BOG Contest #4 : Review The Book!

[Dashken]

Details :

• You have always read our reviews. Now, you have the chance to write your own review!
• Write your review of the BIOS Optimization Guide book! Help me improve the book.
• The best review wins the grand prize!
• We will also randomly select five entries for the consolation prize!

Consolation Prizes :

• Intel Notebook Back Pack!
• ARP Gift Pack!

No. Of Consolation Prizes : FIVE (5)


GRAND PRIZE :

• 400GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA hard disk!
• ARP Gift Pack!

The Rules For This Contest!

• You are allowed to post as many entries as you like.
• Every participant is only allowed to win one prize in this contest.
• This contest ends at 2400 hours MYT ( GMT+8 ) on the 31st December, 2004 or when there are 6 participants, whichever is later.
• All entries must be posted in the proper forum thread for this contest.
• The judges' decision is final.

I Want To Participate!

Just post in THIS thread!

You will need to be a registered member of the ARP Forums so if you have not registered earlier, you will need to register before you can post. Don't worry - registration is FREE and the process is very simple!



Contest Extended !

This contest has been extended to 31st December, 2004.

So, wait no more, participate while there's still time!

.

Contest Winners!

Grand Prize - Justarius

Other Prizes
1. florin_m
2. Brian
3. SAMSAMHA
4. jinaun

[florin_m]

Warning! Do not buy this book! It'll ruin your self-esteem! You've been thinking that you know everything about that little beast called BIOS. If you read this book, you'll find that you knew very little and, what's worse, most of what you thought you knew was wrong!
So, do not buy this book - unless you're really sure that you want to learn what the BIOS is and what it does, from the very beginning.

[CleanSerious5]

Originally Posted by florin_m

Warning! Do not buy this book! It'll ruin your self-esteem! You've been thinking that you know everything about that little beast called BIOS. If you read this book, you'll find that you knew very little and, what's worse, most of what you thought you knew was wrong!
So, do not buy this book - unless you're really sure that you want to learn what the BIOS is and what it does, from the very beginning.

where urs?

[Brian]

ok, a simple and (i hope) short summary of the book
i bought the book about 2-4 weeks ago and just got to read it recently due to my exams, overall, the look and feel of the book is nice with the inside front and back cover having a summary of the topics arranged by components such as graphics subsystem and such making it easy to refer to, which is a plus point
chapter 1 explains about the bios's functions and the reason for optimizing it. one good point in this chapter is that it teaches a user how to flash a bios to a newer version, because motherboard manufacturer's manuals usually lack a lot of info in this section and well, accidents happen(i killed my mobo when i flashed it for the 1st time). what is lacking is that the book does not point out the newer flashing techniques aka using the windows flashing utilities(abit has them and a few other major mobo manufacturers), i see it as a user friendly way to flash and i've not seen any failures with it so far, but well the basic way works best for all conditions

chapter 2 deals with emergencies relating to the bios aka moving the cmos jumpers, battery and also hot flashing for dead bios chips, the picture guide for hotflashing is VERY useful for people who are new at it

chapter 3 and 4 are very similar to each other, with chapter 4 delving deeper into each option compared with chapter 3
i like the common options part and the you are recommended to keep this/that setting, however it would be better if the layout of each option would look something like this:
Option Title
Common Options: a,b,c,d
Description and overview of the option
Recommended Option: a/b/c/d for w/x/y/z case to make it easier to read, but giving the recommended option at the last paragraph of every option is not bad too

there is also an acronym list so that confused readers who are lost in all the jargon can refer to it

the index page looks like a mirror copy of the contents page due to the layout of the book that arranges each option alphabetically, but upon closer look it does have some differences aka arranging some bios options under a category like floppy drives, floppy 3 mode support and swap floppy drive options

overall, it's a good book, and being probably the only book out there that lays out each and every bios option out in detail, it's a good read for people who are interested about delving deeper into the bios. it's a newbie friendly book and doesn't drown the reader with countless jargons but laying out each option slowly in such a way that the reader can understand it. highly recommended for people wanting to learn about the bios

[Adrian Wong]

Keep it up!

You can write as many reviews as you like.

[Brian]

nah, no thanks, got a big big bio book to study now......

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Brian

nah, no thanks, got a big big bio book to study now......

ROTFL! Happy studying!

PS. I was actually telling everyone joining this contest.

[SAMSAMHA]

well, let me share my thoughts on the book. I just begin to read it. So, i may update as I got more reading done.
The goods first:
My first impression is that the books is really good. It has deal with a lot (and that's really a lot, so many of the options that I have never even seen ore heard of) of options in the bios. I have never thought that bios could have so many thing you can tinker with. Not only it has the new stuff, it also has a lot of old stuff. In addition, it has included the bios options from various mobos rather than just standard mobo options. So, I am glad that someone has put it all together. This would be a great handbook for computer enthusiats.
I like the way the book is organized, the cover are filled with reference of each options to give you a way to search them. The list of acrynom is very good as it provide someone who doesn't understand basic computer a guide to read the book.


Now the bads(not neccessary bads, just what I thought could be improved):
I think you should
I think the 2nd chapter is good that it tells what to do in case something goes wrong during the bios tinkering. However ,I think the last part of hot swap should be reserved for the last chapter. I think you should leave chapter 2 only about basic troubleshooting, and leave the hard troubleshooting that require more experienced user to do on the last chapter because hot swap is a dangerious task and I really think it should be done with someone with experince, putting it on chapter 2 seems like letting someone who may not have that much experience with computer reading the book wonder what to do with it.

Now, chapter 2 and 3 are basically talking about the same thing. I know that you try to make chapter 2 an overview of what each option is and chapter 3 with all the details. Now, I find that's a little bit redundant. I would suggest either have Chapter 2 just talk about each bios, and explain what each option will do.
Ex:
AGP 4x
Option: enable, disable
Enable: it will enable 4x agp
Disable: it will diable 4x agp.

Then you can deal the specific in Chapter 3.

Alternatively, you could combine these 2 chapters and have these options organized like this:

First part:
info on Chapter 2 (keep it short and simple, sorta like my example above, just tell what agp 4x is and what option you can do and what will happen if you choose one option or the other).

Second part:
A detail explanation on what is this option and what all the details that you have in Chapter 3.

Now, a few things that I would love to see in future:
I think you could include a chapter on how to do a good overclock or advice the reader on what's the best way to edit these options. I know OC is really an experimentation, that each one have different result and different system require different tinkering. However, you could give a simple straight forward as to how to "optimize" your system. After all, all the info you have provided is only good to gear toward makeing your system as stable and function as it can be. I think give a safe OC could provide novice an introduction on how to OC, this will give them a guide to do and a way to do a safe trial. You could advice on what to buy (ie memory, etc), what to set, and how to set them(the hot swap trouble shooting could included in this chapter as this is the ultimate trouble shooting).

My overall impression on reading the book is that this book is very good reference book. Most of the material provided are very good in details yet it's written simple enough so even someone who doesn't have much computer knowledge could understand and know how to change the bios's option. It contains good informations and the background on each one is also hard enough to explain each option yet not too technological challenge for a newbie. I think this is real success of this book. It give newbie a good understanding on bios and how to use it.

PS.
I found one error, on page 180, 5th paragraph, where it starts "available options..." the word "processo's duty" is a typo, it should be processor.

That's all for now. Hope I didn't offended your hardwork by making all the comments. If I found any more typo or thought of anything. I will post them.

[Adrian Wong]

Not at all! :mgreen:

Thanks for your kind comments and helpful suggestions. They will definitely help us improve the next book.

[Brian]

oh yes one more thing(adding to the earlier review), if possible, have a section listing general bios options without explaination, just lists of options for:
overclockers
people who want high performance without overclocking
rock solid stability
it'll be a much easier way for people under these categories(and other categories too) to just tweak their bios options from tht shortlist then to browse over the whole book just to tweak their bios.
shouldn't add too many pages into the book if it's done together along with SAMSAMHA's suggestion, maybe even a reduction