Updating BIOS is always a nervous proposition. The newer mobos make it a lot easier. Glad you got through it. Now enjoy the speed and capacity of your updated rig.
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He tried to talk me through it on the phone, but that was no bueno. :-)
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NVMe is a legit underappreciated performance breakthrough that is not talked about as much as it should be. It's an insane performance increase. The 980 is gen 4 tech at ~7000MB/s read. The gen 5 NVMe drives are reportedly going to take another huge step forward to more than double the current rate of gen 4. But it would require a PCIe v5 compatible motherboard though. At PCIe v5, you can get bus bandwidth of 128GB/s over x16. Crazy....
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It really shouldn't be a nervous affair these days though with current tech. Back in the day, if you accidentally lost power during a BIOS update your board was straight up fucked, nothing you could do. But these days, legit manufacturers can safely update the BIOS straight from Windows environment itself. It's infinitely safer than it used to be. They've made it stupid proof at this point. Honestly, when you install a new mobo, the first thing you should do is immediately update the BIOS.
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ever play Golden Axe on that bad boy?
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That game was my jam back in the day
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Agreed. Newer mobos make it safe and it’s one of the first checks I do. Shit used to be risky though, still can’t quite shake that feeling.
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Yep, still feel that nervous twitch each time updating BIOS. Even though it is super easy and I've not had it go wrong yet.
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PC gaming recommendations from my recent experience...

So, over the last ~2 years I've upgraded quite a bit of my PC gaming equipment. I went about 5 years or so prior when I didn't really do much computer gaming, but got drawn back into it during covid. Up to that point, I'd been a very casual gamer not really participating with much multiplayer. After some recommended upgrades and involvement with online friends, I was shocked at how much improvement I managed.

Here's some general tips I've found that most of you guys likely know, but just wanted to mention. Stuff I was previously clueless about, but which made a huge difference in my performance. In order of importance.

1. Monitor Refresh: I gamed for a long time with a decent sized Dell 1080p 60Hz monitor. Finally decided to make the jump to something above 60hz monitor refresh. Bought a 32" curved 2160p 144Mhz 1ms refresh gaming monitor. Holy fucking hell, what a difference that made. Like, an immediate obvious improvement that immediately resulted in higher K/D on the normal games I play. Considerable difference. Should have done so long before. Don't underestimate the difference in performance here. Even on an older GPU, this will make a clear improvement.
   
2. GPU: I've gone from dual GTX 950 SLI, to a GTX 1650 Super, to a RTX 3070 Ti. This was definitely the most expensive upgrade I made, but also by far provided the most dramatic increase in performance. Immediate massive increase. The games just "Slowed down" in a sense. I noticed infinitely better control during times when a lot was happening to render video. No more motion blur or tearing. Honestly was blown away by the difference it made. I always thought paying a $1k for a video card was fucking bonkers dumb. But, man oh man what a visual difference it makes. The combination of this card's amazing capabilities, and the new fast performance of the monitor gave me even more of an increase in performance in online FPS games. So much of an immediate increase, my online Doom friends thought I was cheating. Some of the same games I'd been playing for years, looked and felt completely different. The difference in lighting, shading, and shadows is hard to describe. If you have a 30XX card, be sure to get the latest driver, and go into your existing games to check for new DLSS(Deep Learning Super Sampling) settings. They recently released a new driver that applies new DLSS to lots of exiting games, and it makes them look much better without decreasing performance. Future drivers are going to incorporate new DLAA(Deep Learning Anti Aliasing) settings too, which is supposed to be another big performance increase for RTX cards.
   
3. Mouse Sensor: For the past decade plus, I've used mid-level gaming mice with fast response rates. On recommendation from an online friend that plays lots of FPS games, I decided to get a wireless gaming mouse with a quality sensor and very high response time. I decided on the Logitech G502 wireless, which has the 25K Hero sensor. It's expensive, but hands down the best and most responsive gaming mouse I've ever used. This mouse definitely improved my gaming even further. Plentiful mappable buttons. Wireless is just as fast as wired, and even more controllable. All of the best gamers have migrated to the lightest wireless mouse possible, for performance in FPS. The #1 recommended wireless gaming mouse is the Logitech G Pro, which only weighs 85g. But I went with the Logitech G502 wireless, which weighs 110g. But I much prefer the shape and extra buttons. If you get one, just remember to place the wireless sensor as physically close to the wireless mouse as possible. Greatly increases the speed.
   
4. Mouse pad: I'd actually forgone a mousepad for many years, since modern optical mice work fine on just about any surface. But gaming buddy recommended a quality pad, and I'm surprised how much of a difference it's made.
   
5. Keyboard: I always thought the whole "Mechanical keyboard" fascination was kinda silly. But again after recommendation I got a quality mechanical keyboard with Cherry red switches. Actually went all in with the pudding PPT translucent keycaps. Again, another improvement. And it looks insanely gorgeous. Much more responsive. Not sure exactly how much it's improved gaming, but man it looks and sounds cool.
   
6. NVME drives: These new drives provide an insane performance increase. Like double or triple plus your current SATA disk performance. But they require a motherboard compatible with the new NVME drive slots.

I'm sure most of you know this already, but just wanted to mention. I also overclock both my CPU and GPU, so if you have any questions about squeezing out extra performance from your system, post here. There's plenty of home builders here that can answer whatever questions you have...
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