BIOSTAR Finalizes Design of the X670E Valkyrie Socket AM5 Motherboard

[btarunr]

BIOSTAR finalized the design of its flagship Socket AM5 motherboard, the X670E Valkyrie. While the PCB design appears identical to the board BIOSTAR showed at Computex 2022, there are some aesthetic improvements, such as some ARGB lighting elements with acrylic diffusers on the large VRM heatsink and the chipset heatsink. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, and two 8-pin EPS connectors. Powering the CPU is a 22-phase VRM that uses 105 A DrMOS. The Socket AM5 is wired to four DDR5 slots, two PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slots (x16/NC or x8/x8), and a couple of M.2 Gen 5 slots.

Storage options on the BIOSTAR X670E Valkyrie include two M.2 slots with PCI-Express 5.0 x4 wiring, two additional M.2 slots with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, and six SATA 6 Gbps ports. Besides the Gen 5 x16 slots from the CPU, there's one PCI-Express 4.0 x16 (electrical x4) slot wired to the chipset, and an M.2 E-key slot for the WLAN card. There's no WLAN module included with the board, but there's preparation that includes two coaxial antenna jacks, and a cable leading up to the M.2 E-key slot. Wired networking comes from a 2.5 GbE interface powered by an Intel i225 controller. The board is expected to go on sale alongside Ryzen 7000 series processors, in September.



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[DeathtoGnomes]

and a couple of M.2 Gen 5 slots.

This gave me a chuckle. Its good to see there are two gen5 m.2 slots, previous leaks/news all suggested there was only room for one.

 

[mclaren85]

I wonder who still buys biostar motherboard

 

[btarunr]

This gave me a chuckle. Its good to see there are two gen5 m.2 slots, previous leaks/news all suggested there was only room for one.

The board map (third pic above), reveals labels of each of the M.2 slots. M2M_CPU_# are Gen 5 slots from the CPU; M2M_SB_# are Gen 4 slots from the chipset. M2E_WIFI is the E-key slot for your WLAN module.

Raphael puts out 28 Gen 5 lanes, from which 16 are for the PEG, 4 to the chipset, and 4+4 for M.2 slots. AMD confirmed it's possible to have two M.2 slots from the CPU.

 

[Chaitanya]

So backplate on this new generation is fixed. Wow Biostar managed to put 6x Sata ports on their motherboard.

 

[Assimilator]

Why would they go to the trouble of adding all the bits and bobs for a WiFi card, and not the actual WiFi card? Bizarre...

Apart from that, yet another boring "high-end" board.

 

[Fouquin]

I wonder who still buys biostar motherboard

Probably people who don't fall for brand loyalty cognitive biases.

 

[trsttte]

Why would they go to the trouble of adding all the bits and bobs for a WiFi card, and not the actual WiFi card? Bizarre...

Unusual as it is, I think it's the right way to do it even if the board doesn't have wifi. Otherwise you're limited to either hunting down for a crappy pcie breakout or overpay for one of the several ones asus/gigabyte/msi/etc sells and in both cases have to deal with an extra usb cable for the bluetooth part.

A simple intel m.2 wifi card (not latest model) goes for around 15$, no reason to pay 30$ for a rebranded solution.

 

[maxfly]

Best looking and best features I've seen on a Biostar board so far. Not sure why they went with static colors on the heatsinks if they are loaded up with rgb but it's still better than the goofy stuff prior to this.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Unusual as it is, I think it's the right way to do it even if the board doesn't have wifi. Otherwise you're limited to either hunting down for a crappy pcie breakout or overpay for one of the several ones asus/gigabyte/msi/etc sells and in both cases have to deal with an extra usb cable for the bluetooth part.

A simple intel m.2 wifi card (not latest model) goes for around 15$, no reason to pay 30$ for a rebranded solution.

Exactly. And if not and you can put a riser there and put anything you wish, as PCIe amount is limited really.

 

[mama]

Looks good but will wait for reviews. There are questions in my mind on BIOS functionality and support.

 

[ir_cow]

Looks good but will wait for reviews. There are questions in my mind on BIOS functionality and support.

I should be getting one for TPU. No idea ETA. BIOSTAR has to send it first.

 

[1d10t]

Power deliveries been an achilles heel for Biostar, this one look promising with its 12+2+1 configs.

 

[InVasMani]

The VRM phases look stout.

 

[ST-Cyclone921R]

On my current board I removed the wifi card (useless on a desktop imho) and am using a Google Coral AI accelerator in there.
Also am glad they included a Thunderbolt header .... unlike MSI.

 

[Assimilator]

On my current board I removed the wifi card (useless on a desktop imho) and am using a Google Coral AI accelerator in there.
Also am glad they included a Thunderbolt header .... unlike MSI.

Except that every fucking vendor uses a completely different TB connector on both their TB cards and board, even thought the pinout is identical on both ends. It's a loathsome attempt to lock users into their products.

 

[mplayerMuPDF]

Looks good but will wait for reviews. There are questions in my mind on BIOS functionality and support.

UEFI/AGESA updates have been very timely for my X470GTQ.

Why would they go to the trouble of adding all the bits and bobs for a WiFi card, and not the actual WiFi card? Bizarre...

Apart from that, yet another boring "high-end" board.

I do not want built-in WiFi on my motherboard. If I want PCIe WiFi, then I will install a module myself, specifically one that I have personally selected. What Biostar has done is the perfect solution: let the customer choose what they want.

I wonder who still buys biostar motherboard

I did because I read on Reddit that MSI motherboards overvolt Ryzen CPUs, so I ended up not using the B450M Pro M.2 I bought and got a Biostar X470GTQ instead (imported from Germany). ASUS North America customer service reportedly is terrible and I read very mixed things about Gigabyte (it just seemed questionable overall to me), so I went with Biostar instead of these legacy brands that seem to just be riding on their reputation.