*News* What do I mean by custom EasyBIOS , Neo2 K8N Platinum 1C3

Question

Update : 2006-04-16
Some menu pics were gone missing
I had a philosify when making a custom bios for myself (and others) for the K8N Neo2 that MSI has done right in the way
that they set options as hidden .
That's a great idea , however some default settings on theese on cmos reset (not optimized defaults) are not good.
To have that remedied in custom bioses made I have gone over all the default settings all over and set proper defaults .
This is when i though about having a EasyBIOS of Custom rev.2 based on the latest 1C3 .
With many of those settings set properly on both cmos-reset/Optimized why not hide them away , so thet the setup
menus are cleaner and showing only the options we really need in a day to day world of OC'ing and adding removing hw and such things.
The current Custom rev.2 has to versions :
One fully open one with access to all settings/items that are working .
And one scaled down version with the things that are set once to a proper value and shall remain "as is" is removed .
However some have given signals that they want this and that accessible anyway , and who am I to descide
if users are to use DOT , CnQ , Boot to OS/2 , run without ACPI and so on .
That's why I reconsidered my approach how to make a real EasyBIOS that works for all of us .
And reworked menus which is logical buildt on the items we access most is the ones that should be easy to navigate to
without having to arrow us through menus and submenus to get to them .
In addition to this I wanted to make each menu clean with the important stuff on the first page , and the set and forget stuff
hidden away in a submenu .
So this has resulted in a EasyBIOS3 version based on the K8N Neo2 w7025nms.1C3 .
Link :
EASYBIOS3-7025-1C3.ZIP
Here are pics taken by BIOSView.exe of the menu's .
MAIN SETUP SCREEN
*Updated pic *
Cell menu is the most accessed item and is placed first , next is h/w monitoring .
The order for the rest is as in award original .
CELL MENU
*Updated pic *
In this one some items are renamed to what i feel identifies it better .
And CPU fsb is placed first followed by the multipliers , as theese are the often accesed ones when overclocking.
Items thet are not often changes are placed in the "hidden" Other Settings menu .
*Updated pic*
CELL MENU/--DRAM Settings
This one has taken over the dram drive strenght setting .
Memory Clock/Divider is placed first as this one is often changed .
The CAS-RCD-TRAS-TRP has been logically set in order to show the timings as we all refer to them with the 1T/2T in the end .
So we now put the data in in the logical order e.g 2.5-3-3-7-1T .
*Updated Pic*
CELL MENU/--Other Settings
Here you find all the items that is not longer on the main page .
I have tried to prioritize , so that most used items are on main page and seldom changed items are in the Other Settings Menu  .
This approach goes through the whole layout structure for all menu's/submenus .
H/W MONITOR
*Updated pic *
Entering this one earlier made you enter a new submenu for hw-stats on temps/voltages .
Now this are shown directly in the main page , and other settings are moved to the "Other Settings" submenu.
*Updated pic *
H/W MONITOR/--Other Settings
STANDARD CMOS FEATURES (unchanged inside , no picture )
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES
*Updated Pic*
Boot Sequence menu placed first , as I assume this is the one most accessed .
*Updated Pic*
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES/--Boot Sequence
HD boot order moved to be the first item .
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES/--Other Settings
*udated pic*
Rest of the settings not needed on a day to day basis placed here .
INTEGRATED PHERIPERALS
*udated pic*
Raid Config placed first followed by IDE devices config.
Menu cleanup and less changed items moved to submenu "Other Settings"
INTEGRATED PHERIPERALS/--RAID
*udated pic*
INTEGRATED PHERIPERALS/--IDE
*udated pic*
Menu cleanup and less changed items moved to submenu "Other Settings"
PIO and DMA mode are all set to auto on default .
INTEGRATED PHERIPERALS/--IO DEVICES
*udated pic*
This menu is like before , except default settings are changed to Com1/LPT disabled to avoid eating up resources .
Com2 is not shown , but set to disabled to avoid eating up resources . MSI has com2 reserving IRQ and I/O even if not visible .
INTEGRATED PHERIPERALS/--Other Settings
*udated pic*
Rest of the settings not needed on a day to day basis placed here .
ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES (AGP Settings)
*udated pic*
Pretty much unchanged , except for SBA showing .
No "Other Settings" submenu .
POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP
*udated pic*
Rearranged main page and item order.
Menu cleanup and less changed items moved to submenu "Other Settings"
POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP/--Other Settings
*udated pic*
Rest of the settings not needed on a day to day basis placed here .
PNP/PCI CONFIGURATIONS
*udated pic*
Pretty much unchanged , except for Reset ESCD data originally hidden by MSI is hidden again.
This is because K8N Neo2 doesn't support this feature so it's pretty useless to have it visible .
Hope this shed some light on what my definition of EasyBIOS is and how to get there .
After some more tests i will release it the "normal" way as EasyBIOS [r.2] for ms-7025 through Bios Collection Thread .

Answer 1

I am working on a EasyBIOS for Neo4 Platinum MS-7125 , based on the W7125NMS.190 version .
Changes will be reworked layout , gone trough the default values and added 150Mhz & 183Mhz divider (216/233/250Mhz removed)
I can't try it myself though cause i have no Neo4 board .
So for it's to be released someone has to dear trying it ...
Some screenies how it's evolved til now :
========================================
MAIN
========================================
CELL
CELL - HARWARE MONITOR
CELL - DRAM CONFIG
New DRAM arranged
CELL - OTHER SETTINGS
========================================
STANDARD CMOS FEATURES
(unchanged)
========================================
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES - BOOT SEQUENCE
ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES - OTHER SETTINGS
========================================
INTEGRADED PHERIPERALS
INTEGRADED PHERIPERALS - RAID CONFIG
INTEGRADED PHERIPERALS - IDE CONFIG
INTEGRADED PHERIPERALS - I/O DEVICES
INTEGRADED PHERIPERALS - OTHER SETTINGS
========================================
POWER MANAGEMENT
POWER MANAGEMENT - WAKE UP EVENTS
(unchanged)
POWER MANAGEMENT - OTHER SETTINGS
========================================
PnP/PCI CONFIGURATIONS
(unchanged)
========================================
ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES
(DRAM settings moved to CELL menu )
.....