Hey guys,
One of the main reasons I went ROG over other companies other than the quality was the increase in boot speed, power button to Win8 log in screen. Upon first installation, enabling Fast Boot, Fast Hardware Boot, MRC Fast Boot, DIsable CSM with onboard iGPU, I clocked about 8.8 seconds in what I define as boot time. Since I use a discrete graphics cards without a UEFI bios (Sapphire 7950 Boost) I am accustomed to about 10.4 seconds of boot time. After installing Windows 8.1 Preview, I noticed my boot time drop to about 11.4 seconds, and also my read and write speeds on my 840 Pro 256 GB decreased as well, so I did a secure erase and fresh install, since all my data is on my WD Black 1 TB. However, I have noticed that even though I have all fast settings enabled, other than CSM disable (I currently have CSM enabled, and everything on Ignore, and legacy for PCIE) I am still hanging at POST with 0 seconds delay enabled in the BIOS for about 10 seconds, bringing my total start time to about 23 seconds. After testing, I realized this is due to my 1 TB HDD, and without it I am back to booting in about 11.8 seconds, and I believe AMD's graphics driver is adding about 1-1.5 seconds, so once I solve that I am back to about 10-10.5 seconds.
There was no problem with my HDD until I did the secure erase, is there any reason why my HDD is now causing a POST delay? I plan on defragging, but I don't think that will solve it.
The Guardian
OS Windows 8.1 CASE Thermaltake Level 10 GT Snow Edition CPU Intel i7 4770k MOBO Asus Maximus VI Hero GPU EVGA GTX 780 SC w/ACX FAN Phanteks PH-TC14PEBK RAM G.skill Snipers 2x8 16GB SSD Samsung 840 Pro 256GB HDD WD 1 TB Black OPTICAL Asus BW12BST PSU XFX P-1750B BEFX SOUND Creative SoundBlaster ZxR