BIOSTAR Releases TA790GX A3+ AM3 Motherboard

[btarunr]

BIOSTAR MICROTECH INT'L CORP., a professional manufacturer of motherboards today announced the TA790GX A3+, the first AMD "Dragon Platform" qualified motherboard with next generation AMD AM3 Phenom II processors support.

The Phenom AM3 processors are able to support up to DDR3 1600MHz memory speed (when equipped with AMD 790FX northbridge), the TA790GX A3+ offers Dual x16 PCI-E 2.0 graphics interfaces to deliver up the latest ATI CrossFireX support for the ultimate gaming platform.



The TA790GX A3+ brings the AM3 CPU performance into full play - providing users with the perfect choice for the AM3 processors usage. For more information, please visit BIOSTAR website.

Specifications:

• Supported Socket AM3 processors AMD Phenom II X4 processor / AMD Phenom II X3 processor
• AMD 140W processor support
• AMD 790GX Chipset with ATI Radeon HD 3300 Graphics
• Dual-Channel DDR3-1333/1066/800
• On Board 128MB DDR2 Side-Port memory
• ATI Hybrid Graphics Support
• Superior scaling with ATI CrossFireX technology
• Integrated HDMI/DVI interface with HDCP Support 1080P HD Video Experience
• AMD OverDrive Utility Support
• BIOSTAR G.P.U (Green Power Utility ) Technology

Features:

Real 4+1 Phase CPU Power Design
4+1-phase VRM design with high quality power components such as low RDS(on) Mosfet for lower temperature and raise the over clocking ability for Phenom/ PhenomII CPU.

2 Phase Memory Power Design
2-phase independent power design to increase memory voltage stability and durability.

100% Solid Caps
Armour plated Biostar Technology, all the capacitors have been put with 100% Solid Capacitors, providing linger lifecycle, durability and stability for the crucial components.

BIOSTAR "GPU" Technology
BIOSTAR G.P.U (Green Power Utility) is a new function, it will enhance energy efficiency by disabling extra phases while CPU on light loading. It integrated a friendly GUI to monitor what's your CPU resourcing, response and optimized the power saving on your system. Such as Heavy 3D Gaming, Internet or MSN charting, G.P.U will always arrange the best power efficiency in your system.

Chipset-CPU Features

AMD 790GX+SB750
Powered by ATI Radeon Graphics, DirectX 10 introduces detail-rich images and dynamic interactivity for playing the latest DirectX 10 games. AMD 790GX Chipset is designed up to 5200MT/s HyperTransport 3.0 (HT3.0) interface and PCI Express 2.0 x 16 graphics. It's enhanced AMD's latest AM3/AM2+ and multi-core CPUs to experience life like images and dynamic interactivity for the latest games, editing photos and videos for experiencing.

Dual Channel DDR3 - 1333
Delivering native support for DDR3 memory up to 1333MHz, TA790GX A3+ motherboards allow users to easily reach higher memory frequencies at lower voltages; achieving higher memory performance.

AMD HD! Experience
AMD's HD video solution presented a new era of HD content and HD-related products which will be a key factor of a new life-style. AMD desktop solution can provide a full HD experience with support for the latest and most demanding formats, including VC-1, MPEG-2 and H.264 on a mainstream PC. It let consumers enjoy a smooth HD viewing experience-less lag, stalling and dropped scenes-in the latest Blu-ray titles.AMD HD! Experience realizes a convergence of digital consumer electronics and PCs with HD peripherals.

ATI CrossFireX Technology
ATI CrossFireX is the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Enabling game-dominating power, ATI CrossFireX technology enables two or more discrete graphics processors to work together to improve system performance. It supports up to four ATI Radeon HD graphics cards.

ATI Hybrid CrossFireX Technology
ATI Hybrid CrossFireX takes your gaming experience to the next level, ATI Hybrid CrossFireX boosts PC performance by enabling the AMD Chipset's integrated graphics processor and a discrete GPU (ATI Radeon HD 2400 Series ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series) to operate simultaneously with combined output to a single display for bliss display for blisteringly-fast frame rates.

Integrated HDMI with HDCP
On board HDMI connector allows full Video & Audio support via standard DVI output. Industry leading scores for High Definition video quality.

128MB SidePort
With 128MB Side-Port memory on board, it can accelerate 3D Gaming performance easily. Sideport memory is similar to onboard graphics memory buffer. When Enabled it, could be increase the 3D performance by another 10% or more.


BIOS-Software Features :

BIO-Flasher
Effortlessly update BIOS from a USB flash disk before entering your OS. BIO-FLASHER is a convenient BIOS update tool. Just launch this tool and put the BIOS on USB Pen Driver before entering the OS. You can update your BIOS only in a few clicks without preparing an additional floppy diskette or other complicated flash utility.

BIO-ReLife
BIO-ReLife Technology let you to resume crushed BIOS data from a USB flash Pen Driver that put the new BIOS file. This considerate BIOS utility can restore your system and far from the BIOS Crush situation.

O.N.E
Biostar offered 3 kind of over clocking settings (V6/V8/V12) that provided good, better, best O.C setting which turned in Biostar Labs. The motherboard features the Biostar T series Motherboards that allows users to conveniently load our preset BIOS settings. These BIOS settings giving users freedom to enjoy over clocking with simple instruction.


Other Features :

Rapid Switch
No more meddling with Power and Reset jumpers on the board. The Power and Reset buttons are built onboard. It is convenient for DIY users to test the board without short-circuiting the wrong pins.

Rapid Debug
No need to check any H/W installation error flurried. On board LED indicator will answer the question for user.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Cheeseball]

Hope this comes out widespread in Asia. I'm looking for a good AM3 setup...

 

[Darknova]

Well that seems to work out all the things I HATE about the layout of my GX3. If the price is good I might just buy one...

 

[shmig]

I don't know if that's correct. From my understanding most 790fx motherboards support AM3 chips.

http://www.msicomputer.com/msiforms2/AM3.asp

Biostar also has a link to info about this here on their website: http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/

I could be misunderstanding this article though. I'm pretty sure any 790fx board with an AMD chip and a 4900 series ATI graphics card will also support the Dragon Platform. The one thing this board has that these others do not is support for DDR3 memory, which I still don't think is worth the jump quite yet.

 

[Darknova]

Technically the "Dragon Platform" is AM3. So you would assume that allows means AM3 board

And in all reviews I've seen DDR3 has no performance difference, or a slightly higher, but not much.

However, if when I come to buy I can afford DDR3 I will get it.

 

[ShadowFold]

Uggh why don't they get some heatsinks on the mosfets.. I would've grabbed one already if they had coolers on them.. They are missing out on some good sales here.

 

[Darknova]

Uggh why don't they get some heatsinks on the mosfets.. I would've grabbed one already if they had coolers on them.. They are missing out on some good sales here.

£12 for a compatible MOSFET cooler, which is better than any stock cooler

 

[ShadowFold]

£12 for a compatible MOSFET cooler

And that extra money can go towards a beter board with built on mosfet heatsinks.. The DDR2 ones are 100-110$ here in the US. You can get a MSI 790GX for 120$ or a Jetway 790GX for 110$ and they have excellant coolers on them. Maybe if the biostars were 80$ or something it would be worth it but I don't think they are worth it where they are right now.

 

[Ongaku]

lack of mosfet cooler or not, Biostar makes a pretty decent board for the price My Tforce 550 is nice. Overclocked quite a bit and it handles it well.

 

[Darknova]

lack of mosfet cooler or not, Biostar makes a pretty decent board for the price My Tforce 550 is nice. Overclocked quite a bit and it handles it well.

I must say, mine's a decent clockers, but I'm afraid the layout is shockingly bad. I'm liking this one though.

 

[LittleLizard]

Uggh why don't they get some heatsinks on the mosfets.. I would've grabbed one already if they had coolers on them.. They are missing out on some good sales here.

i totally agree with you, it could be a perfect overclocker mid range board if it had it but at least now they use 8 pin eps cpu power input

 

[WarEagleAU]

Nice but seems small and cramped to me. Looks like it may be a decent board with a nice price tag (meaning cheap).

 

[madmanjohn]

Ive been busy as my fiancee has been in the hospital since 2/1 otherwise I would of commented on this sooner-

Ive run biostar boards for years and have had 14 of em thru the doors of the shop, and own 8 TA780g-m2+hp's right now with various different cpu and ram configs. I had a recent experience that I wanted to relate to all of you.

We had a 6 yr old socket a mobo die on us in the first week of feb, a really old dell. not having the budget to build an all new one, at the time tiger direct or newegg did not have the 780 hp version in stock, so I ordered the non hp version, the only difference being the extra heatsink on the mosfets. teamed it up with the the amd 8650 x3 and 4 gig of 800mhz ram.

It was an excellent combination, and actually northbridge temps were lower than any of the hp's, the mosfets, never ran warm at all, let alone warm enough to require a sink. The hotspot on the hp's had always been the northbridge. However it developed an audio codec problem, and would drop audio after about 45 minutes of solid use so I returned it and decided to part with my own mobo, and get myself an upgrade, but tiger did not have that one in stock either. I had an asus M3A78 for an overnight last week. which was a wonderful board but unfortunately the bottom pcie slot was only 4 x and the only slot i could use for our video setup blocked the 1x slot, so it went back the next day. But i was impressed, so the only one they had that would work for the setup was the MSI dka790gx, which i am on right now.

Ive not had great luck with msi and this one proves to be more of the same- However it is heatsinked extremely well, Ill give it that, and i ran it oc'd at 3.0 on my 9850 for a brief period on air just to say i did, and right now its running 100% stock as its the only way it will keep from throwing bsod's every 10 minutes. this board will not run 1066 mhz on my 8 gig of dominator ram and stay up, however is stable at 800. Im not at all impressed with the bios, Im used to having more control. It will be back at tiger tomorrow.

I had hoped that the new am3 above would of made it out by now as that is what i really wanted, but im expecting my new one any minute now when the brown truck gets here.

Its the Biostar TA790gx 128m. Which is extremely similar to the am3 version which has bit more beef in the mosfet layout. I too am still a bit unsure of 1366 ddr3 and would of stayed with the combination i have at 1066 anyway. You will see me post on it shortly. As for mosfet cooling, if you have access to any kind of temp monitor probe, and can check them, you can save the $, find your own hotspots and determine your own options. I find that to be a much better option as normally its usually not mosfets i have issues with its usually the NB or SB. But also keep in mind, with what we use these for when they are on the job, we cannot overclock as our video software does its own clocking and the combination guarentees a bsod, so we have to run everything stock at its max numbers.

Ill keep you posted- sorry about the long post y'all---as for my fiancee, she will be gone for a while, but is ok. the big question is whether or not she will be back as she may require permanent nursing care. Im trying to keep busy and keep this from my mind. Thanks for thoughts and prayers, but thats why i havent been around much lately. MJS

 

[madmanjohn]

Ignore the validator at the bottom of the page- earlier, in the above post, i mentioned i was waiting on the brown truck, well, it came, i built, then took it to work, did the show, and now im back home with it.

this is the TA790gx 128m mobo that the new am3 biostar was based on. I dont have it completely dialed in yet, and i havent done any oc yet, but so far this is extremely impressive-

All temps are much lower than the 780, same cpu, same ram and PS, same drives, but file transfers drive to drive are easily 15 to 20% faster, and its a horse. a real work mule- running 12 apps tonight at an idle all at the same time with room for more.

ran our video software, the interface for our audio mixer, and the dmx lighting like nothing ive ever run to date-blows that msi dka790gx completely away.

no bsods, no heating issues- the mosfets are only warm to the finger, havent temp probed them yet- NB still hot to the touch.

Ill give you guys more tomorrow- i decided ill wait that phenom 2 for that am3 board- im done building on this one.

One tip, those of you, if you own this or any of the 790 biostars, i would imagine they are all pretty much the same cause they all use the same sinks, soon as i got it, i pulled both heatsinks- the foam insulator on the SB heatsink had kept the sink from contacting the chip- DOUBLECHECK THIS IF YOU OWN ONE! you could be after an rma tomorrow if you dont.

all 4 now, MJS


I like biostar- but i never said they were perfect-