15 PREPARING BIOS UPDATE
SO ONCE THE BUILD is complete, we hook this thing up to
a monitor ready to boot it up. However, we need to update
the BIOS first in order to move forward. For this method,
we are using a USB drive and another system to perform
the BIOS FLBK (flashback) method. We head over to the
motherboard’s support page and download the latest BIOS
update to the USB drive. Make sure the drive is empty and
formatted correctly to FAT32. The download will consist of
a CAP file and a renamer tool. First, we extract the folder
then run this tool afterward to rename the CAP file. Then
we delete everything on the drive, apart from the newly
renamed CAP file.16 INSTALLING BIOS UPDATE
MAKE SURE that your new system is off but with power
running to the machine and with the PSU switch turned on.
Then insert your USB stick with the BIOS update into the port
in the back of the PC labeled BIOS FLBK, this should have a
button directly above it and a white line distinguishing it from
the other USB ports. Then, hold down the BIOS button for at
least three seconds or until you start seeing a green flashing
light and let go. After around 10 seconds, this light should
start flashing faster. It will continue until the BIOS has been
updated, don’t turn off the power in the meantime. Once the
light has stopped, boot up your system and the BIOS should
hopefully be updated. Now it’s ready to install Windows 11.SO HERE WE ARE, the machine’s all built,
everything fits together (eventually), and
everything works (at last). Yes, we did
have some teething issues. On first boot
up, we couldn’t get through the Windows
11 installation without it crashing. In fact,
the error was to do with the CPU cooler
and our CPU was briefly hitting around
88° under practically zero load.
That almost left us quaking in our boots,
but thankfully it was a simple error. After
a bit of cable management, we managed
to dislodge the main commander core fan
controller cable. Unfortunately, we didn’t
figure this out until we removed the CPU
cooler and reinstalled it with some new
thermal paste. Better safe than sorry.
Other than this issue and our little
mishap with the heatsink SSD situation,
it was fairly smooth sailing for our Alder
Lake system build. The Corsair 7000D
AIRFLOW case was easy to work in, mainly
due to the sheer amount of space we had.
Usually fitting the CPU cables from the
PSU to the motherboard can be a pain in
the rear end but, for once, it was a quick
process with plenty of room to fit the bend
of the cable in. The only issue was moving
this rig around—when fully built, it’s one
hell of a heavy unit.The performance of this machine
was great and what we expected. Intel’s
Extreme Tuning Utility allowed our CPU to
run from 4.90GHz to 5.10GHz all from some
easy one-click tuning. With sliders cranked
all the way to the right, this PC runs super
nice and quiet. Thanks to the huge 420mm
radiator, six 140mm fans, and plenty of
space available in this case, temperatures
are great even when this is under full load.Of course, at an MSRP of just over $3000,
it costs a pretty penny. At this price, you
expect it to run the numbers it does on the
benchmarking. But is it worth investing in
now? Probably not. You’re better off waiting
a while for these prices to fall—with every
generational change, they always start off
sky-high. However, this is certainly a clean,
future-proof build in a monstrous case that
has tons of presence.NEXT GEN FUTUREPROOF?
BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15
Multi-Thread (Index) 2,413 4,189 (74%)
CrystalDisk Q32T1
Sequential Read (MB/s) 2,721 3,344 (23%)
CrystalDisk Q32T1
Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,769 2,911 (5%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^62 69 (11%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 75 98 (31%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 103 78 (-24%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 26,706 37,817 (42%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Our zero-point conists of an Intel Core i9-11900K, 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengence RGB PRO DDR4 @3600, an MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X
TRIO and a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD. All game tests are performed at 3840 x 1600 at the highest graphical profile.the Alder Lake machine
26 MAXIMU MPCFEB 2022
© ASUS, MICROSOFT