new efi bios for my "old" gigabyte z68 motherboard. should i bite?

[evident]

Gigabyte just released a new EFI bios for my Z68-MA-D2H-B3 motherboard. currently the bios is non-efi from what i can tell. I know that once you flash you can't go back to a non-efi interface. Has anyone had experience w/ gigabyte's new EFI Bioses?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

If it isn't broken don't fix it.

 

[gpse]

I updated a gigabyte board from the old BIOS to UEFI, made a nice difference, and I suggest it. Boot times (Bios Loading Screen) were vastly improved!

keep in mind to flash that bios you need to use the DOS flash utility, so you need to make a bootable usb stick and download the bios image and dos flash tool.

 

[vailr]

once you flash you can't go back to a non-efi interface. Has anyone had experience w/ gigabyte's new EFI Bioses?

See: "Flash: UEFI back to AWARD"
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-beta-bios.html
Note: no personal experience with Z68 boards, so can't comment on pro vs. cons of upgrading to UEFI. However, Z77 boards have always had a UEFI bios. Works fine for me, anyway.

 

[evident]

just flashed to the efi bios yesterday. after windoze redetected all of the components and rebooted a few times, everything was smooth sailing. boots up much faster too.

 

[jaqie]

1) don't need a DOS anything for gigabyte's flashing. They use a windows utility that even fetches the newest BIOS for you within windows and flashes realtime, called @BIOS. You can even edit all BIOS settings via GUI within windows with their program called touchbios.

2) Flashing a gigabyte BIOS isnt the same as others, with the dual BIOS that is which most of their mobos have - you can always boot to the original BIOS with the backup chip... and reflash to the original again, as well.

I really wish people would stop posting FUD about gigabyte.

 

[Charlie98]

just flashed to the efi bios yesterday. after windoze redetected all of the components and rebooted a few times, everything was smooth sailing. boots up much faster too.

What was your previous BIOS version? I have that same board and haven't bothered with any of the BIOS updates... but faster boot sounds nice. I think mine is F8.

 

[WilliamM2]

1) don't need a DOS anything for gigabyte's flashing. They use a windows utility that even fetches the newest BIOS for you within windows and flashes realtime, called @BIOS. You can even edit all BIOS settings via GUI within windows with their program called touchbios.

2) Flashing a gigabyte BIOS isnt the same as others, with the dual BIOS that is which most of their mobos have - you can always boot to the original BIOS with the backup chip... and reflash to the original again, as well.

I really wish people would stop posting FUD about gigabyte.

Not according to Gigabyte, when going from legacy to UEFI:

UEFI BIOS
(When updating from legacy to UEFI, use only the utility attached to your BIOS file)

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3855&dl=1#bios

The utility attached is a DOS flash utility.

 

[Arxinall]

non-efi

 

[vailr]

The only viable method when transitioning from "standard" to a Uefi bios is via the use of a bootable (to a Windows 98 DOS prompt) USB thumb drive.
There's a free HP utility for creating a bootable USB drive:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...mat-Tool.shtml
Add the DOS version bios flasher from Gigabyte:
"efiflash.exe" or "flashefi.exe".
Then: configure the autoexec.bat file to flash the bios when the machine is booted from the USB drive.