| Biostar TA890GXB-HD mATX AMD Motherboard |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Motherboards | |
| Written by Hank Tolman | |
| Monday, 31 May 2010 | |
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Page 15 of 15
Biostar TA890GXB-HD ConclusionBiostar is a name that has been around in the motherboard industry for a very long time. Some of the first motherboards I ever came in contact with were manufactured by Biostar. They have a lot of experience in the industry and have had a lot of time to iron out any wrinkles in their production. With the TA890GXB-HD, Biostar offers a solid entry into the world of the 890GX chipset. The TA890GXB-HD motherboard is most certainly an entry-level motherboard, and it provides only the basic features that you would expect from such a board. The most exciting piece of hardware I found on the TA890GXB-HD was actually the onboard power and reset buttons. The Biostar TA890GXB-HD AM3 motherboard performed slightly under our expectations. It was never far from the scores of the ASUS motherboard we tested it against, but it never quite mustered the strength to score higher than the ASUS either. Even when overclocking, we were able to eke out a 200MHz higher clock speed when using the ASUS motherboard over the TA890GXB-HD. Throughout the rest of the testing, in every single benchmark, the TA890GXB-HD came in a close second place to the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO.
I really enjoyed the appearance of the Biostar TA890GXB-HD motherboard. The red and black color scheme has always been one that catches my eye and it still does with the TA890GXB-HD. The layout of the motherboard is clean and organized looking. The northbridge and southbridge heatsinks are plain and standard, just squares with fins. Many motherboard manufacturers have taken to making intricate shapes or designs with their heatsinks, but I think the Biostar TA890GXB-HD looks excellent even without any of that flash. Even the TA890GXB-HD box caught my eye with its sleek, silver lettering on a black background. Biostar offers up a sturdy and well constructed motherboard with the TA890GXB-HD. Biostar has used 100% solid capacitors that will add life and longevity to the use of the board. I particularly liked the fact that this mATX motherboard was packaged in a full ATX size box. A lot of accessories packed in tightly with the motherboard could cause some damage. With its solid construction and protected packaging, you can rest assured that any jostling or shaking during shipping should not injure the TA890GXB-HD in the least. As far as functionality is concerned, there are really two parts of the TA890GXB-HD that deserve attention. The onboard power and reset buttons provide a great boost to functionality and the SATA 6Gb/s ports allow the user to look forward to the future of extremely fast transfer rates with new SSD technology. Unfortunately, besides those two features, the TA890GXB-HD is sadly lacking in functionality. The 890GX chipset supports 14 USB ports, but there are only 4 ports on the back of the TA890GXB-HD. When many entry-level motherboards are supporting 7.1 Channel HD Audio, Biostar opted only for 5.1 Channel support on the TA890GXB-HD. The 890GX chipset also supports the addition of 128MB of sideport memory, which is sadly lacking on the TA890GXB-HD. Overall, I was somewhat disappointed in the functionality of the TA890GXB-HD. Available at NewEgg for $94.99, the TA890GXB-HD represents the entry-level market for the new motherboards sporting the 800 series of chipsets. As such, this BioStar motherboard is the least expensive of all AMD-890GX products available; which reach up to $140. Motherboards with features such as SATA 6Gb/s are still somewhat rare at this point, but they are becoming more readily available. The 890GX/FX chipset will start to make these more commonplace. A lot of motherboard manufacturers are starting to offer higher level feature sets to help set them apart from the competition. While the TA890GXB-HD offers an onboard power and reset switch that I absolutely love, they fail to offer some of the other amenities found on some boards. A 7.1 Channel Audio CODEC and more USB ports would make the TA890GXB-HD much more valuable that it already is. I'm not surprised that there is no USB 3.0 support or a MOSFET heatsink, but even entry-level boards can have nice components. Still, the TA890GXB-HD packs quite a punch for under $100, and is the most affordable 890GX motherboards available. Pros:
+ Supports DDR3 RAM up to 1600Mhz (OC)
+ 100% Solid Capacitors Extend Longevity + Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) + Micro-ATX Form Factor good for HTPC + HDMI 1.3, DirectX 10.1, UVD2, RAID
+ T-Overclocker Overclocking Utility
+ Onboard Power and Reset Switches
+ Hybrid CrossfireX with HD 5450
Cons:
- No Sideport Memory
- Only 4 USB ports on I\O panel - Large RAM modules may impede CPU Fan - IGP wont play the latest games
- Lacks 7.1 Channel Audio CODEC
- Lower than expected Overclock results
Ratings:
Final Score: 8.50 out of 10.Recommended: Benchmark Reviews Seal of Approval.Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
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Comments
"Biostar adopt with low ESR and high ripple conductive solid state caps provide sufficient, stable power supply to the CPU. Also the life-time can be more than 6.25 X of ordinary liquid caps."
But they obviously didn't make ALL their capacitors solid state. I will make the change to the article. Thanks for catching that.
It is going BSOD when i plug the Creative USB X-Fi Surround 5.1 on USB