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Motherboards Decisions, what would you do?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by nimbu, 17 Jan 2022.

  1. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    So my main rig is the one in my signature below. I bought a 5700G CPU to upgrade my 2600 over the break and an NR200 to move everything over to.

    I will need a bios upgrade of course to use the CPU. I attempted to use both the EZ flash utility and downloaded the latest bios onto USB stick.

    When attempting to flash I get an error that the file is not valid. I went back about 3 revisions and the same thing.

    Finally I thought maybe I will need to do it in smaller steps as I am quiet the way behind and on a very early release.

    Now the mobo will validate one bios revision higher than I have, but that still isnt high enough and well I have always not liked doing bios upgrades.

    I am a little concerned that at some point I will get a bad flash, bork the board and be with out my main rig.

    Now I also have sat here a spare B450 board, however it only has one M2 slot and a 500gb drive. I feel this is a little small for total storage.

    Option 1) Bite the bullet and try to sequentially bios upgrade the X470 to swap over the cpu and be done with it?

    Option 2) Rebuild using the B450 and add a 1TB SATA SSD for my data disk
    Option 3) Rebuild using the B450 but replace the boot drive with either a 1TB or 2TB nvme?
    Option 4) Rebuild using the B450 and add a 500GB 850 pro Samsung drive I have "spare"?

    If option 2-3, any suggest of what to buy? I have about £200 in CEX vouchers so would prefer to use them.
     
  2. Mr_Mistoffelees

    Mr_Mistoffelees The Bit-Tech Cat. New Improved Version.

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    I would try option 1, if that failed I would then go with option 3.
     
  3. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    Depends on how much value the x470 board has, such that in the small chance it is bricked, would you be okay with the loss? Because I see Option 2-4 allows you to sell the x470.

    I would try Option 1, because the chance of bricking it is low enough to worth a try. So that you'll end up with more feature-rich board than b450.
     
  4. sandys

    sandys Multimodder

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    They generally won't flash unless the BIOS is good in the first place so chances are bricking are low so I would do the serial updates if there are specific features you want from that board.

    The other option is to sell all your old crap and buy a new b550 which probably offers near feature parity and maybe superior in other features with an x470 unless you have a specific need for x8/x8 PCIe, quite a few b550 have dual M2 even on uATX.
     
  5. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Some of the headless bios flash options don't like USB 3 sticks. Have you tried USB 2?
     
  6. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    Of sorts, more that I dont want to take my main rig down, whilst I have others its just a PITA to get it setup again in the same way
     
  7. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    Trying to be frugal as much as possible. I got the board very cheap way back when and in all other ways it suits my needs. ITX is the only hard requirement and well we know the ITX / SFF tax we end up paying...
     
  8. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    I can take a look at USB 2, however I have had the issue in three places:

    1) When the bios updater downloads the file itself
    2) When I have supplied the file on a USB stick
    3) When I have used the EFI explorer and browsed through to the file downloaded to my local disk
     
  9. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    If the board doesnt bork but instead doesnt flash high enough to support the 5700G then I dont know how I would feel selling it on, would hate for someone else to get stuck also.
     
  10. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    https://rog.asus.com/uk/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-x470-i-gaming-model/helpdesk_cpu
    5600G is listed as officially supported, it says you need at least 4402. What's your current BIOS version?

    If flash fails but reverts to a working BIOS. You can still use your existing CPU to test before selling it on with a note that you tried but failed to flash later BIOS versions.

    IF it gets taken down, it then requires similar amount of work for options 2-4. I think option 1 is worth a try.
     
  11. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    It was 0901, just done the one hop to 1003.

    Will try moving up again and see what happens
     
  12. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    I've had loads of issues with Gigabyte's flashing app lately. I tried to upgrade to the latest, but it kept telling me it didn't match. This wasn't just on one board either, it was on two (a X399 Aorus Pro, and a Z690 Aorus Elite). Eventually both went on fine.
     
  13. jinq-sea

    jinq-sea 'write that down in your copy book' Super Moderator

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    I had to do sequential updates on my X470-F - wouldn't jump forward through numerous revisions. Tedious (sort of) but it worked fine! Patience was key, I guess...
     
  14. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    On the final hurdle and flashing the latest bios as we speak.

    I just downloaded every possible revision.

    10 Flash highest revision that would validate
    20 reboot
    30 goto 10

    Took about 5 flashes in total.

    It's weird been building pcs for 25 years and in the early days bios flashes were so risky I have never lost my adversion to doing them.

    Now all I have left to do is drop in the CPU to find it's still unsupported, oh what fun life is!
     
    Last edited: 17 Jan 2022
  15. spolsh

    spolsh Multimodder

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    Still sends a shiver down my spine when i read "just flash the BIOS", and I think, Nooooooo ! but boards don't seem to mind these days.
     
  16. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    Well.....? Don't leave us hanging!
     
  17. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    Sorry work imploded
     
    wyx087 likes this.

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