Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE (Intel LGA1150)

cadaveca · May 24, 2014

Looking for a decent board to push that shiny new Pentium G3258 in an HTPC? Biostar has what you need in the Hi-Fi Z97WE, an affordable option that offers great audio and a high-level feature set you'd not expect for so cheap.

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BorisDG · Jul 30, 2014

9.9... Great stuff!

SmokingCrop · Jul 30, 2014

Barely available in the Netherlands :>
Goes for 126+ euros.. (= 168 USD o.o)

Champ · Jul 31, 2014

Biostar makes great boards. Severely underrated. The board I had, Hi-Fi 87z 3D also won top ratings for the low price. I'll probably go for this with my rebuilt.

SammyHayabuza · Jul 31, 2014

9.9?...correct me if Im Wrong, but this board doesn't support Nvidia Sli, it does however support AMD Crossfire. I think it should be mentioned in the Conclusion.

cadaveca · Jul 31, 2014

SammyHayabuza said:
9.9?...correct me if Im Wrong, but this board doesn't support Nvidia Sli, it does however support AMD Crossfire. I think it should be mentioned in the Conclusion.

Quite true. but it doesn't change my score or opinion. SLi license costs money, and would have made it more expensive.

SammyHayabuza · Jul 31, 2014

cadaveca said:
Quite true. but it doesn't change my score or opinion. SLi license costs money, and would have made it more expensive.

I respect your opinion, but that tiny bit of info should be known to readers. Someone might click the buy button and make a budget gaming system with two budget Nvidia cards only to find out later on its not plausible. Thanks

cadaveca · Jul 31, 2014

SammyHayabuza said:
I respect your opinion, but that tiny bit of info should be known to readers. Someone might click the buy button and make a budget gaming system with two budget Nvidia cards only to find out later on its not plausible. Thanks

I did add it to the conclusion before posting that, no problem.

dj-electric · Jul 31, 2014

This motherboard reminds me of cheap, suprising LGA775 boards.
Everytime something like that came out, people have talked about it - "hey, there's this Lanparty P45 board it's awesome" , "Have you heard of this ASRock P45XE? it reaches crazy good bus speed"

Sasqui · Jul 31, 2014

Dave, you're back! :toast:

Palladium · Jul 31, 2014

I have nothing but praise for Biostar. I have built my friend a gaming rig with the cheapest <$50 Biostar H61 board + 2500 non-K over 3 years ago and it's still going strong today. I also have their P67 board myself with an OCed 2500K with zero problems. In particular, their Tforce 6100-S930 was by far the best in reliability and in bang for buck ratio for Geforce 6100 mobos and that was way back in 2005.

It's no fluke, the H61 board was priced like 20% cheaper than Asus/Giga/Asrock counterparts yet it still had Nippon Chemicon caps for the CPU power circuitry. No surprise their higher end stuff works great.

cadaveca · Jul 31, 2014

Sasqui said:
Dave, you're back!

Not fully. Just handling my responsibilities in my free moments.

TPU is my home. I can check out, but I can never leave...

Assimilator · Jul 31, 2014

Dual NICs over SLI support and a better audio codec? Biostar's boards have always been a bit of a mish-mash. But for the price, you can't really complain...

Sasqui · Jul 31, 2014

cadaveca said:
Not fully. Just handling my responsibilities in my free moments.
TPU is my home. I can check out, but I can never leave...

We're rooting for you. "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device" :cool:

moabiouz · Sep 15, 2014

Awesome review. When all of those famous brands are fancying about designs on their 9 series. Here comes Biostar's offering will a full pack features at a very reasonable price.

GorbazTheDragon · Sep 15, 2014

Sasqui said:
We're rooting for you. "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

Heh, looking like a weirdo here at boarding school always on TPU/OCN....

micropage7 · Sep 15, 2014

Assimilator said:
Dual NICs over SLI support and a better audio codec? Biostar's boards have always been a bit of a mish-mash. But for the price, you can't really complain...

my previous board was biostar and so far im pretty satisfied
and in my opinion biostar looks like asrock where they offer nice price per features

System Name	Black Knight \| White Queen
Processor	Intel Core i9-10940X (28 cores) \| Intel Core i7-5775C (8 cores)
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore X299G \| ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark S (White)
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black \| Xigmatek Dark Knight SD-1283 Night Hawk (White)
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4 3600MHz CL16 \| Corsair Vengeance LP 4x4GB DDR3L 1600MHz CL9 (White)
Video Card(s)	ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC \| KFA2/Galax GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Hall of Fame Edition
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, 980 Pro 1TB, 850 Pro 256GB, 840 Pro 256GB, WD 10TB+ (incl. VelociRaptors)
Display(s)	Dell Alienware AW2721D 240Hz\| LG OLED evo C4 48" 144Hz
Case	Corsair 7000D AIRFLOW (Black) \| NZXT ??? w/ ASUS DRW-24B1ST
Audio Device(s)	ASUS Xonar Essence STX \| Realtek ALC1150
Power Supply	Enermax Revolution 1250W 85+ \| Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W (White)
Mouse	Razer Basilisk Ultimate, Razer Naga Trinity \| Razer Mamba 16000
Keyboard	Razer Blackwidow Chroma V2 (Orange switch) \| Razer Ornata Chroma
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Processor	Intel Core i7-9700K
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra
Cooling	Corsair Hydro H150i Pro
Memory	2x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3000 Mhz
Video Card(s)	Inno3D iChill GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1TB
Display(s)	Asus RoG PG279Q Swift
Case	Fractal Design Define S2 Gunmetal
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar Essence STX II (Sennheiser HD 650)
Power Supply	Corsair HX750i
Mouse	Logitech G903
Keyboard	Corsair K70 (Black)
Software	W10 x64

System Name	Champ's 1440P Rig
Processor	Intel i7-4770K @ 4.6 GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z97 Extreme6
Cooling	Corsair H60
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600 Mhz 4x4 Blue Ram
Video Card(s)	Nvidia 1080 FE
Storage	Samsung 840 Evo 256 GB/RAID 0 Western Digital Blue 1 TB HDDs
Display(s)	Acer XG270HU
Case	Antec P100
Power Supply	Corsair CX850M
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	TT eSports Poseidon
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Garbage / Trash
Processor	Ryzen 5600X / 5600
Motherboard	MSI B450M Mortar Ti / GB B550M Aorus Pro-P
Cooling	Deepcool GTE / ID Cooling SE224XT
Memory	Micron 32GB DDR4-3200 E-die @ 3600C16 / Ballistix Elite 16GB 3600C16
Video Card(s)	MSI 2060 Super Armor OC / Zotac 3070 Twin Edge
Storage	HP EX920 1TB Micron 1100 2TB, Crucial M550 1TB, Hynix P31 1TB
Display(s)	Acer XB271HU @ 150Hz x2
Audio Device(s)	JBL LSR305 + Topping D50S / iLoud MM + SMSL DO100
Power Supply	Seasonic Focus Plus 850W / G-series 650W
Mouse	Logitech G304 x2

Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE (Intel LGA1150)

cadaveca

My name is Dave

BorisDG

SmokingCrop

Champ

SammyHayabuza

cadaveca

My name is Dave

SammyHayabuza

cadaveca

My name is Dave

dj-electric

Sasqui

Palladium

cadaveca

My name is Dave

Assimilator

Sasqui

moabiouz

GorbazTheDragon

micropage7

System Name	Firelance.
Processor	Threadripper 3960X
Motherboard	ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
Cooling	IceGem 360 + 6x Arctic Cooling P12
Memory	8x 16GB Patriot Viper DDR4-3200 CL16
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 2X OC
Storage	2TB WD SN850X (boot), 4TB Crucial P3 (data)
Display(s)	3x AOC Q32E2N (32" 2560x1440 75Hz)
Case	Enthoo Pro II Server Edition (Closed Panel) + 6 fans
Power Supply	Fractal Design Ion+ 2 Platinum 760W
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Razer Pro Type Ultra
Software	Windows 10 Professional x64

Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard	Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3
Cooling	Antec Kuhler H2O 620
Memory	Avexir Blitz 1.1 LEET Edition 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s)	HIS HD 7950 IceQ X2 Boost Clock
Storage	ADATA XPG SX900 128Gb
Case	Bitfenix Prodigy M
Power Supply	Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850w Silver
Software	Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit

System Name	Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor	11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard	MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling	Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s)	EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage	970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s)	BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case	FD Define 7
Audio Device(s)	DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply	Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse	Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard	GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software	Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu

System Name	micropage7
Processor	Intel Xeon X3470
Motherboard	Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156)
Cooling	Enermax ETS-T40F
Memory	Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Video Card(s)	NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800
Storage	V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB
Display(s)	Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen
Case	Icute Super 18
Audio Device(s)	Auzentech X-Fi Forte
Power Supply	Silverstone 600 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps
Software	Win 7 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Classified