2950X on Zenith Extreme - BIOS question

Hi L1,

Am totally new to PC building, but am about to assemble a 2. gen. Threadripper system on a brand new ASUS Zenith Extreme X399 MB.

I know that the BIOS version needs to be 1402 or higher to support my 2950X, but how do I ensure that the BIOS is up to date? I have the latest BIOS version on a stick, but can I update the BIOS if the MB doesn’t recognize my 2950X? Can I boot into the BIOS even if it is an old (pre-1402) version and I have the 2950X in the socket?

I bought the MB late October 2018 and 1402 was released in August, but I gather that ASUS cannot be relied on to make sure the BIOS installed is the latest, TR gen 2 capable version.

I haven’t started assembling the system yet as I would dearly like to get this question resolved first.

Supporting info: It’s intended to be a dual boot Win10 - Fedora Scientififc system and will have ample memory and storage as intend to run a lot of bioinformatics and image analysis on it.

Thanks in advance!
Palle
Copenhagen Jan. 5, 2019

Hello, I just built an X399 Asus extreme with a 2950x. Asus bios will update even without a cpu install. Put the USB in the port that is labeled bios then push the bios button. It will blink and update the bios. The mother board manual you can download from Asus website has a step by step for updating bios. Hope this helps.

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