BIOS Walkthrough

The BIOS of the Fatal1ty X79 Champion is very similar to the one I found on the Z77 Extreme9, one of my favorite UEFI BIOSes which opens up to a traditional format with a twist. Included is a "System Browser": a graphical interface that lets you explore the board and what's installed, providing informational items useful for BIOS setup. Also included is OMG, or Online Management Guard, a tool that lets you manage internet access by time and date. So for example, if you have a child you want to limit to certain internet hours, you can do so right in the BIOS. Using the "OMG" acronym had me chuckling for a while, but you know, since this is such a novel idea for motherboard BIOSes, I actually almost said "OMG" to myself when I realized what it was, as I have been looking for a reliable method to manage my son's internet access. I could also see it potentially causing an issue if it's enabled and a user was unaware, as they might look for other causes for the lack of connectivity.


Moving onto the OC Tweaker tab, we find all the needed options for system clock and voltage customization, as well as a spot to save BIOS profiles.


The "Advanced" tab contains all the options for board-level functions. Each area of functionality is separated into submenus which makes finding options you need pretty simple. The first page that lists all the submenus also contains a BIOS updating tool that allows updates both via a pre-saved file, or via the Internet, although I did have issues with the online option myself.


SATA ports are all grouped together, including options for both Intel and the external controllers.


The way ASRock has structured everything really appeals to me on a personal level, and I think there might even be more options here than other OEMs offer, yet each option was something that I want to have access to.


It took ten screenshots for me to show all the menus here, which may seem like a lot, but really, the number of tabs available has been minimized, allowing for a far easier interface to get to exactly what you want. I did not find everything I wanted in the monitoring section, however, which only contained a couple of temperatures, fan settings, and speed listing, and CPU voltage and PSU voltage rail monitors. I would really like to see some of the basics like vDIMM and PCH voltages here as well, as the four voltage monitoring options given don't provide really usable information other than the vCPU one, making booting into the OS necessary.


I found a whole tab dedicated to BIOS password options, which in my opinion should be found on the entry screen instead. The exit page is very basic as well, but, at the same time, it's not like the layout is overly crowded so it's quite easy to just not notice unless being critical.


Overall, I really like ASRock's UEFI BIOS. Yes, there are a few things I have an issue with, but overall, it's really easy to use, has every option needed for system setup and overclocking, and comes with pretty transparent option labels, letting you know exactly what you are changing. I'd like to see far more monitoring functionality, as mentioned, especially considering this board's cost, but thankfully the ever trusty AIDA64 provided me with all the needed monitoring options I require, as it does with most boards.