2009-2010 Buying Guide of motherboards, OEM PC's that are bios mod "friendly"

[WeAreNotAlone]

2009-2010 Buying Guide of motherboards, OEM PC's that are bios mod "friendly"

Alternate thread title:

2009-2010 Guide of which motherboard manufacteres, OEM's to stay away from.


Hello all,

For the guys who come here everyday...

Here's the deal. Throughout my life it seems like I always end up with "problematic" items.
(As it applies to bios modding I have several Intel motherboards that use the EFI bios scheme that are un-modifiable.)

If I had known, I would have not purchased those units.

Because of such I am like many others are considering purchasing some new motherboards, and/or considering purchase of some new PC's.
(Most likely I will be building, Newegg more than likely being the vendor.)



********************************

Reason for this thread:

A MINI-GUIDE of things to look out for when buying a board/new PC.
(As it pertains to the bios being modifiable.)

EG: Checklist /listing of things to watch out for BEFORE buying a new board/PC.

In short a listing a motherboard manufacturers /PC manufacturers that are known to use a... "user friendly" bios. (EG=Bios can be modded)

Info on boards/PC's to stay away from.
Info on what bioses and good, and which are bad.



I figure this would:

A: Help those in the market to make a informed purchase.
B: Helps us in the *long run.
(*Manufacturers only make what they can sell. If for example they have one product branch that makes a product that is popular because it is known to be easy to mod, and another product branch that is known to be "locked-down" and cannot be modded the easy to mod units will usually outsell the locked-down units. Long term result of this is manufacturers will terminate production of locked down units..)


QUESTIONS:

When purchasing... (As it pertains to a bios being modifiable) :


A: What should a prospective buyer be looking for?...

B: What are the telltale signs that the bios is modifiable when reading thru product descriptions /specs?

(xyz chipset /bios=Good?, yzx chipset /bios=bad?)

C: Which manufacturers use "user-friendly" modifiable bioses?

D: What bioses are the most "mod" friendly? (Mod friendly meaning tools are available, and the bios is not modded on a case by case basis)

E: If you were to have a choice, which bios would YOU be looking for if buying?... In other words how would you rate the different bioses on the difficultly of modding? Award easy? Intel EFI bios impossible?

F: Which bioses take modding well, which have side effects?


FLIP SIDE:
What current /recent production motherboards /motherboard manufacturers /complete PC's should we be staying away from?
Are there certain chipsets /bioses or manufacturers to stay away from?
(EG: INTEL MOTHERBOARD=EFI BIOS cannot be modded at all? Phoenix bioses having to be modded on a case by case basis? :Late model DELL, HP's?)





************

I'll start with some to stay away from:

Intel (most) from 2004 forward?
Intel D955Xcs (2004?) EFI BIOS
Intel D865GL (2004?) EFI ?


BTW: Are ALL Intel boards these days shipping with EFI BIOSES?
Is there a certain chipset, or feature that is , or is not on boards that can /cannot be modded?
I ask because Newegg you can search via chipset, etc to narrow search results.


.

Notes:
OEM name=Board made by
Dell= Foxconn, Intel
HP= Asus
Toshiba BIOS has Toshiba, Phoenix, Insyde 3 brands
.

[BIOSNOIDEA]

Hi, I am a beginner and moded ASUS and AMI boards. Some of them are only 4 months old.
So far I see that a Bios with AMI (American Megatrends) and Award are the easiest one so far to be successfully moded.

ASUS perhaps is the one that not only represents quality but the fact they use AMI makes the best target.

When buying motherboard ask the question of what Bios it has in.
I think is common sense and easiest.

Intel and HP and others seems to be complex.

Beware that there is a new technology to replace Bios called UEFI headed by Intel and Asus apparently has got already a motherboard for that and no tools to mod yet.

This si my small grain of salt.

[djs]

I've just done a new build with a new Asus P7P55D Deluxe motherboard and Intel i7 860 CPU, modded using Andyp's tool to include an Asus SLIC 2.1 and flashed by using BUPDATER.EXE
Everything is running beautifully, so this is a board I can recommend.

[kocoman]

It is possible to add a warning about GPU wear out/overheating issue?

[WeAreNotAlone]

Originally Posted by kocoman

It is possible to add a warning about GPU wear out/overheating issue?

While I'm all for info that will help someone that's in the market for a new board....

This thread is a attempt to compile a listing, or guide that may help those in the market for a new board in finding a board/new pc that has a modifiable bios.

To that end try to keep posts related to that.

With that said if a certain board is known to be problematic (or crap) by all means post such, but remember the purpose of this thread is not to discuses non-bios issues.


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