Biostar's TSeries Release-Grade LGA1155 Motherboards Pictured

[btarunr]

Biostar is ready with its pair of mid-range motherboards for the upcoming LGA1155 Sandy Bridge processor platform, based on the Intel P67/H67 Express chipsets. The two were earlier pictured in their pre-release forms at this year's Computex event. Both models fall into the company's mid-range TSeries family. The TSeries TP67XE is the larger (ATX) model that builds slightly over the chipset's feature set, it is outfitted with USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s (2 ports each). The rather high-end looking CPU VRM uses a total of 9 phases, power is drawn from two 8-pin ATX EPS connectors (probably connecting both connectors is optional, and only to enhance overclocking). Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8, when both are populated), PCI-Express x1, and PCI. Connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, FireWire, eSATA 3 Gb/s, and a number of USB 2.0 ports.

The second smaller (micro-ATX) board, the TSeries TH67XE, is based on the H67 chipset, and supports FDI that lets you use the integrated graphics processor on some processors. It uses a simpler 6+1 phase VRM, and goes slightly easy on the overclocking-capability department, but does retain USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCI-Express x16 (electrical x4), a PCI-Express x1, and a PCI. One out of six of the SATA 3 Gb/s channels from the PCH are assigned as an eSATA port. Other connectivity features include 8-channel HD audio, FireWire, gigabit Ethernet. Display connectivity includes DVI and D-Sub. Both boards will be out by the year's end, when Intel releases its new processor platform.



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[xaira]

why so many boards using 8pin connectors to power 32nm cpus?

 

[btarunr]

why so many boards using 8pin connectors to power 32nm cpus?

Because TDP does not change with the new process.

 

[bear jesus]

I'm a little supprised by the dual 8 pin on a 9 phase board, Makes me think about sandy bridge K (overclocking) models, i can't wait to see what they can do.

 

[xrealm20]

I'm a little supprised by the dual 8 pin on a 9 phase board, Makes me think about sandy bridge K (overclocking) models, i can't wait to see what they can do.

+1 - Agreed - hopefully the unlocked SB parts will be great overclockers. Seems that this board has been built with an overclocking friendly power delivery system...

 

[TheLostSwede]

ONLY 5 SATA ports, wtf? I'm already using 7 on my current board...

 

[[Ion]]

I think the full ATX one could stand to have another x16 slot, other than that they look good

 

[HillBeast]

Looks cheap. And crappy. I wouldn't put these anywhere near my computers. They look like I would just breathe near them and they'd disintegrate in my hands.

 

[Static~Charge]

Looks cheap. And crappy. I wouldn't put these anywhere near my computers. They look like I would just breathe near them and they'd disintegrate in my hands.

Care to elaborate on that opinion? They look like decent boards to me: good component layout, solid capacitors, nice feature set. The Biostar boards that I've used over the years have held up well.

 

[HillBeast]

Care to elaborate on that opinion? They look like decent boards to me: good component layout, solid capacitors, nice feature set. The Biostar boards that I've used over the years have held up well.

• Only 5 internal SATA Ports
• One of the SATA ports isn't 90 degrees
• MOSFETs on RAM and SB are old design
• USB/Front Audio/Firewire headers don't look very high quality. Asus and Gigabyte put casing around them
• Solid caps, yes, but my Gigabyte X58A-US3R has like twice as many caps all over the board.
• BIOS chip looks reminiscent of those old chips you got in the Commodore Amiga.
• Pushpin mounting of heatsinks
• No PATA (I don't use it but there will be people out there still wanting legacy)
• CPU Socket has a very dull colour, obviously not made from quality materials

Need I say more?

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

• Only 5 internal SATA Ports
• One of the SATA ports isn't 90 degrees
• MOSFETs on RAM and SB are old design
• USB/Front Audio/Firewire headers don't look very high quality. Asus and Gigabyte put casing around them
• Solid caps, yes, but my Gigabyte X58A-US3R has like twice as many caps all over the board.
• BIOS chip looks reminiscent of those old chips you got in the Commodore Amiga.
• Pushpin mounting of heatsinks
• No PATA (I don't use it but there will be people out there still wanting legacy)
• CPU Socket has a very dull colour, obviously not made from quality materials

Need I say more?

When was the last time a competent builder actually damaged an audio header. :shadedshu

Sounds like Gigabyte and Asus ran out of shit to put plastic on.

Biostar T-Series boards are actually pretty solid and OC like hell.

 

[EaGle1337]

• 
  [*]Only 5 internal SATA Ports
  [*]One of the SATA ports isn't 90 degrees
• MOSFETs on RAM and SB are old design
  [*]USB/Front Audio/Firewire headers don't look very high quality. Asus and Gigabyte put casing around them
  [*]Solid caps, yes, but my Gigabyte X58A-US3R has like twice as many caps all over the board.
  [*]BIOS chip looks reminiscent of those old chips you got in the Commodore Amiga.
  [*]Pushpin mounting of heatsinks
  [*]No PATA (I don't use it but there will be people out there still wanting legacy)
  [*]CPU Socket has a very dull colour, obviously not made from quality materials

Need I say more?

How does the ammount of ports = how good something is? my asus has a ton of sata ports but it's nowhere near a high end board..
And mine has 2 non 90 degree Sata ports.
Yes but i really do find asus's and gigabyte's casings around the headers to be annoying especially when you are working in a cramped interior.
ANd my Msi motherboard had more caps then my asus, but my asus overclocks much better.
Looks can be deceiving,
Pushpin mounting isn't the worse thing in the world and it does work.
Yes while you might want PATA support but that doesn't make it a junky motherboard.
Dull colors big deal thats a pretty bad way to judge the quality of the materials, My DSLR, my keyboard, and my tripod are all rather dull looking but they are make of cheap quality parts.

 

[bear jesus]

CPU Socket has a very dull colour, obviously not made from quality materials

The cpu socket on the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R has a very dull colour in most pictures, would you then agree that it is also not made from quality materials?

These looks like there will be good mid range boards but most things can't be known just from the looks and the spec, really reviews are needed but we will have to wait for some LGA1155 chips to come out first.

 

[overclocking101]

biostar boards always look cheap yo me i dont really know why but they do

 

[HillBeast]

How does the ammount of ports = how good something is?
my asus has a ton of sata ports but it's nowhere near a high end board..

More = better. Everyone knows that. Why 5? That's a stupid number? They could have done 4 or 6 but they went halfway for 5.

And mine has 2 non 90 degree Sata ports.

They make putting in extra cards for SLI or Crossfire so much better. With sticky uppy plugs, you can't use then with long cards. Yes, people do have graphics cards...

Yes but i really do find asus's and gigabyte's casings around the headers to be annoying especially when you are working in a cramped interior.

Mmm, but when you aren't working in a cramped space they work so much better because they hold the cable tighter.

ANd my Msi motherboard had more caps then my asus, but my asus overclocks much better.

Again, More = Better. MSI are rubbish anyway.

Pushpin mounting isn't the worse thing in the world and it does work.

It works, but not well. It's not that expensive to put some screws on it.

Yes while you might want PATA support but that doesn't make it a junky motherboard.

No, but it costs them what? 50c to put on a cheapo JMicron chip?

Dull colors big deal thats a pretty bad way to judge the quality of the materials, My DSLR, my keyboard, and my tripod are all rather dull looking but they are make of cheap quality parts.

Actually it's an accurate way of telling what material the pins are made of. The cheaper the material, the worse the overclocks on the board will be.

The cpu socket on the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R has a very dull colour in most pictures, would you then agree that it is also not made from quality materials?

Um, yeah Googleing my board and it's almost impossible to find a picture of my board without the dust-cap on the CPU socket, so I can't confirm that. As for the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, it is the low end board, these seem to be appealing to mid-high range.

 

[bear jesus]

biostar boards always look cheap yo me i dont really know why but they do

Possibly beacuse most of them are?

Really i have usually seen them as budget to mid range boards as they are often priced that way.

*edit*

these seem to be appealing to mid-high range.

I thought they were mid to low end, i don't know really

 

[EaGle1337]

More = better. Everyone knows that. Why 5? That's a stupid number? They could have done 4 or 6 but they went halfway for 5.

Mmm, but when you aren't working in a cramped space they work so much better because they hold the cable tighter.

Again, More = Better. MSI are rubbish anyway.

It works, but not well. It's not that expensive to put some screws on it.


Um, yeah Googleing my board and it's almost impossible to find a picture of my board without the dust-cap on the CPU socket, so I can't confirm that. As for the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, it is the low end board, these seem to be appealing to mid-high range.

More doesn't always equal better.... you contradicted yourself on the msi one, msi is rubbish but they use more caps.. but more caps = better so therefore the msi is better then my asus.

Actually it's an accurate way of telling what material the pins are made of. The cheaper the material, the worse the overclocks on the board will be.

They hold them in just as well as the plastic ones.
In the long run push pins are much much cheaper.
And the board is in the Mid range like all T series mobos.

 

[HillBeast]

More doesn't always equal better.... you contradicted yourself on the msi one, msi is rubbish but they use more caps.. but more caps = better so therefore the msi is better then my asus.

Totally missing the point of what I said... I was saying that having more caps is better, but MSI is rubbish to begin with so it doesn't matter what they do, they will still be rubbish, but having more caps, it just means it won't be quite so rubbish.

Capacitors are there to clean the power and signal up. They smooth out peaks in the current and voltage and therefore will make the board operate more reliably. All the time. If your MSI wasn't a good overclocker compared to the Asus, it's obviously because the MSI had bad parts on it. Think about how bad it would have been if they didn't put the nicer components on it.

Nothing can deny these boards are cheap. I would rather pay a little more to get a low end Gigabyte board where they give you 2oz copper core, low RDS MOSFETs, ferrite core chokes and solid Japanese capacitors across their entire range, not just high end ones.

 

[EaGle1337]

There's also such a thing called having more then needed. for what the biostar is aimed at it shouldn't be to bad. Gigabyte's done some wierd designs too, such as having an old serial printer port on one fo their motherboards.

 

[Wile E]

More = better. Everyone knows that. Why 5? That's a stupid number? They could have done 4 or 6 but they went halfway for 5.

While silly to cut back on number of ports, one port was routed to be eSATA. That's why the odd number. No idea why they didn't use the other 2 available ports of the chipset tho. Still, has nothing to do with the quality of the product, just the features. Features and quality are 2 entirely different things.

They make putting in extra cards for SLI or Crossfire so much better. With sticky uppy plugs, you can't use then with long cards. Yes, people do have graphics cards...

They do make 90deg SATA cables.

Mmm, but when you aren't working in a cramped space they work so much better because they hold the cable tighter.

No they don't. The only thing holding on the cable are the pins. The plastic box doesn't even touch the connector. It's just wasted plastic.

Again, More = Better. MSI are rubbish anyway.

More caps =/= better. It depend on what the caps are for, and the design of the board. If the designs are not identical, you can't say that more caps are better. It just simply is not a fact at all.

It works, but not well. It's not that expensive to put some screws on it.

All Intel boards are pushpin from the factory. that has nothing to do with Biostar at all. It's an Intel spec. Don't like it? Use some nuts and bolts. Nobody is stopping you.

No, but it costs them what? 50c to put on a cheapo JMicron chip?

Again, missing features has nothing to do with quality. I'm actually quite glad it doesn't have PATA. It needs to die already.

Actually it's an accurate way of telling what material the pins are made of. The cheaper the material, the worse the overclocks on the board will be.

Wrong again. They use the same materials as everyone else. The pins looking dull is a product of the photography, not the board itself.

Um, yeah Googleing my board and it's almost impossible to find a picture of my board without the dust-cap on the CPU socket, so I can't confirm that. As for the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, it is the low end board, these seem to be appealing to mid-high range.

Read above. Same as everyone else. CPU pin material is pretty much a standard.

Totally missing the point of what I said... I was saying that having more caps is better, but MSI is rubbish to begin with so it doesn't matter what they do, they will still be rubbish, but having more caps, it just means it won't be quite so rubbish.

Capacitors are there to clean the power and signal up. They smooth out peaks in the current and voltage and therefore will make the board operate more reliably. All the time. If your MSI wasn't a good overclocker compared to the Asus, it's obviously because the MSI had bad parts on it. Think about how bad it would have been if they didn't put the nicer components on it.

Nothing can deny these boards are cheap. I would rather pay a little more to get a low end Gigabyte board where they give you 2oz copper core, low RDS MOSFETs, ferrite core chokes and solid Japanese capacitors across their entire range, not just high end ones.

Some designs require less caps to achieve clean voltage. Number of caps is not a direct indicator of quality.

And cheap doesn't mean low quality.