It’s not worth running 2.90P. As can be seen in Linuxland, people are constantly refactoring and updating code vulnerable to Meltdown/Spectre and are slowly clawing back performance lost to the patches and updates since early January. Given enough time, compiler tweaks, code updates, driver updates, etc. will get us all back to a level at or before Meltdown/Spectre were a problem…until the next epic CPU bug is discovered of course! =) Maybe some system benchmark util will show a perf drop on 3.00 BIOS but I haven’t noticed much if anything in terms of perf drop.
I would think if you’re running regular 3.00b BIOS, MDCLAB MOD BIOS (http://www.mdclab.it/intel-socket-1155-z77-extreme-4.html) with all it’s updated firmware and such—and if you’re feeling brave—will squeeze out just a bit more performance.
@Arturo : I’m afraid that the optimal performance with such old systems will never be restored. I’ve seen some tests with really nasty drops after all the fixes were applied (system and microcode updates), especially with SSD speeds. I guess I have to weight between system speed and security.
I’m still waiting for the programmer and the bios chips to arrive. Once they arrive, I’ll learn to use them and only then I might do some experimentation 
Yes, I know some perf will never come back up to the levels of pre-patch on this old hardware. It’s just a fact. But if you do go for the MOD BIOS, would be interesting to see 2.90P, 3.00b and MOD BIOS numbers compared.
Hmm, I’d normally think of SisoftSandra but I don’t know if anyone even uses that anymore. What about something simple like CrystalMark (https://crystalmark.info/download/archiv…ark2004R7.zip)? Same guy who makes Crystal Disk Info and Crystal Disk Mark. I use those two apps a lot in my tech life but I never knew about CrystalMark. It’s from 2017 so not very up to date but very simple benchmark app that should give you a good general idea about before and after results to get percentages of increase or decrease in performance.
Quick question guys.
I’m currently running stock/vanilla 3.00 from ASRock’s website. Is it worth flashing to the modded one found on mdclab? How safe is it?
Thanks.
Hi @slackeritguy ,
I’ve had it in my motherboard for a moment and it was working fine but in the end I’ve decided to use the carbon theme bios. It has all the same updates as mdclab one, including the microcode but it’s based on 2.90P so it still supports bootable NVME.
If I were you, just for a peace of mind, I would order the CH341A programmer. It’s dirty cheap and it’s easy to use but it could save you a lot of headache. For more information, please see my discussion with @jcorrea .
Best regards!
Took the plunge and bumped up to MDClab’s 11-01-2018 Mod BIOS (http://www.mdclab.it/intel-socket-1155-z77-extreme-4.html) as it seems ASrock isn’t planning on upping their BIOS to the 20 and 2E microcodes. I was previously on stock 3.00 but updated today from within the BIOS and from a FAT32 USB with the MOD BIOS. Upgrade went well and without issues.
Thanks for the feedback!.
Will probably take the plunge as well in a couple of days.
Thanks for the feedback!.
Will probably take the plunge as well in a couple of days.
Well, if NVme is something you hope to use, he just updated again on 11-11-18 with a MOD for allowing NVMe on a PCIe adapter card: "Supports NVMe compatibility when using a PCIe to M.2_SSD (NGFF) adapter." Woot!
This is awesome news, I just ordered a 970 evo w/ adapter, so I’ll get to try that 11/11 version out firsthand next week. For installation, do I simply follow the “instant flash” procedure described by Asrock? Instant Flash. Or will I need to follow one of the modding guides elsewhere on the site? I have the Z77 E4.
What I did: I copied to the MOD BIOS to a FAT32 formatted USB, I went into the BIOS on boot and used the Instant Flash from there and pointed it to the USB drive. I wouldn’t do it from within Windows, just to be safe. Note all your settings and configs as it will wipe those out after a reboot. That happened when I upgraded to 3.00b stock BIOS too so it must just be an ASrock thing and not this BIOS. I too am looking at those nifty adapters as well: https://www.amazon.com/NGFF-Adapter-heat…CIE+3.0+adapter
You were right, quite an easy install on the Z77. I’ll update once the memory is in next week how the booting process works out.
Great. Curious to see how well it woks. I’m sticking with the 11-01 BIOS for now. I’m on the fence about moving to M.2 since this is such an old MoBo. I don’t game or do disk intensive processing so for me it might be like putting a Ferrari engine in a Fiat. I only recently upgraded to 16GB 2133 from 1866 and that made a difference in general processing speed and snappiness. I’m waiting on Zen 2 and will probably upgrade next year. Most of the new MoBo have an M.2 slot built on the board.
Just letting you guys know that I also updated to the latest MOD by MDCLAB and it went flawless.
Everything is going great so far.
FWIW, he doesn’t mentions that this MOD modifies the ASRock post screen image, no biggie, just letting you guys know.
Here’s my progress update!
So yes, the drive works great with the mod installed. I installed the Samsung driver, formatted the drive, and it popped right up in Windows. Reaches the expected performance reads, writes.
However, making the drive bootable was a challenge. I attempted to clone my HDD onto the SDD multiple times in different manners (using different programs, MBR-to-MBR, MBR-to-GPT, GPT-to-GPT), but had no luck in making the drive bootable. I found in the process that if I do a fresh install of Windows onto the drive, it becomes bootable! I tried a few tricks to keep the boot sector the same but move the files, however I couldn’t get it to work. I gave in and have started reinstalling all my programs on a fresh copy of Windows. To be honest, with the SSD, re-installation of programs wasn’t all that bad because restarts and installers are so damn quick.
Conclusion: NVMe is bootable on Z77 with a fresh Windows install, with the caveat that cloning from an old drive may or may not work. I’d venture to guess that it is possible to clone the drive… if you had the time to tinker around.
Did you try something like Clonezilla?
I used clone software from Macrium, Easeus, Aomei, and thru windows command prompt. Didn’t try Clonezilla.
OK, I’m late the the party here with my Z77 Ext 4. But I bought a Samsung 970 and PCIe card some months back when I learned that the 2.9Q beta BIOS existed - and given how old the z77 is, thank you AsRock. The Standard 2.9 version was fine, and 3.0 was fine and helped with Spectre/Meltdown but, disappointingly, apparently didn’t give you the NVMe updates. Curses!
I had installed 2.9Q, and the system was telling me it would be happy to boot from the Samsung – cool. But when I tried to advance to 3.0 to SEE whether it would keep the NVMe piece, 2.9Q refused to see the file required by the instant flash utility. Hmm. Stuck in Beta, it seemed. That looked like a bit of a conundrum for a time, until I realized I could use the original *.exe file for plain vanilla 2.9 to shove Q out of the way (from withing Windows, no less) and get back on the straight and narrow. But alas, when I upgraded from plain vanilla 2.9 to 3.0 – as is confirmed on this thread – no NVMe.
So, now I see two new options that appear to offer a solution that gives you Spectre/Meltdown defenses and NVMe. Love this forum. Find good stuff like this every time I’m back working on older hardware. Good stuff. Anyway,
First, there’s the rather nice looking Carbon Theme BIOS, which I think was based on 2.9Q
Second, there’s the Nov. '18 MDClab BIOS
Because I don’t have spare chips and a programming tool (cheap, should maybe get some, but not in the house) I’m interested in the two things I need (Spectre defense and NVMe), but with safety and the ability to flash back to 3.0 if something doesn’t work.
Anybody have thoughts on a best solution? Anybody that has flashed back and forth that can confirm that – for example – carbon, based on 2.9Q doesn’t have the flaw I found in the original beta version? Does one choice have more up to date modules that we know are stable? Am I just worrying too much? This is still a daily driver for me, so I don’t want to blow this. But it’s time for a rebuild of Windows anyway, and the NVMe should give the system a bit more life.
What say ye? And thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Hi, I am a little late in answering but here is my experience on the topic. Back in the day I tried to flash from 3.00 to MDClab 11-11-2018 over Instant Flash in the bios and all went out of the window. No recovery procedure whatsoever worked for me. So I used the service of https://www.biosflash.com/Bios-Chips-ASR…TREME4-3072.htm to give me a working bios chip and I had a running system again. Afterwards I ordered a TL866II PLUS and I flashed the mdclab bios. It worked flawlessly. Now I am running Samsung EVO 970 1TB NVME in a Delock 89370 1 Port PCIe 3.0 x4 which I installed in the PCIE3 Slot of my Asrock mobo (decrease 1% FPS in games). I am running Win10 on it for 1 year now without any issues. In terms of speed a normal SSD is the same as NVME in my opinion but it’s nice to have something to play with :). Best of luck to you.