Re: choosing a motherboard

On Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:36:23 -0500, VanguardLH <[email protected]> wrote:

>"John B. Smith" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Abit IP35 Pro XE.
>
>Many mobos are designed for use by non-expert consumers (aka boobs).
>They may give few options.  I hate those type of mobos as you are ousted
>from control.  They're designed for simple setups where users never
>intrude on the BIOS settings.

Actually I thought that the Ip35 Pro had a better BIOS manual than the
other pcs I had before I decided to build that one. But what do I
know? 
>
>I found an online manual for that mobo at:
>
>https://www.manualslib.com/manual/205153/Abit-Ip35-Pro.html
>
>A search on "tpm" has no hits.
>
>TPM was introduced in 2009.  Your mobo is older, so probably has no
>support for TPM as a hardware module or firmware in BIOS.

I was kinda attracted to this pre-built
https://www.newegg.com/yeyian-ypi-pg49kfc-47y1n-phoenix-glass/p/N82E16883630052?Item=N82E16883630052

So as an exercise to begin educating myself I tried to download a
manual for that ASUS Z790 mb. Its bigger brother says ASUS Z790 D5
Wifi. Couldn't find an exact match for that on the ASUS site. But this
seems close
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1700/PRIME%20Z790-A%20WIFI/E21270_PRIME_Z790-A_WIFI_UM_V3_WEB.pdf?model=PRIME%20Z790-A%20WIFI

They give a brief discussion of the BIOS then encourage you to scan a
Q code to download a BIOS manual? I ashamed to say I don't even know
how to do that. Why make it hard? My old machine's mb manual  had
pages of BIOS stuff in it. I can't find any BIOS manual on their site.
Some closely guarded ASUS secret of something?

Another mb did have a pic of the initial BIOS screen – very busy, but
no info about the further menus available. It does say don't mess with
it without an expert to hold your hand.