Features - QOTW: What makes a great motherboard BIOS?

[Firedrops]

1. user adjustable PWM or voltage curve for fans, just like the one in the picture above.
2. ability to remap fans, whether pwm or voltage, to specific temp sensors. (e.g. I don't want a PWM slot to be permanently stuck to variate with the south bridge temps, I want it to adjust to CPU temps)

[crossy]

Well something which would be a nice improvement for a lot of BIOS's I've seen would be a clear explanation for what settings actually do and/or why you might want to change them, especially for more obscure ones. It might be OK for seasoned tinkerers but they can be very intimidating for new and even moderately experienced users, even for settings which have a simple explanation.

For example, I've seen a lot of boards with a memory hole remapping setting, where the explanation is something along the lines of 'remaps memory hole'. Yeah, no s...

+1 on that. Heck, I'd be happier if those settings were even documented properly in the manual.

I still prefer ASUS P8P67 UEFI BIOS. Motherboard manufacturers should all aim to have excellent automated fan speed controlling like ASUS QFAN2. Gigabyte are the worst , where fan speed controlling can only be done from software after Windows starts ( telling from experience with G41 series )

+1 on the Asus UEFI BIOS - upgraded to a Sabertooth a while ago and it was a revelation compared to my 2010-vintage mobo that was replaced.

Still waiting for:
AUTO FINDING Max Stable Settings possible for each hardware changes it plugs to. So I no longer need to find best voltage, best frequency etc. for any processor I plugged in, nor finding best ram timings, etc.

Not sure that this isn't a feature. My old (Asus) 890GX-based board had a self-overclock setting that worked in conjunction with some Windows-resident software to give you "optimum" settings for cpu and memory. I think it'd be too much to expect such a BIOS-tuning to cover the graphics card unless that card was also from the same manufacturer as the mobo.

[hwarda]

Considering testing for stability is a complex process that takes a long time to test and tweak, and varies between individual chips, it's not something I'd expect to find with auto-overclocking on BIOS any time soon. This is why there are teams and competitions dedicated to overclocking.

Not sure that this isn't a feature. My old (Asus) 890GX-based board had a self-overclock setting that worked in conjunction with some Windows-resident software to give you "optimum" settings for cpu and memory. I think it'd be too much to expect such a BIOS-tuning to cover the graphics card unless that card was also from the same manufacturer as the mobo.

Previously I hope this would've been a challenge for manufacturers to show their quality standards accuracy, that at the other end users can really choose 'a performing product' rather than buying a 'high priced multi-featured product' and hope for the best.

But after reading that even Intel positioned overclocking as selling feature in their Devil's Canyon, while some of us still feel it like opening a Christmas present, this indeed won't happen anytime soon.