Test System

Initial Setup

Initial setup of the Biostar TA75A+ was pretty easy, plus plug in your devices, APU, and memory, and away you go. Enabling AHCI in BIOS before Windows installation proved to provide no issues, nor a need for a driver disc, which definitely makes that process a bit easier. However, once we got into windows, we found performance to be far less than expected. After a bit of investigation, we found that our memory was operating at just 800 MHz, rather than the platforms maximum default, 1866 Mhz. We did attempt to boot at 1866 MHz but none of the kits we had on hand would work, stopping the POST process with "54" displayed on the dual-digit POST display. We were, however, able to boot at 1600 MHz, so we chose our 1600 MHz Mushkin kit to do our testing with. Of course, it's worth noting that all these memory kits work on other AMD-A75 based boards, so a BIOS update should fix this issue in the near future.

PWM Power Consumption

Since one of our first tasks was to truly verify system stability, while doing so, we measure CPU power consumption. We isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, as well as total wattage passed through it. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design.


Although the numbers presented here don't tell us much for AMD APU based platforms just yet, we can see that AMD and Biostar have done a good job here keeping power at acceptable levels, both at idle and load, with the power drawn through the 4-pin CPU header topping out under 80 watts, thanks to the TA75A+ having a VRM that by default, automatically adjusts phase loading for maximum power savings.