Motherboard Help!

megaman · February 6, 2015

Going to be ordering my new computer today and someone told me that the msi z97 gaming 5 needs a bios update and so does the gigabyte z97 gaming 5. Then i also hear that the asus z97-a i think sorry if im wrong is the way to go because it does not need a bios update im confused and was wondering if someones can please help me figure out which board to go with so i can order it today and be done with going back and forth on things lol thanks for the reading and help.

runit3 · February 6, 2015

Any Z97 board will work with any devils canyon haswell chip OTB. 4690k, 4790k, and G3258 should all work without a BIOS update. Any Z87 board will need a BIOS update to work with the aforementioned CPU's.

If you have a Haswell (pre-DC) CPU it will work in either Z87/97 without a BIOS update.

*Some BIOS updates specifically increase stability, add additional RAM to the QVL, or other miscellaneous improvements. For every manufacturer you can read their BIOS update descriptions and decide what is appropriate for your other equipment, or if a BIOS update is necessary at all. For every board requiring an update to work with a certain CPU it is explicitly stated as such. Some boards will ship from the manufacturer with the most recent BIOS, but there is no real guarantee as vendors can have back-stock of MOBO's prior to the BIOS release.

megaman · February 6, 2015

Ok so it would be safe to go with either the gaming 5 boards and not have to worry about the bio update

megaman · February 6, 2015

Any Z97 board will work with any devils canyon haswell chip OTB. 4690k, 4790k, and G3258 should all work without a BIOS update. Any Z87 board will need a BIOS update to work with the aforementioned CPU's.

If you have a Haswell (pre-DC) CPU it will work in either Z87/97 without a BIOS update.

*Some BIOS updates specifically increase stability, add additional RAM to the QVL, or other miscellaneous improvements. For every manufacturer you can read their BIOS update descriptions and decide what is appropriate for your other equipment, or if a BIOS update is necessary at all. For every board requiring an update to work with a certain CPU it is explicitly stated as such. Some boards will ship from the manufacturer with the most recent BIOS, but there is no real guarantee as vendors can have back-stock of MOBO's prior to the BIOS release.

Ok so it would be safe to go with either the gaming 5 boards and not have to worry about the bio update which of the two would be best?

runit3 · February 7, 2015

Ok so it would be safe to go with either the gaming 5 boards and not have to worry about the bio update which of the two would be best?

I wouldn't choose either, but it's personal preference. Get whatever Z97 board has the features you want at a price you're comfortable with. The only thing that may require a BIOS update is overclocking functionality for G3258's, but they'll still post/boot OTB.