It was way back in January 2008 that Taiwan's Micro-Star International announced its plans to adopt the EFI BIOS specification in its next generation of motherboards.
Today, those plans have finally materialised with the launch of MSI's first EFI-based BIOS for its P45 Platinum, P45 Diamond and P45D3 Platinum motherboards.
The all-new BIOS, dubbed MSI Click, makes use of the EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) specification - managed by the Unified EFI Forum - to bring an easy-to-use GUI with mouse support to the traditionally tired-looking BIOS. Shown below in early pre-beta form, it promises easy one-click access to all the usual BIOS features.
Although currently available on only three motherboard models, we'd expect MSI to roll out an EFI-based BIOS for additional boards in the near future.
The key benefits, as listed by MSI, are as follows:
- Supports graphical menus and features
- Supports mouse-controlled interface
- Supports pre-OS applications, file oriented (ex: System recovery, games, media player, Internet browser, etc.)
- Supports multi-language
- UEFI support for x64 versions of Windows Vista are included in Service Pack 1
Do you own an MSI P45 motherboard, and will you be putting the MSI Click BIOS to the test? If so, we'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the HEXUS.community forums.
Official press release: MSI's first EFI BIOS, more now available!
Official product page: MSI.com.tw
