BIOS recovery options by manufacturer.

[Maximilian]

Been doing a bit of research into a new board, all the manufacturers are touting things like 10k caps, extra copper, gold plated this and that etc. Stuff that in practice wont matter to me. BIOS recovery does seem to differ quite a bit between them though so thought id share what I learned. If anyone wants to fill in the gaps or has additional info feel free to share.


Asrock:
Dual BIOS - Only on high end boards, double DIP sockets.
BIOS recovery - High end boards have dual BIOS. Nothing for the low end boards except replacing the chip.
BIOS socketed - Yes

You gotta send off for a new chip if you wreck your Asrock single chip BIOS.

Asus -
Dual BIOS - No
BIOS recovery - USB BIOS flashback option on high end boards, dosent need a cpu or memory to work, just power (plugged in, don't have the PC turned on). Lower end boards have a crashfree BIOS feature which may work, may not. I gather if the "boot block" is intact it should work.
BIOS socketed - Yes


Gigabyte -
Dual BIOS - Yes, on all boards
BIOS recovery - Automatically switches to the 2nd BIOS when the first one is messed up. High end boards may have a manual switch like the MSI boards.
BIOS socketed - No, soldered.

MSI -
Dual BIOS - On high end boards only
BIOS recovery - With dual BIOS you can manually switch between the BIOS's with a switch on the board. If you have only a single BIOS there might be something like asus's crashfree BIOS thing that kicks in? Im not sure about this.
BIOS socketed - No, soldered

EVGA - ????

 

[denis280]

Asus would be my choice.but gigabyte is a good one also

 

[John Connor]

Gigabyte -
Dual bios - Yes, on all boards
Bios recovery - Automatically switches to the 2nd BIOS when the first one is messed up. Im not aware of a way to manually switch.
BIOS socketed - No, soldered.

I believe Gigabyte has a switch on the board. I <3 Gigabyte!

 

[vailr]

Gigabyte's Z87-UD5H board has 2 physical bios switches:
1. Main bios /vs./ backup bios
2. Go to backup bios if primary fails /vs./ no automatic shift to the backup bios

 

[Maximilian]

Oh cool, updated OP.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Oh cool, updated OP.

Frankly, the Gigabyte boards are good . . . too.

But unless a BIOS chip is soldered to the board, "dual BIOS" is not going to be my major concern or criterion for choosing one board over another. Instead, I'll look at phase-power design, solid-state components, cooling features, PCI-E lanes, the number and type of slots and stability proven in lab-test reviews.

I think flashing the BIOS -- not a major risk -- is not something you just do "because . . . " I've seen later BIOS revisions meant for compatibility with newer CPUs or versions of the same CPU, and you find your CPU doesn't behave or overclock the way it did with the earlier BIOS.

So for $10 or $15, I will buy my PLCC chip replacements. I have two sitting here in my desk, just the way I received them. I so far don't have a solid reason for replacing the old one, because this system is totally tip-top.

 

[boren]

Asrock:
Dual bios - No

The ASRock board I'm likely to buy soon (Z87 Extreme4) does have Dual BIOS:

"Although Extreme4 has dual BIOS there is no switch present on the motherboard but rather a jumper switch to jump from BIOS to BIOS – the pins for this are next to the SATA ports."

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z87_extreme4_review,4.html

Other ASRock boards may have it too, but I haven't checked. It's odd that they don't market this feature more. I for one value it greatly, after having bad experience with a bad BIOS update on an Asus board which did not have it.

 

[Maximilian]

The ASRock board I'm likely to buy soon (Z87 Extreme4) does have Dual BIOS:

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asrock_z87_extreme4_review,4.html

Other ASRock boards may have it too, but I haven't checked. It's odd that they don't market this feature more. I for one value it greatly, after having bad experience with a bad BIOS update on an Asus board which did not have it.

Wow double DIP socketed as well... Thats a pretty sweet implementation.

 

[boren]

More details from the manual:

This motherboard has two BIOS onboard, a main BIOS (BIOS_A) and a backup BIOS (BIOS_B), which enhances protection for the safety and stability of your system. Normally, the system works on the main BIOS. However, if the main BIOS is corrupted or damaged, please use a jumper cap to short pin2 and pin3, then the backup BIOS will take over on the next system boot. After that, short pin1 and pin2 again, then use &#8220;Secure Backup UEFI&#8221; in the UEFI Setup Utility to duplicate a working copy of the BIOS files to the primary BIOS to ensure normal system operation. For safety issues, users are not able to update the backup BIOS manually. Users may refer to the BIOS LEDs (BIOS_A_LED or BIOS_B_LED) to identify which BIOS is currently activated.