Beyond BIOS: GUI Meets EFI

First we had reduced accessibility for new versions of Windows making it more difficult to make even simple changes, now we get increased accessibility so that any fool can go in and accidentally screw up their computer BIOS settings, disabling their computer.

I don't like it.

If an end user has no knowledge of how to correctly set BIOS settings with the keyboard, how will adding a GUI interface help? I will not. This change just makes it easier to screw up the BIOS.

Furthermore, it won't work if the mouse or the graphics fail.

Agree with above. If you don't know what you're doing you should not be mucking about in the BIOS. Creating a graphical user interface for it only invites noobz to change things they shouldn't and keep their computer from booting. At the very least they should have prominent instructions on how to get the BIOS back to its default state.

I completely agree with you guys however I think ASUS is trying to get more people interested in overclocking. With all the recent prizes and competitions for overclocking, it makes sense to get more people interested and tweaking. In addition the current BIOS in most high end pc's can easily be rest to original settings if something is done that prevents the pc from booting up. The idea to make a BIOS better to navigate and also to have good explanations is a good move.

DIYer's have been tweaking these (Tawain) MB's for a long time. Nothing new.

Abit was always the overclocker's favorite. The went out of business, came back but never recovered completely.

Asus makes decent boards. I have always used these boards.

Lately I have switched to Gigabyte. Their BIOS is very nice and feature filled (i.e. dual BIOS).

The MB market is very competitive now.

One thing is for sure, you are far better off buying one of these Taiwan MB's and building your own PC. The branded PC's use the cheapest POS that they can find and as such, there are NO BIOS features to tweak even if one were so inclined.

Anyone interested in building a PC should go to Tom's Hardware Guide for a complete hardware review before buying. These companies all know that he matters more than any other source. He controls the DIY PC market.

The feature discribed in the article would be described as "bells and whistles" or "eye candy". However, if the feature makes the board run faster, better, stable, then you might have something to separate from the competition.

More likely, it is being pushed by the marketing Division of the company. Not going to fool a serious gamer or enthusiast toward purchase.

"I think ASUS is trying to get more people interested in overclocking."

More burnout motherboard means more business.

Also there is GUI BIOS with mouse support already.

I'm not against OC, mine is water cooled. One need to know more then just point and click to get a stable system.

A BIOS with more options for fine tuning is a good thing. We don't really need one with fancy icon, touch screen support, remote access from iPhone etc.

With regard to overclocking, it is the method by which the hardware is overdriven resulting in a small (often not noticeable) speed gain. Overclocking causes excessive strain on the electronics resulting in reduced operating safety margins and component life. Making overclocking easier for the average person without them understanding the implications and the need for subsequent increased cooling of the overclocked electronics will just result in reduced hardware life.

Seriously, how many general computer users need say a 20% processor speed increase? How many of them would even notice! I say leave the overclocking to the people who actually use it, the hard-core gamer!

On a side note, my new graphics card (an eVGA GTX 275, which was NOT my first choice) has full built in overclocking included and a handy little software application with sliders to overclock numerous aspects of the graphics hardware. I can tell you now that I will NOT be altering these! When your graphics card requires a 12V 40A power supply (yes 40A, nearly twice that of the GTS 250) and runs at 80 degrees C you shouldn't play with things unless you understand the implications (or have deep pockets).

On a side note the side of the graphics card packaging clearly states that it is suitable for displaying pictures. Marketing, LOL. They should have mentioned that it makes a good heater, my last card (a 8800GTS) IDLED at 50W, two computers running 8800GTS cards in a small room left on during the day does (or did) wonders for drying our washed clothes. This one idles apparently at 174W.

Jack - The margarine of hard-core gamers.

"With regard to overclocking, it is the method by which the hardware is overdriven resulting in a small (often not noticeable) speed gain."

Pushing my Q9650 from 3 GHz to 4.1 GHz on a Gigabyte mobo sure was noticeable.

A 27% processor speed gain can be noticeable, but would the average computer user running explorer, outlook, word and picture viewers even notice?

Pushing my Q9650 from 3 GHz to 4.1 GHz on a Gigabyte mobo sure was noticeable.

What was the noticeable change you observed and by approximately how much (reduced computer startup time, application opening, application running, computer crashing, etc)?

Turn it around, go from 4.1 to 3.2 see if you notice a change

I did try and noticed quite some difference just in explorer, outlook, word and picture viewers etc. when switch from 6.8 to 6.0 not real great but noticeable indeed, though 6.0 was more stable than 6.8

Oh you are wondering eh? Try use dual dual cores or quads and switch around for sport

Startup and application opening times are largely bound by disk drive throughput, if you want to keep those down then a RAID0 array or SSD is the way to go.

CPU bound operations like DVD ripping and video transcoding benefit not only from a faster CPU but from faster data transfer between the CPU and RAM via the front side bus. Bumping the FSB speed is usually the first step in overclocking.

The new Gigabyte motherboards come with an application called EasyTune which is a simple GUI to overclock, just one mouse click and you can go from 3 to 4 GHz. If you want more than that you need to get into the BIOS and adjust settings there (There's a boatload).