to. In many tutorials people are updating the bios without any hesitations or warnings.

So my question is, is it good to update the bios regularly (like 2-3 times per year), or if it works and I don't have issues with it I should leave it as is?
 

Once upon a time, BIOS updates were like playing Russian Roulette with a Glock. Modern boards (last 7-10 years-ish?) are much safer, to the point where you have to either have incredibly bad luck, have a hardware failure during the update or intentionally fry the board. Even then, lots of boards from the last few years have a dual BIOS setup, giving you redundancy if the BIOS update fails and you need to switch to a backup.

 

I generally only update the BIOS if there's a compelling reason to do so, like changing out the CPU or an update that gives major performance/stability improvements. That's more because dialing settings back in can be a real PITA than it is anything to do with concern about frying the board.

[Mira Yurizaki]

My answer to this is generally: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Nikolay Rogchev]

18 hours ago, Otto_iii said:

Actually the one situation where updating the BIOS makes the most sense is with Ryzen 3000 to a 1.0.0.4 BIOS version

Is it stable? When I search for it a lot of people are having issues with this update?

[Otto_iii]

Depends on motherboard and manufacturer, if like me the forums for the boards manufacturer are filled with issues on 1.0.0.4 (ASRock b450) , then yeah, don't get it.  See if you can find reports from people with exact same mobo and BIOS you would be using. 

I would both strongly suggest changing to it if there is a good working example for your board and many people are using, but likewise strongly agree with Mira that if you aren't so sure the BIOS provided for your specific motherboard is as stable as it should be, then hold off.  Keep eye for a stable build later, its worth it but obviously not if its crashing etc constantly. 

....You know what, feel free to hold out on it, although most the problems i've seen are people using pre-released drivers from german Hardwareluxx website link, and ASUS has generally been good with their official support, wouldn't hurt to wait. 

[Nikolay Rogchev]

I ordered ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus, I guess when it comes I will build it and see if the RAM overclocks to 3600MHz and if it is stable.

CPU and graphics should be auto overclocked, right? Can I check if they run at optimal frequency?