Comments on: Should you update your BIOS? The pros and cons https://dfarq.homeip.net/should-you-update-your-bios-the-pros-and-cons/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=should-you-update-your-bios-the-pros-and-cons David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Wed, 09 Mar 2022 20:04:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Shirley Dulcey https://dfarq.homeip.net/should-you-update-your-bios-the-pros-and-cons/#comment-56011 Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:17:13 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=26434#comment-56011 BIOS updates on built systems aren’t that frequent, though the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities have made them more common. They can happen even for systems that are a few years old; for example, my Skylake-based Dell laptop (6th generation Core) got one this year.

But updates for motherboards in DIY systems happen a lot. A motherboard that accepts current processors like Ryzen or 11th generation Core may get one every month or two. Most of those are just to support new CPUs as they are released, which happens even more often that you see on major tech sites because sometimes there are new system builder-only CPUs that need to be added. On those systems you should check the release notes for the new BIOS to see whether it contains any improvements that are relevant to you before you update.

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