The Board - A Closer Look

Our usual first item to look at, of course, if the BIOS chip itself, nestled securely in a socket that makes user replacement fairly simple. The second image shows the TZ68A+'s VRM controller, the UPI uP6235A, which is actually capable of controlling twice the number of power phases we find on the Biostar TZ68A+.


To get things booted up, Biostar has included both POWER and RESET switches on the bottom right edge of the board, with a small dual LED-based POST reader, to troubleshoot boot problems, located right above the switches, as seen in the images above. Similar in function to what is offered on other products, the LEDs will light up in a pre-specified order, and Biostar has even had the foresight to include a diagram to decipher what the lights show right next to the POST display, making understanding of its simple display quick and easy, without even having to look at the manual.


The TZ68A+'s VRM is a 4+1 phase design, with four phases dedicated to the CPU and System Agent power supply, and one for the onboard video portion. Each is a fairly standard hi/low tri-MOSFET configuration, using an inexpensive, yet efficient series of components. The DIMM VRM is a single-phase design, very similar to the CPU VRM, yet sporting a hi/low dual MOSFET design, and a different choke.


For Super I/O functionality, we find an ITE IT8728F, a part used quite often on other products. As is usual, this chip is responsible for fan control and sensor data monitoring. The ITE IT8893E PCIe-to-PCI bridge chip is another commonly seen part, one which we find to run a bit warm when not in use, but is more than capable.


The included Realtek ALC892 HD codec supports 7.1+2 audio, and meets Microsoft's WLP3.x audio requirements. Using DACs that output a 97 db SNR, and ADCs with a 90 db SNR, it supports 44.1k/48k/96k/192 kHz sampling at 16-, 20- and 24-bit, including full support for HD audio formats featuring Content Protection, providing supporting software is used. It is also DirectSound 3D compatible, so no area of usage or functionality is overlooked. Biostar has also sourced the LAN controller for the Biostar TZ68A+ from Realtek; a utterly common RTL8111E PCIe part, located near the board's middle, just between the dual PCIe x16 slots.


For USB 3.0 support, we find an Asmedia AS1042 PCIe-based controller, located just below the rear I/O assembly. While these controllers are not as familiar as the NEC/Renesas controller, which is far more common, we have found Asmedia controllers to be used on many recently-released products, although with very varied performance results. We also find two other Asmedia components on the TZ68A+, a set of two TMDS transmitters that allows users to use any of the two included onboard video outputs simultaneously.


The final two onboard components are two not commonly seen; a Realtek clock generator, and the VRM phase load indicator. The Realtek clockgen is very rare, such that there is very little info about it to be found on the Internet, and no listing is to be found on the Realtek website. The VRM phase LEDs diverge from the norm a fair bit too, as rather than turning on and off as the phases are enabled or disabled, they simply increase their light intensity as the VRM is loaded, or lessen in intensity as load is decreased. With a few tweaks to the BIOS, the LEDs will show dynamic loading to each phase, but unlike other products, enabling such function does involve changing settings to P-States and a couple of other things, rather than a simple single BIOS item like on other products.


For cooling, Biostar has equipped the TZ68A+ with several aluminum passive heatsinks, which you can see in the pictures above. The VRM heatsink is quite light, and has a very low profile that ensures compatibility with the majority of aftermarket heatsinks. As we have found on other Intel SKT1155 motherboards, the VRM cooler’s contact with the actual VRM components is not perfect; near the middle we can find no indicator that the heatsink is even touching the VRM parts. The southbridge cooler employed on the TZ68A+, although not totally obvious in this picture, features many protruding fins under the vanity plate, to increase overall surface area. Through our testing, it did prove to be more than adequate, even with dual VGAs installed.