BIOS Updates forum

Is there a "best" or preferred BIOS? If so, who is its manufacturer, its version designation, and can I replace my current BIOS with the preferred one?

The preferred ones, let's say the more "configurable" ones, are usually AMI and AWARD, though the latter is usually easier to tinker with.

ghw wrote:can I replace my current BIOS with the preferred one?

The BIOS is tailored for the motherboard, with support for a particular chipset and particular I/O devices at specific addresses, as well as supporting certain types of Flash EPROM BIOS chip. Unless the motherboard manufacturer has produced more than one BIOS you are tied to the one produced for your board - unless another manufacturer happens to have produced a board which has identical chipset, I/O devices, etc at the same addresses. That can happen but is rare. The generic differences between AMI and Award are not usually important enough to worry about, and if you run an OS like WinXP it tends to make the BIOS pretty much redundant except for loading the OS.