Just getting to 790 Creator Build after year wait - how to best approach BIOS/Hardware updates???

[rmr]

I bought this board just over a year ago, but haven't got to putting it together until now...

Anything I need to know in regards to bugs/compatibility issues/tips/tricks?

Can I jump straight to the latest BIOS update, or have I missed too many? The latest is BIOS 2202 (as of 2024/04/19). I see that, BIOS 1203 says

"“Before BIOS update, please download Intel ME update tool from ASUS support site, and update ME firmware to Version 16.1.27.2176 to ensure optimized system settings.”

I believe the board is currently at original factory spec BIOS 0704 or prior, before the 24/48gb ram BIOS update.

Anything else I should know?

These are my specs:

-Fractal Define 7 XL case

-ASUS Z790 Creator

-Intel i9 13900ks

-Corsair Vengeance DDR5 96gb

-Intel Arc A770 graphics card (16gb)

-Samsung 990pro 1tb for the OS Drive

-3x Samsung 990pro 2tb for media/project drives

------thinking 2 of these will be run RAID 0, not sure yet

-Samsung T7 Shield 4tb external, for task to task external backups (Day backups go on disconnected drives)

-Kingston A400 960gb SATA III for non-mission-critical media (already published, music library, secondary just in case backups etc)

-Prograde USB 3.2 gen2 media card reader

-ASUS Blu-Ray Disc Drive

Because of those problems with the Samsung drives needed a firmware update to fix health issues or health reporting problems of the drives, my plan was to initially install the OS on the Kingston drive, just to update the Samsung 990 drives... so that I don't lose health on one 990 drive by installing the OS on it before its firmware update.

I'm %100 not interested in overclocking anything at this point. Mission critical stability is way more important to me than getting to the moon 5% faster. I'm going to get the system and all my software and projects running stable on the stock factory setup system. Then in future explore overclocking when I can be assured, if I run into problems... I'll know it's probably because I did the overclock the day before, and not something else.

The computers use is primarily in large commercial audio projects as well as film/video and mixed media art. 

Audio recording and playback performance and stability with the CPU slammed without crashing or destroying audio is the highest priority, as well as low latency audio/video performance. 

Anything I need to know?? Thanks anyone

[JohnAb · Accepted solution]

Assuming that you have the 'ProArt Z790-CREATOR WIFI' then ME Firmware updates are included in the BIOS nowadays, so I see no reason why you can't just install the latest BIOS.  This is what it says on the support page I'm looking at:

PROART Z790-CREATOR WIFI BIOS 2202

"The update introduces the Intel Baseline Profile option, allowing users to revert to Intel factory default settings for basic functionality, lower power limits, and improving stability in certain games.

Updating this BIOS will simultaneously update the corresponding intel ME to version 16.1.30.2307.
Please note after you update this BIOS, the ME version remains the updated one even if you roll back to an older version"

Once you have Windows installed, then start with the Chipset drivers and work your way through all drivers from the support page. 

Your drive plan sounds sensible, so that you can update the Samsung firmware. You should be able to update the firmware even with Windows on one of those already, but up to you. Not sure if putting on Windows first would affect the drive health, but maybe, I don't own one of those. 

Once everything is working as it should, you can update to all of the very latest drivers from MoKiChU's threads here:

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/hardware-build-advice/index-all-my-drivers-firmware-software-threads/m...

[rmr]

Thanks for the input, I'll take it.