MODDED BIOS FILES EFI Intel RAID ROM 15.1.0.2545 Download

[BOLTS4BREKFAST]

**ALL FILES UPDATED WITH LATEST MICROCODE - MARCH 11 2018 - 6:15PM EST**

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Amy65Cmu51iJz0W2-V6VlOozxl7K

*That link should take you to the main folder where you can find the motherboard model you want along with the bios version.*
*NVME TESTING folder contains BIOS files that have been modded for NVME support*

*if you have a special request for another bios revision just post on this thread or PM me... please be patient since for some reason I no longer receive email notifications from Asus Forum when I get PM's or to subscribed threads.*

**if you'd like to make a donation follow the link below. Thank you!**
https://www.paypal.me/gmpcrepair

**MUST BE FLASHED USING BIOS FLASHBACK METHOD**
http://event.asus.com/2012/mb/usb_bios_flashback_guide/

[Ice009]

Hey guys, I've got a Rampage 4 Formula with a 3930K, if I want to try one of these modded BIOS files with an ASUS Hyper M.2 X4 and a M.2 NVMe drive, do I need to get an Ivy Bridge CPU as the SB-E only has PCI-e 2.0? Would that matter?

Also, would I be able to boot from the NVMe drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't really looked at upgrading hardware for a while as this setup still does mostly what I want.

[Bytewar]

Ice009 wrote:
Hey guys, I've got a Rampage 4 Formula with a 3930K, if I want to try one of these modded BIOS files with an ASUS Hyper M.2 X4 and a M.2 NVMe drive, do I need to get an Ivy Bridge CPU as the SB-E only has PCI-e 2.0? Would that matter?

Also, would I be able to boot from the NVMe drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't really looked at upgrading hardware for a while as this setup still does mostly what I want.

You don't need an upgrade to 4930K.
The 40 lines of the Sandy Bridge-E CPU also work at 3.0, it lacks the certification, only this, I'm writing from a PC that has the lines of the i7 3930K CPU running at 3.0 with the modified BIOS and booting from NVME.
Your every doubt isn't founded.

[Ice009]

Bytewar wrote:
You don't need an upgrade to 4930K.
The 40 lines of the Sandy Bridge-E CPU also work at 3.0, it lacks the certification, only this, I'm writing from a PC that has the lines of the i7 3930K CPU running at 3.0 with the modified BIOS and booting from NVME.
Your every doubt isn't founded.

Hi Bytewar, thanks. I thought you had to have an Ivy Bridge CPU to be able to use the PCI-e 3.0 lanes. I didn't realize you can still use them with a SB-E CPU . Does the modified BIOS allow you to use those 3.0 lanes or could you still do it without the modified BIOS?

Speaking of the BIOS, if for whatever reason, can you flash back to an official BIOS if you wanted to later on? Do you need use BIOS flashback to do so?

Also, should I re-install a fresh copy of Windows 10 on the new drive when I get it? I think I would prefer to install a fresh copy. I also don't have my current copy linked to a Microsoft account. Should I do that, or since it's not a major hardware change, will it activate if I just get my Windows 10 key and input that during install?

[BOLTS4BREKFAST]

Ice009 wrote:
Hi Bytewar, thanks. I thought you had to have an Ivy Bridge CPU to be able to use the PCI-e 3.0 lanes. I didn't realize you can still use them with a SB-E CPU . Does the modified BIOS allow you to use those 3.0 lanes or could you still do it without the modified BIOS?

Speaking of the BIOS, if for whatever reason, can you flash back to an official BIOS if you wanted to later on? Do you need use BIOS flashback to do so?

Also, should I re-install a fresh copy of Windows 10 on the new drive when I get it? I think I would prefer to install a fresh copy. I also don't have my current copy linked to a Microsoft account. Should I do that, or since it's not a major hardware change, will it activate if I just get my Windows 10 key and input that during install?

If you want to flash an OEM bios after using a modded bios, you don't have to flash it using flashback method.
I would suggest a clean copy of OS instead of a clone.

[Ice009]

BOLTS4BREKFAST wrote:
If you want to flash an OEM bios after using a modded bios, you don't have to flash it using flashback method.
I would suggest a clean copy of OS instead of a clone.

Hi BOLTS4BREKFAST,

Thanks for the tips. I also wanted to ask, are you able to do a modified BIOS for my other Motherboard? It's the P8Z77-V Pro. If you are able to, that would be awesome. Also, if you can do it, absolutely no hurry on that.

By the way, maybe someone else can answer this as it's probably been answered earlier in the thread already, but what else does BOLTS4BREKFAST update in the BIOS apart from the NVMe capability?

Bytewar wrote:
Hi Ice,
please.
With Sandy Bridge to have the 3.0 PCI-E lines with Nvidia graphics cards you need a specific patch and it only works on X79.
Here: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3135/~/geforce-gen3-support-on-x79-platform
And here: https://www.techpowerup.com/168027/nvidia-releases-pci-express-gen-3-0-enabling-patch-for-sandy-brid...
Nvidia with its drivers has blocked Sandy Bridge CPUs on PCI-E 2.0 lines because 3.0 are not certified and Nvidia said: "We have tested GeForce GTX 680 and GTX 670 GPUs across a number of X79/SNB-E platforms at 8GT/s bus speeds, but have seen significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs. Therefore we’ve decided to only support and guarantee PCI Express 2.0 bus speeds on X79/SNB-E with our standard release drivers. Native PCI Express 3.0 platforms (like Ivy Bridge) will run at 8GT/s bus speeds with our standard release drivers".
Amd Ati didn't put this limitation, as evidenced by the link I gave you in the other post (Anandtech link).
The Samsung driver doesn't carry this limitation.
I use an Nvidia graphics card (1080Ti) and I let the driver limit the speed of the PCI-E bus to the standard 2.0, the maximum power loss is ridiculous, in the order of 1% on an @ 16x slot.
That said, the Xeons E5 are not OC through the multiplier, but only with the BCLK.
Personally on an eight-core Ivy Bridge both for reasons of energy consumption, and for reasons of stability, I would not go beyond 4.3 GHz.
At that point, you would have an IPC of less than 10% compared to the latest eight-core Intel X299 solutions.
Regards.

Thanks for all that information. I'll read the links you posted. I guess whenever I do upgrade my graphics card, I'd only get one card, and from what I have read, it doesn't seem to make much difference in performance from PCI-e 2.0 x16 to PCI-e 3.0 x16 for a single graphics card of the current generation.

I also had a look at prices of E5-2667 V2s on Ebay and it seems they are quite expensive still (around $400+ AUD), so I'm not sure if it's worth spending that much money on one. If I do ever get one, I'd only want to overclock it to about 4.2Ghz.

[Bytewar]

Ice009 wrote:
Hi Bytewar, thanks. I thought you had to have an Ivy Bridge CPU to be able to use the PCI-e 3.0 lanes. I didn't realize you can still use them with a SB-E CPU . Does the modified BIOS allow you to use those 3.0 lanes or could you still do it without the modified BIOS?

Speaking of the BIOS, if for whatever reason, can you flash back to an official BIOS if you wanted to later on? Do you need use BIOS flashback to do so?

Also, should I re-install a fresh copy of Windows 10 on the new drive when I get it? I think I would prefer to install a fresh copy. I also don't have my current copy linked to a Microsoft account. Should I do that, or since it's not a major hardware change, will it activate if I just get my Windows 10 key and input that during install?

Hi Ice,
I prefer re-install a fresh copy of Windows on the new drive.
I haven't changed the Bios, I used the one done by BOLTS4BREKFAST directly from the original Bios 4701 to its 4801 modified with the NVME driver.
Since 2011 it is known that the Sandy Bridge-E has the working PCI-E 3.0 lines.
Read here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/5264/sandy-bridge-e-x79-pcie-30-it-works
Just set the BIOS on GEN3 for PCI-E ports and you're done.
On the Asus P9X79 PRO the menu is in Advance Mode, Advanced, System Agent Configuration.
The thing also works on all other brands of motherboards, I'm sure.
Even the benchmarks of my NVME disk are clear, it would be impossible to have those values without having the active PCI-E 3.0 lines.
Allow me a tip: if you really want to change CPU buy a Xeon Ivy Bridge eight cores e5-2667 v2.

[Ice009]

Bytewar wrote:
Hi Ice,
I prefer re-install a fresh copy of Windows on the new drive.
I haven't changed the Bios, I used the one done by BOLTS4BREKFAST directly from the original Bios 4701 to its 4801 modified with the NVME driver.
Since 2011 it is known that the Sandy Bridge-E has the working PCI-E 3.0 lines.
Read here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/5264/sandy-bridge-e-x79-pcie-30-it-works
Just set the BIOS on GEN3 for PCI-E ports and you're done.
On the Asus P9X79 PRO the menu is in Advance Mode, Advanced, System Agent Configuration.
The thing also works on all other brands of motherboards, I'm sure.
Even the benchmarks of my NVME disk are clear, it would be impossible to have those values without having the active PCI-E 3.0 lines.
Allow me a tip: if you really want to change CPU buy a Xeon Ivy Bridge eight cores e5-2667 v2.

Hi Bytewar,

I didn't know that you could still get PCI-e 3.0 without an Ivy Bridge CPU. I was going off of Z68 and Z77 where I am sure that you needed an IVY Bridge CPU to be able to use the PCI-e 3.0 lanes.

I think I actually already have mine set to 3.0 in the BIOS (I'm pretty sure I have), but I didn't think the slots were running at 3.0 speeds. The main reason I was worried about it is because I have 2 x GTX 680s and an X-Fi sound card already installed. I would have to put the Asus Hyper M.2 expansion card in the 4th PCI-e x8 slot, which I thought would run at x8 PCI-e 2.0, so I thought the performance of the NVMe SSD might be compromised at x8 PCI-e 2.0 speeds.

Also, thanks for the tip about the Xeon. I remember a while back reading on Overclock.net where you can get one of those Xeon's if you want one last decent upgrade on X79. Where would I go to buy one? Ebay? I've very interested in upgrading to one. Also, the one you recommended, can you still overclock on that one? I know on some of them you can't.

[Bytewar]

Ice009 wrote:
Hi Bytewar,

I didn't know that you could still get PCI-e 3.0 without an Ivy Bridge CPU. I was going off of Z68 and Z77 where I am sure that you needed an IVY Bridge CPU to be able to use the PCI-e 3.0 lanes.

I think I actually already have mine set to 3.0 in the BIOS (I'm pretty sure I have), but I didn't think the slots were running at 3.0 speeds. The main reason I was worried about it is because I have 2 x GTX 680s and an X-Fi sound card already installed. I would have to put the Asus Hyper M.2 expansion card in the 4th PCI-e x8 slot, which I thought would run at x8 PCI-e 2.0, so I thought the performance of the NVMe SSD might be compromised at x8 PCI-e 2.0 speeds.

Also, thanks for the tip about the Xeon. I remember a while back reading on Overclock.net where you can get one of those Xeon's if you want one last decent upgrade on X79. Where would I go to buy one? Ebay? I've very interested in upgrading to one. Also, the one you recommended, can you still overclock on that one? I know on some of them you can't.

Hi Ice,
please.
With Sandy Bridge to have the 3.0 PCI-E lines with Nvidia graphics cards you need a specific patch and it only works on X79.
Here: http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3135/~/geforce-gen3-support-on-x79-platform
And here: https://www.techpowerup.com/168027/nvidia-releases-pci-express-gen-3-0-enabling-patch-for-sandy-brid...
Nvidia with its drivers has blocked Sandy Bridge CPUs on PCI-E 2.0 lines because 3.0 are not certified and Nvidia said: "We have tested GeForce GTX 680 and GTX 670 GPUs across a number of X79/SNB-E platforms at 8GT/s bus speeds, but have seen significant variation in signal timing across different motherboards and CPUs. Therefore we’ve decided to only support and guarantee PCI Express 2.0 bus speeds on X79/SNB-E with our standard release drivers. Native PCI Express 3.0 platforms (like Ivy Bridge) will run at 8GT/s bus speeds with our standard release drivers".
Amd Ati didn't put this limitation, as evidenced by the link I gave you in the other post (Anandtech link).
The Samsung driver doesn't carry this limitation.
I use an Nvidia graphics card (1080Ti) and I let the driver limit the speed of the PCI-E bus to the standard 2.0, the maximum power loss is ridiculous, in the order of 1% on an @ 16x slot.
That said, the Xeons E5 are not OC through the multiplier, but only with the BCLK.
Personally on an eight-core Ivy Bridge both for reasons of energy consumption, and for reasons of stability, I would not go beyond 4.3 GHz.
At that point, you would have an IPC of less than 10% compared to the latest eight-core Intel X299 solutions.
Regards.

[SnAFKe]

Maybe is a stupid quest but if i flash i lost my settings?

I not touch so long my BIOS and i OC my CPU that time remember cost me to reach my current OC and i not have the time and testing again for stable OC.

[Bytewar]

SnAFKe wrote:
Maybe is a stupid quest but if i flash i lost my settings?

I not touch so long my BIOS and i OC my CPU that time remember cost me to reach my current OC and i not have the time and testing again for stable OC.

Yes, you lost your setting.
But it's really simple, take some pictures of your OC configurations before flashing the BIOS and repeating them on the new Bios.