BIOSTAR Z590 Valkyrie

[Black Haru]

Featuring a massive VRM with top of the line power stages, over 20 phases, and even dual BIOS, the BIOSTAR Z590 Valkyrie promises chart-topping speed and overclocking. Paired with a unique black and gold aesthetic, the Z590 Valkyrie could be a compelling choice for those seeking top-tier 11th Gen Intel overclocking.

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[TheLostSwede]

@Black Haru Typo?

Networking:	2x Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 Gb Ethernet

Also, the board has four M.2 slots, although the fourth one is for a WiFi card only.

 

[dj-electric]

I'm just shocked i see a BIOSTAR motherboard, and I dont hate the design...
I... I even like it...

 

[GhostRyder]

Biostar has really stepped up its game. I would not be against owning this board.

 

[bonehead123]

Well let me see now:

A) Multi-colored: Black, gold, silver, and gobbly-gook pink, with a big fat white label right in the middle of everything for good measure... y..U..k...p..u..k..e...y..u..k...

B) PS2 ports: REALLY.... on a 2021 board... puhleeeze...

C)

"it is lacking WiFi out of the box"

: what's the point of the antenna connectors if they aren't connected to anything.... w.t.f....

D)

"the top M.2 slot will only function with an 11th Gen CPU installed"

....REALLY...w.t.f....

E) Only the cpu-fed slots are pcie-4.....again... REALLY... on a 2021board.... w.t.f...

F) Gawdy-awful looking tower plate on top of the VRM.... IMHO this detracts from the overall aesthetic of the board...

G) Gawdy-awful looking backplate armor thingy.... is this REALLY necessary, or useful for that matter ??????

H) Dated-looking BIOS....on a nearly $400/2021 board....oh my...

Shall I continue ?

I know some of these are technical limitations, but still, you'da thought that somebody, anybody (hint: starts with an "I" and ends with an "L") would have spent a little time (like moar than 15 mins) figuring out a way to overcome these issues by now.....

Obviously by now I'm guessing you can tell that I am NOT impressed with this offering, hehehe

 

[altermere]

overclocking 11th gen? to have 500W of heat from the CPU and get +2 fps?

 

[Mescalamba]

How does non-dated BIOS looks?

I would like old style blue and white with everything where I need it. Thanks. I think graphical BIOS is useless thing that only slows everything down. UEFI has its point, but having pointlessly pretty BIOS isnt one of them.

PS/2 - yes and I would like full size PS/2 keyboard with super fast electronics in it. Sadly mostly its only PS/2 if thats possible and not sure if there are any quality PS/2 keyboards anymore.

Colors/styling, well its okay. Not fan of this armor stuff. Fan of old style (expensive) finned radiators. Stuff like DFi used for example, back then most manufacturers in fact. But I get it, they need to sell it and majority wants this styling. As long as its not in the way of function, okay.

Fairly cool that it has POST display.

Im always surprised Biostar is alive. And in fact making better motherboards than they ever did. Thats impressive. Hope they last.

overclocking 11th gen? to have 500W of heat from the CPU and get +2 fps?

In general I prefer to have that option than not have it. Also having good overclock settings can be used to more things than just OC CPU. You need it to get for example memory sticks where you want them. And you can use it to even keep power consumption in check.

Really nothing wrong with having that. Overspeced and overengineered mobo is always better than opposite.

 

[tabascosauz]

B) PS2 ports: REALLY.... on a 2021 board... puhleeeze...

E) Only the cpu-fed slots are pcie-4.....again... REALLY... on a 2021board.... w.t.f...

G) Gawdy-awful looking backplate armor thingy.... is this REALLY necessary, or useful for that matter ??????

H) Dated-looking BIOS....on a nearly $400/2021 board....oh my...

Feels kinda strange to be blaming a board maker for Intel's PCIe lanes limitation. And I thought AMD's USB woes made pretty obvious the PS/2 reliability advantage when OCing or benching.

You say the backplate is gawdy, but do you just sit there looking at the back of your board? Part of the reason this board runs cooler than almost all the boards out there is because Biostar evidently understands that PCB temps play a big part in VRM thermals, and made a large backplate that acts as an extended VRM heatsink. And it also uses a real finned stack over the main bank of SPSes. If companies like ASRock understood these design principles, they might not need to slap fans on all their shitty VRMs to achieve acceptable temps.

And that "dated-looking" BIOS has something that no other vendors still have on their products - in-BIOS RGB control that works without forcing users to install garbage bloatware on their systems just to control RGB.

Granted, the board has no business being at $360, but you can say the same for every single Z590 board on the market.

 

[Mescalamba]

Feels kinda strange to be blaming a board maker for Intel's PCIe lanes limitation. And I thought AMD's USB woes made pretty obvious the PS/2 reliability advantage when OCing or benching.

You say the backplate is gawdy, but do you just sit there looking at the back of your board? Part of the reason this board runs cooler than almost all the boards out there is because Biostar evidently understands that PCB temps play a big part in VRM thermals, and made a large backplate that acts as an extended VRM heatsink. And it also uses a real finned stack over the main bank of SPSes. If companies like ASRock understood these design principles, they might not need to slap fans on all their shitty VRMs to achieve acceptable temps.

And that "dated-looking" BIOS has something that no other vendors still have on their products - in-BIOS fan control that works without forcing users to install garbage bloatware on their systems just to control RGB.

Granted, the board has no business being at $360, but you can say the same for every single Z590 board on the market.

My B550i Mortar from MSI has in-BIOS fan control, with adjustable curve. One of few things that actually do make sense in graphical BIOS. That said, its something that could be done with non-graphical BIOS too. Still, its cool.

But ofc it doesnt have POST, which is sorely needed for OCing. :/

 

[tabascosauz]

My B550i Mortar from MSI has in-BIOS fan control, with adjustable curve. One of few things that actually do make sense in graphical BIOS. That said, its something that could be done with non-graphical BIOS too. Still, its cool.

But ofc it doesnt have POST, which is sorely needed for OCing. :/

Not fan control, RGB control. I made a typo but I thought the context was clear enough. GB used to include RGB Fusion in its BIOSes but it was removed in X570/Z490 and later.

POST on ITX has to be on the rear I/O a la the C8I. It's really not incredibly useful on AMD platforms, at least not as useful as it is for Intel. I know you can get it to display temps and whatnot on some intel boards, but the way AMD firmware handles failed POST is still pretty pepega.

 

[Final_Fighter]

looks like biostar is becoming a serious player for performance build. i wonder if they will have decent mid range to entry level boards sense it appears they are listening to what reviews complained about in past products.

 

[Caring1]

I like it, even the colours aren't over the top.

 

[asdkj1740]

it is rare to see pi3dbs16412 used as pcie switches for two pcie slots on z590, this one has even no redrivers paired with pi3dbs.

according to official marketing material, this one uses 20k caps.

 

[Athlonite]

Meh
Colour is ok I spose
why the stupid overboard VRM beats me and it's only a fake 20 phase to boot
nice VRM cooling I wish more mobo makers would do this fin + fan style

 

[Rivage]

wow! very brave design for modest Biostar brand. Not bad

 

[gasolina]

the price from taobao is 380$ and they offer one free 240mm rgb aio, for the z590i same offer cooler 285$ . Just saying the vrm is 10 90A phases and the asus xiii 9 phase 100A is 1000$ at my country, surely at this price they offer the best value for vrm

 

[Ghostline91]

Great looking board actually, good job biostar

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I like the look, its uch more toned down then the likes of asus/asrock/MSI. Simple outdated BIOS? I'm all over that, so long as it functions it could look like an AWARD BIOS from 2003 for all I care.

Hopefully biostar continues this trend with cheaper boards, a no nonsense board with functional VRM cooling will be desperately wanted in the DDR5 era. Perhaps biostar will end up being that company.