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BIOS and Software

The UEFI BIOS included on the  Z68A-GD65 G3, was both effective and clean. A sharp UI with graphical boot icons, system information, and temperature readings cover the top of the page with side bars to enter different pages of the BIOS.  Each page has different subpages, and the navigation of each is done easily with either keyboard or mouse.

The BIOS, despite the glitz and the mouse support which was not consistent, is going to be overwhelmingly familiar to most users. As such we will focus on what is different as well as important settings for most users.

Note: Flashing BIOS should be done with USB mouse unplugged, to avoid glitching the mouse axis in BIOS.  (X became Y and Y became a combination of both). Unplugging the mouse, flashing BIOS, restarting and plugging the mouse back in will fix this issue. Also an issue with a Microsoft wireless entertainment desktop (which includes a mouse as well as a trackpad in the keyboard) caused similar issues. MSI is working on improving mouse support in their BIOS however, and needs feedback to get them working closer to 100%.

The first page on the top left is MSI mainboard settings, this leads to system status, system peripherals, boot as well as save and exit. The first thing of interest is the boot menu. Using USB devices as a boot drive, can be set here, and removed, without losing the option in the boot menu. For usb boot devices, like Windows installations, Memtest, PartedMagic etc, can be removed and reinserted without having to reenter the BIOS. SATA mode defaults to IDE so changing this settings is going to be important for optimal storage capabilities.

Moving on to overclocking settings, we see the typical gamut of features and voltage options.  Manually setting voltages is a good idea, as BIOS appears to set vcore and VccIO much higher than necessary when using XMP Profiles. At the bottom of the page one can set CPU options, such as power, hyper-threading technology and core counts. More importantly, disabling C1E is necessary to prevent Speedstep from clocking CPU down to 1600 MHZ. Disabling EIST and Overspeed protection will be necessary to prevent a maximum 47/48 multiplier from being achieved. (higher can be set but board will downclock to 47/48 multi).

Overclocking profiles can be saved in up to 6 locations. These get wiped if you flash the BIOS, so MSI has included the capability to save profiles to a USB drive.

ECO Energy saving allows the user to control both, phase control and C states. EuP 2013 is a an initiative to reduce idle power states to .5w or less. CPU phase control offers disabled (10 phase power), Intel SVID (1/2/4 phase power), and APS (Active phase switching) which will control the number of phases, up to 10, depending on power demands.

The browser page is only accessible if Winki 3 is installed, either on a USB drive or via the MSI bootable DVD. Some of the Utilities page is only accessible with Winki 3 installed as well, however the ability to flash the BIOS from a USB drive is included here and is how most users will update their BIOS. Live update 5 also allows BIOS flashing from within Windows.

The last thing to note is the 3 settings at the top center of the page. Standard mode allows you to control every aspect of the BIOS, ECO mode of course enables the power saving features such as C-states and APS, while OCGenie II will overclock the CPU to 4.2 GHz, as well as enable GT overclocking to a 27 multiplier (1350 MHz).

Once in Windows, MSI software is capable of controlling your overclock settings in one of two ways. MSI Control Center is designed to give Windows access to BCLK and multiplier settings for the CPU as well as complete voltage control. Click BIOS II however gives nearly full BIOS support from within Windows. Useful for those users who only have one PC and are using the Internet to help them make BIOS setting changes. CBII does require a restart to enable settings however, unlike Control Center.

Next: Test System and Applications

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