How to buy mobo with latest Bios version

[KellyJ]

Maccer101,

"Bear in mind that the board would now cost £53 if you got the Bios changed, you could by a P35 board like the Asus P5k SE/EPU for £55 which according to the Asus website all Bios' supports the E7200 since production."

Yes, though the specification page on the Asus site says:
Please update the latest BIOS to support Intel 45nm CPU

However, when pricing the GA-P31-DS3L on Scan, I noticed a 'New' mobo, the GA-EP31-DS3L, which is a newer variation of the other mobo with Dynamic Energy Saver (DES), competing with Asus's EPU feature. Gigabyte are adding this feature to some current designs, and will include it in new future designs.

Anyway, the GA-EP31-DS3L is only a quid dearer than the GA-P31-DS3L, and Gigabyte site says its Bios is at version 'FB' (initial release on 5th August 2008) and that this is the version required for the E7200 (and most other CPUs supported).

So, the EP31 model may be the better choice. Whether I would enable the DES feature would depend on stability, which you alerted me about, in the Asus case.

James

[Jakg]

I would imagine Scan would drop a CPU, RAM and a Graphics Card in, plug a monitor in, boot it up, flash the BIOS and then box it up again.

Not bad for £10 but it honestly depends on what the odds are of getting an "older" or newer batch with different BIOS'

[BUFF]

Pretty much all motherboard use a removable flash chip. Sometimes the very cheapest boards and a random one pops up without one, but its very rare still.

not that rare anymore - both Asus & Gigabyte largely use soldered BIOS chips these days.
& with the larger BIOS on modern mobos abit are off PLCC onto I think it's called SPI.

[Agent]

not that rare anymore - both Asus & Gigabyte largely use soldered BIOS chips these days.

Oh yes, don't disagree there - its getting more common. But having said that, the number of socketed BIOS's still far outweigh the soldered ones currently in my experience.
Its one of those things that really can change overnight though, so we'll have to keep our eyes on it. I'm not a fan of soldered BIOS's for obvious reasons.

& with the larger BIOS on modern mobos abit are off PLCC onto I think it's called SPI.

PLCC is a socket. SPI is a bus. They are 2 different things
Although I'm guessing the chip change was due to the current chips not being able to interface with the SPI bus appropriately (current PLCC BIOS are parallel, SPI is serial), hence why they are known as "SPI chips" or "SPI BIOS's". Guess it just keeps things nice and simple

Either way - its not the DIP based ones Funkstar was thinking of