Benefits of the Pema bios

I've seen this posted many times by @Phoenix

And I'm especially intrigued by 3 points mentioned

• The ability to enable CSM for those who want to install other OSes like Windows 7

Does that mean that you can't install Windows 7 on those new Clevo laptops without significant hassle or functionality loss?

• The ability to undervolt the CPU as the stock voltage is way too high which causes the CPU to overheat much quicker and thus throttle under load.

Isn't that something you can do with an Intel manager in standard BIOS?

• Power throttle disabled

This is the most intriguing point. Is this like an on/off switch that permanently disables any kind of throttling that might occur? And is this something thats significantly harder to pull on a non-Prema laptop?

Finally would a PREMA bios make it easier to set up custom fan profiles and set the exact speed of the fans with temperature caps as increments?

 

You can install Windows 7 easily if you enable CMS but you also need to integrate the USB 3.0 Drivers using this guide:
How to install Windows 7 on Samsung 950 PRO

For the integration of the USB Driver into the ISO, it cannot be done under Windows 10, the ISO mounting will never finish, it must be done under Windows 7 so I used a VM to do that or if you have a spare Windows 7 machine that's better

With the Clevo stock BIOS, you can also undervolt / overvolt but the thing is, CLEVO forgot to add the - / + sign so if you enter a value, that's an overvolt and you cannot undervolt

If you use Intel XTU you will mess up your fan tables and the fans would start spinning up randomly even if the system is idle or the CPU temp is low, the only way to fix it with an NVRAM Reset and installing the Clevo Control Center without the XTU components

Power Throttle Disabled is a Prema BIOS EC Fix, nothing else you can do to fix that without the Prema BIOS/EC. Anytime the CPU/GPU are used together, lets say a graphics benhmcark and / or a game, your CPU will throttle like no tomorrow all the way down to 2.5 GHz on average or as low as 800 MHz.

Prema BIOS will not make it easier to set a custom fan profile. Just use CCC to set the fan profile to Auto or a more aggressive built in overclocking profile once CCC detects there is any setting on the CPU that is not stock, it will show you the overclocking fan profile.

 

This will become a moot point in about 6 months if you have a Skylake CPU and already is one if you have a Kaby Lake one as Microsoft is discontinuing security updates for W7 this summer on the former and doesn't support that OS at all on the latter.

 

There will be many that will still want to run Windows 7 beyond any support time frame from MS.

Windows 7 support may also get extended again, as MS did for Windows XP, with almost 50% of the Windows computers out there running Windows 7, there is a good reason to do just that.

I hope the vendors realize this, and continue to support installation of legacy OS's.

 

Again, that only applies if you have a Skylake machine. Unless Microsoft reverses course, and I'm not seeing any indication that they will do so, Kaby Lake users will be SOL.

 

There are lots of people already running Windows 7 on Kabylake, there are Youtube install videos you can watch successfully installing and running Windows 7 and 8.1 on Kabylake.

You shouldn't believe MS's / Intel's BS so readily

 

Windows 7 works fine on Kaby Lake please stop spreading Microsoft FUD.

 

Yeah, it might work, but are you sure it doesn't come at the cost of performance? For example are all the Skylake/Kaby new efficient processes disabled on Windows 7 making it behave like a 4000 CPU instead?

In my case it would be to quiet it down just enough so that the temps don't go above 90 without throttling.

Do those things need to be started each time I start my computer and left to run or do they do a permanent modification in the bios/registry...

Yeah but do you need a PREMA bios to enable CMS, and if you can't enable CMS is it even possible to downgrade to 7/8?

 

By the way is the PREMA bios something that your reseller has to install, or is it something that can be installed manually on your own?

 

Would love to know this as well. I've read a few threads where users got the BIOS from a generous forum member.

 

The laptop will come with it. If there is an update, the Prema Partners will install thru a remote assisted session.

In the past this was true, but the Prema BIOS is now an exclusive of the Prema Partners Program (say that three times fast) or those who directly reach out and gain access from Prema. More information about Prema Partners can be found here - https://biosmods.wordpress.com/partner/

 

Windows 8.1 wins a lot of gaming performance tests so that might be the best fallback for those not wanting to use 10.

 

Nice bait, dude. IIRC Windows 7 gets higher physics scores in Firestrike than in Windows 10. Is your next post going to claim that benchmarks are not representative of true performance?

 

Don't bring your depraved lingo to these peaceful forums.

I'm not denying that Windows 7 is arguably better than spybot 10 which is why I was intrigued by what Phoenix said in the first place but I do recall a big talking point about the Skylake processors being designed specifically for Windows 10 with DX12 along with some new synchronizing feature that I can't remember about. All in all a 4000 might perform better on 7 but a 6000 is supposed to work best on 10.

 

Windows 7 has Windows 10 licked for CPU performance in many heavy scenarios. Perhaps some power saving features may be missing, I'm not sure and don't mind either since I usually turn them off.
Gaming wise W10 seems to do better, but that's nothing to do with DX12 it this time.

 

is that so?

 

It's subjective. Some say the lack of Aero/UI reduces resource hogging, freeing up said resources for more FPS in games.

And then there was some data someone posted not very long ago pitting Win 7, 8, and 10 against each other in relation to performance, and 7 actually seemed to do best. @Phoenix - was that you that posted that? Or was it @Mr. Fox? Did a quick search but couldn't find it.

 

It was Mr. Fox

 

How hard would it be to install PREMA on my own then, If I somehow get my hands on a copy of it at some point?

 

Good luck finding the BIOS

 

I was thinking of it being available at some point down the line from whoever wrote it in the first place. Or people/resellers gifting it, or becoming open source... Because from what I understand it used to be readily available until recently.

 

Nope. Prema trusted one d00d in the past and sent him the BIOS then that guy published the Prema BIOS online as if it was his own work so Prema doesn't trust anyone now.

You have to buy a laptop from a Prema partner to get it

 

One "piece of work" ruins it for everyone. That is sad and unfortunate for the rest of us I would have been very happy to get a copy for the P650HS-G when it comes out but I guess that has been shot down.

 

I guess it's time to start bugging Clevo to become a Prema partner. I know, it's a long shot.

 

That would be @Prema.

As mentioned in my last post in this thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/benefits-of-the-pema-bios.801246/page-2#post-10456820) Try reaching out Prema on the prema mod bios site. I believe in the past, people have made donations to help continue with the ongoing efforts of unlocking BIOS/vBIOS, and they were able to get a BIOS for their machines.

 

@Phoenix: Honestly, I was longing for a feature in BIOS that can disable SSD/HDD selectively during OS install w/o physically removing the disk. It seems @Prema BIOS had the feature long time ago and still there, so I guess @Prema is a visionary.
Does your MSI have that feature(Selective Disk disable) in BIOS? I saw some clevo's esp. p870km 17.3" and its keyboard was too compact/small/crammed whilst compared to alienware.