Should I update my BIOS out of the box?

[FoxxyRin]

I've ordered my new PC, and was just wondering if I should update the BIOS right out of the box or not. I'm using the ASRock Z97 Extreme4, and the update log seems to have a lot of things, including OC features for the processor that I'm getting. I've also read a few reports of updating the BIOS fixing an issue that effects a small handful of the boards, so I'm really not sure. What do you guys suggest? I'd hate to accidentally mess things up by updating, but I also rather update before I get into overclocking and such.

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

[S7117]

1 minute ago, FoxxyRin said:

I've ordered my new PC, and was just wondering if I should update the BIOS right out of the box or not. I'm using the ASRock Z97 Extreme4, and the update log seems to have a lot of things, including OC features for the processor that I'm getting. I've also read a few reports of updating the BIOS fixing an issue that effects a small handful of the boards, so I'm really not sure. What do you guys suggest? I'd hate to accidentally mess things up by updating, but I also rather update before I get into overclocking and such.

 

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme4/?cat=Download&os=BIOS

I always like to just to patch any problems in the stock version. If you are overclocking you definitely should. You can't really mess it up either. All you have to do is download it on a flash drive and then go into the bios and choose the usb to flash or updated bios.

[ybriK]

Well if you experience any issues such as crashes during light OC'ing then the motherboard BIOS could help. I generally don't update the BIOS of any PC I built for all my clients as all of them don't have the need for overclocking. I updated my own motherboard's BIOS and it did help stable the OC's.

[FoxxyRin]

2 minutes ago, S7117 said:

I always like to just to patch any problems in the stock version. If you are overclocking you definitely should. You can't really mess it up either. All you have to do is download it on a flash drive and then go into the bios and choose the usb to flash or updated bios.

Yeah, the process seems easy enough. My main concern is that every time I look it up, I get warned like 10 times to ONLY do it IF there's problems.

One question I have though, is can I have other things on the flash drive? Or should I just have the BIOS update on it? I was planning to pre-load all of my drivers onto my flashdrive pre-build.

[ybriK]

I recommend a formatted flash drive to FAT32 and only have the BIOS updates.

[TidaLWaveZ]

3 minutes ago, FoxxyRin said:

Yeah, the process seems easy enough. My main concern is that every time I look it up, I get warned like 10 times to ONLY do it IF there's problems.

One question I have though, is can I have other things on the flash drive? Or should I just have the BIOS update on it? I was planning to pre-load all of my drivers onto my flashdrive pre-build.

 

That's because you can potentially brick your mobo if something goes wrong in the process.

 

That being said, I've never experienced any problems updating bios.

[lightningterror]

1 hour ago, S7117 said:

I always like to just to patch any problems in the stock version. If you are overclocking you definitely should. You can't really mess it up either. All you have to do is download it on a flash drive and then go into the bios and choose the usb to flash or updated bios.

He can also download and update to the latest version from the bios itself.