Yes you should load the configure panel into your browser and go over the new features and settings. Your old settings should remain in tact.
Going from 5.1 to 5.1.1 you will need to upload all files in the /pals directory except for the subdirectories, configpal.php and create-cache-table.5.1.php.
I have been playing with the number of news posts on my test site, using 3,2,1 and 1,2,3 and 4,1,1 and just about any other combination and I can't get them to do what your's is doing. Perhaps I fixed this in IIP 5.1.1? I dunno...
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