WEBVTT

00:00:00.199 --> 00:00:08.360
welcome to the third installment of the $1 100ish doll z97 motherboard Showdown

00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:14.320
this video got bumped back many times from CES to getting sick twice and the

00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:17.000
GTX 960 launch Etc but enough with

00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:20.359
excuses The Show Must Go On as with the previous two videos we will be exploring

00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:25.160
the world of affordable motherboards instead of top tier motherboards which

00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:27.199
are expensive and don't really impact

00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:33.200
performance we are doing this because we want to explore the pros and cons and

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.680
trade-offs of boards people are actually

00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:42.719
buying in this video we will be covering the UEFI BIOS experience of each board

00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:45.440
things like USB drive uh peripherals RAM

00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:49.280
compatibility all that kind of stuff and other things just the usability of the

00:00:47.360 --> 00:00:53.120
motherboard also stay subscribed for part four where we will be covering the

00:00:50.800 --> 00:01:01.800
finished system experience and the final conclusion of this whole series

00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:07.560
cooler Masters case mod World Series is your opportunity to show off your

00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:13.119
modding skills and win great prizes entries Clos February 7th 2015 click now

00:01:10.479 --> 00:01:16.640
to learn more I was delightfully surprised when each board not only

00:01:14.759 --> 00:01:22.560
worked with every keyboard and mouse but also was able to post with XMP for each

00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:25.200
RAM kit what was expected and yet no

00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:29.560
less incredibly frustrating however was the issues that I encountered with flash

00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:33.720
drive compatibility there are a few things more frustrating than being stuck

00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:39.640
with a board that needs a ufi BIOS update no optical drive and a flash

00:01:36.399 --> 00:01:41.920
drive that won't detect but that being

00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:46.479
said this may not be that big of an issue as many of you probably have a few

00:01:44.520 --> 00:01:50.360
old flash drives laying around which tend to work a lot more often but

00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:55.719
whether it's during an update or something else what if your ufi BIOS

00:01:53.240 --> 00:02:00.360
gets corrupted how will you recover well luckily the Gigabyte board comes with

00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:04.960
dual UEFI BIOS support so can easily just switch from your corrupted one to a

00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:09.640
fresh new one uh in basically no time but also noteworthy is that the ASUS

00:02:07.399 --> 00:02:13.800
board and the ASRock board have swappable BIOS chips which may be a

00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:18.599
little annoying as you would need to contact a manufacturer for a replacement

00:02:16.239 --> 00:02:24.480
but at least it gives you the option of repairing your board while MSI includes

00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:26.200
no actual other safeguards now onto what

00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:31.280
I know a lot of you have been actually waiting for the actual usability of the

00:02:28.239 --> 00:02:33.760
UEFI BIOS but a few disclaimers must be

00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:38.800
made here first each one of these UEFI BIOS setups could have easily taken an

00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:40.599
entire video dedicated to them naturally

00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:45.280
I will be focusing on what makes each of these experiences unique Instead at

00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:49.760
their core they all provide the same general functionality you can review

00:02:47.640 --> 00:02:55.159
core system specs change your boot device set up a password for system boot

00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:59.920
Etc as there is virtually no difference in the overclocking capabilities due to

00:02:56.920 --> 00:03:02.760
Intel moving more and more things onto

00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:08.159
the chip every time this leaves ease of use quirks and standout features as the

00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:13.480
focus of this segment another important disclaimer is that many things that I

00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:15.480
talk about will be my opinion but for

00:03:13.480 --> 00:03:19.799
your convenience I will be including as much footage of each ufi BIOS as

00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:25.159
possible so you can come to your own conclusions we'll start with a Seuss the

00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:29.080
easy mode start page is amazing to be honest before writing this review I

00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:33.599
would always skip right over the easy mode and and go into Advance mode right

00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:38.000
away but once I actually looked at it it has almost everything an average user

00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:43.879
will need to access quickly system information RAM SATA configuration easy

00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:47.840
tuning boot priority and a boot menu for overriding boot order if you need to

00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:54.120
oneoff boot to something like say a flash drive XMP settings irst on or off

00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:58.599
and a dedicated fan control setting which includes four different profiles

00:03:56.079 --> 00:04:05.319
manual control which is fantastic in granularity of seeming 1% a pwm or DC

00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:09.120
switch and a quick view for what fans are plugged in and their current status

00:04:07.239 --> 00:04:13.120
along with various helpful keyboard shortcuts clearly labeled along the

00:04:10.799 --> 00:04:17.120
bottom moving on to advanced mode we have all the detailed fine-tuning

00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:21.759
options that you would expect out of an advanced mode and all of these options

00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:26.040
are under sensible headers along with a detailed hardware monitor nicely and

00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:29.560
permanently fixed on the right hand side the hot keys are no longer against the

00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:32.960
bottom like they were in Easy Mode but you you can find a handy list available

00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:36.680
in the top right hand corner which will lay them all out for you there's also a

00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:40.160
favorite section which you can add things to so if you know you're going to

00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:44.240
commonly be tweaking something you can add it there and there's also the nice

00:04:41.880 --> 00:04:49.080
additional functionality of an inbios notepad if you need to leave reminders

00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:53.680
for yourself for various future information also at any time you can

00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:57.199
check what has recently been changed which is great but even more helpful

00:04:55.400 --> 00:05:01.919
than that is the details of what has changed this visit which will pop up

00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:06.240
when you save an exit from your UEFI BIOS next up we have azrock azrock

00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:11.680
didn't have a quick start page but you can decide what page your UEFI will boot

00:05:08.520 --> 00:05:14.919
into and that's quite handy and there's

00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:17.120
a ufi guide wait what what the f is a

00:05:14.919 --> 00:05:21.759
ufi guide well at first I thought it was going to be essentially Microsoft's

00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:23.440
clippy but for ufi turns out I was wrong

00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:28.639
the guide basically gives you a tour of asrock's ufi and tries to tell you how

00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:32.520
things work for complete beginners it does contain some useful nuggets of

00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:37.680
information but the implementation could have been a lot better it starts with

00:05:35.520 --> 00:05:42.400
please remain seated and keep your hands away from the mouse and keyboard at all

00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:47.199
times and I think to a degree they were actually serious other than pressing

00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:54.479
escape to abort the guide doesn't have any real functionality no pause no

00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:56.479
forward or back nothing so let's just

00:05:54.479 --> 00:06:00.319
move on there's a favorite section on the main page it's a selectable button

00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:04.240
that you can file things under not its own page like some other implementations

00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:10.199
but to each their own and there's no real hotkey information list which I

00:06:07.080 --> 00:06:12.440
found a little annoying you can find

00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:16.639
hotkeys Associated by certain functions by highlighting them but that doesn't

00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:19.800
really help you unless you memorize them especially since so many different

00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:25.880
boards have different keys for different things other than F10 which is generally

00:06:22.919 --> 00:06:30.039
being save and exit one unexpected feature is their dehumidifier function

00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:35.160
that turns the computer on and spins the fan if it detects excessive humidity you

00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:41.039
can check out asrock's video about this here overall asrock's ufi layout feels a

00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:45.199
little outdated and unexceptional but that doesn't make it bad it gets the job

00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:49.080
done without a bunch of extra junk in the way and that might be exactly what

00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:54.199
you're looking for then we come to Gigabyte right off the top I have to say

00:06:50.880 --> 00:06:55.639
this UEFI is aesthetically great overall

00:06:54.199 --> 00:07:00.160
I'm happy to see that they included a startup guide which is essentially Quick

00:06:57.960 --> 00:07:04.919
Settings right when you enter the buyo although it could maybe do with some

00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:10.560
more useful selections considering system language system time security

00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:12.440
load defaults and exit are over half the

00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:17.759
buttons I think it would be more likely to get used if it had some more commonly

00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:22.000
accessed settings and additionally you still have to click through these in

00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:26.319
order to get to those settings anyways as they're just essentially large

00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:31.599
shortcuts which kind of defeats the purpose of having a quick screen in my

00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:35.840
my opinion but speaking of defeating the purpose and all that ranting aside you

00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:41.520
can choose what menu type you want to boot into by clicking on Startup options

00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:44.120
and changing the selected box now hold

00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:49.680
up wait a minute you might be wondering what is Smart tweak mode and if there's

00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:54.039
smart tweak mode what is classic Mode well before we went into startup options

00:07:51.840 --> 00:07:58.560
did you notice those little gray lines on the left and right hand side yeah

00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.800
those ones well they turn into arrows when you highlight them the left one

00:07:59.919 --> 00:08:06.680
puts you into smart tweak mode and the right arrow puts you into classic Mode

00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:10.919
classic Mode is pretty much exactly what you would expect it looks a little old

00:08:08.520 --> 00:08:15.240
or should I say classic everything is right about where you'd expect it to be

00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:19.159
there's no real surprises Frills or gimmicks but your hotkeys are nicely

00:08:17.400 --> 00:08:21.919
laid out along the right hand side along with any additional extra information

00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:28.039
about whatever you have currently selected it's nice enough but a little

00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:29.960
boring so what exactly is smart tweak

00:08:28.039 --> 00:08:34.839
mode smart tweak mode is essentially another skin for your ufi so yes there

00:08:32.839 --> 00:08:41.159
are two different skin options for your ufi BIOS and a quick options UI holy

00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:45.800
crap anyway smart tweak mode is the one I'd use it looks wonderfully modern and

00:08:43.800 --> 00:08:50.000
it runs at up to 1080p on supported monitors and has a cool high-res graphic

00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:54.360
in the background and nicely detailed status information wrapping around the

00:08:51.640 --> 00:08:59.160
outside of your settings menus for some weird reason that goes away when you

00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:03.760
select save an exit tab which is a little weird and your hotkey information

00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:07.760
is on an unnecessarily scrolling bar along the bottom which should really

00:09:05.959 --> 00:09:12.040
just stay put so you can actually read everything instead of waiting for it to

00:09:09.079 --> 00:09:16.839
come back around but aside from some minor weirdness everything seems to be

00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:21.480
fairly logically laid out with the major tabs being broken up into subtabs that

00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:26.000
mostly remove the need to scroll by making it so that nearly everything is

00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:31.120
above the fold which is a nice touch last but possibly not least we have MSI

00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:35.360
for whatever reason when I first booted into MSI's ufi BIOS I didn't realize

00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:39.200
that anything in the top Blue Ribbon was clickable it just looked like static

00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:43.640
information at first that you would change elsewhere in the ufi eventually I

00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:47.519
clued into the very obvious fact that you're able to interact with this area

00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:52.399
in order to change your boot order OC Genie and XMP settings quickly and

00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:57.200
easily which is a nice mix of adding a quick selection menu but also not adding

00:09:55.040 --> 00:10:01.160
additional clicks for a user that just wants to actually get to what they

00:09:58.800 --> 00:10:07.440
needed cuz they're more advanced moving on to the extremely large clickable

00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:09.800
buttons we find that the settings OC M

00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:14.120
Flash and OC profile areas are pretty standard Fair no surprises here but once

00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:18.000
you get to hardware monitor and board Explorer things get a little bit more

00:10:16.160 --> 00:10:21.760
interesting starting with hardware monitor you have manual control of all

00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:27.399
your fans including four different levels of control while you have them in

00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:29.560
smart fan mode and one level of control

00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:33.720
when they're not in smart fan mode you also have the options to set all of your

00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:37.959
fans to full speed set all of your fans to the default curve or cancel

00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:42.079
everything out board explore is a cool little tool that will allow you to see a

00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:45.720
graphical representation of what things are connected to your motherboard you

00:10:43.920 --> 00:10:49.360
can see what fan headers are populated and how fast they're spinning what IO is

00:10:47.839 --> 00:10:53.600
filled on the back of your board and what SATA headers are filled and the

00:10:51.560 --> 00:10:59.440
corresponding drive that is connected to them amongst other things one gripe that

00:10:56.519 --> 00:11:03.639
I did have with MSI's ufi was odd scrolling issues where I would try to

00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:07.560
scroll down but instead of the selection going down it would keep jumping up to

00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:12.320
where my mouse was or where I was scrolling making navigation by scrolling

00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:16.399
rather frustrating and resulting in relying on my keyboard for everything

00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:20.200
other than clicking on large buttons something that I was hoping we would

00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:25.079
have moved on from this far into the UEFI game so kudos to you if you've made

00:11:22.959 --> 00:11:30.120
it this far through the video the prize is the conclusion because For the First

00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:35.120
Time in this series we need to cla a winner and a runner up some explanation

00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:40.680
is needed for why we didn't do this before and that is because the answer

00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:43.160
was well it depends on whatever ports

00:11:40.680 --> 00:11:47.680
you need or what color bants you're wearing or whatever things are outside

00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:53.079
of our control but for this one we wanted to assign an overall ranking for

00:11:50.160 --> 00:11:58.120
non bugginess and general ease of use my top rated board was a Seuss with MSI as

00:11:55.880 --> 00:12:02.040
a runner up both of these boards worked with every USB device we tested them

00:12:00.079 --> 00:12:06.000
with both of these board had detailed and well implemented fan controls and

00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:11.040
both of these boards had a well implemented quick selection menu

00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:15.360
although I liked ASUS's a bit more and ASUS didn't have issues with mouse

00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:20.880
scrolling which is why they took home the gold medal today but in the end mine

00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:24.519
is not the only opinion so let's hear what you guys have to say about these

00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:28.079
ufi BIOS implementations let me know what you like the most in the comments

00:12:25.760 --> 00:12:31.839
down below or if you want to have me actually read them answer over on the

00:12:29.959 --> 00:12:36.079
Forum all right guys while you're down below commenting on which ufi setup you

00:12:34.199 --> 00:12:40.760
liked the most don't forget to like or dislike this video depending on the

00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:44.760
color of your pants I guess favorite subscribe if you haven't for some reason

00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:47.959
already done that and share this video if you want to help people pick a

00:12:45.800 --> 00:12:51.199
motherboard over on the Forum comment there so that I actually read it if you

00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:55.240
want get if you want to get rid of ads cuz there aren't any right now there

00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:58.440
probably will be soon but there aren't any right now become a contributor also

00:12:57.199 --> 00:13:02.720
we have something pretty cool coming for the contributor and other users of the

00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:05.680
Forum fairly soon so stay tuned for that if you want to buy a shirt that isn't a

00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:09.360
purple twitch shirt but has cooler stuff on it like keep on digging check out the

00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:13.120
shirt description down below this video and thank you for watching I'll see you

00:13:10.880 --> 00:13:17.560
next time oh my goodness that was almost

00:13:15.680 --> 00:13:23.680
really bad this is not a shirt that you can buy lonus thought it was a shirt you

00:13:19.199 --> 00:13:23.680
could buy it's not