I saw the color scheme and thought, "Hey, that's pretty attractive", then noticed the slot layout as you mentioned. What were they thinking? Those extra PCI-E slots are effectively useless because of it. And anyone running three or four GPUs is going to buy a board with balls, so this Biostar isn't even a consideration. Which leads me back to wondering why they bothered with the extra PCI-Es at all.
The second I noticed that they put all four PCI-E slots side by side, I thought to myself, "what the hell are they thinking?! Or were they just NOT thinking?" Talk about taking careful aim and shooting yourself in the foot.
it all comes down to the price. 890amd motherboards are not cheap. i want to get the cheapest mb and it could be this one. crossfire its not my interest. best mb chipset is (and price.)
Agreed, this will surely be the least expensive 890FX board on the market - not likely to see many buyers of this thing shelling out for dual-5850s.
We need some USB 3.0 devices before it's time to start caring about the lack of a USB 3.0 controller and by that time, we'll have a new generation of CPUs and chipsets from AMD anyway.
the # of VRMS doesn't matter as long as they are designed to handle the load. 6 big VRMS can handle more power than 18 smaller VRMS on this board Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 140Watt
PCIe Slots are configured as follows:
PEX16_1/PEX16_3: PCI-Express Gen2 x16 Slots - PEX16_1 & PEX16_3 slots are reserved for graphic or video cards. PEX16_4: PCI-Express Gen2 x4 Slot PEX16_2: PCI-Express Gen2 x1 Slot
So disk controllers etc will fit in just fine. And CFX at less than 16x speed is a big no on amd chipsets for those dreaming of triple.
Nice to see ACC unlock supported this is new for BIOSTAR.
So i just stocked this board today @ palo alto frys since it's my job to manage the motherboard demos. board retails for $140, and considering it's 890FX i would say that's pretty damn cheap, considering that we have 890GX boards which cost that much or more on the shelfs already. still doesnt hold a candle to MSI's 890FXA-GD70 though if you just want a shit ton of PCI-e slots without spending to much money, since it has a 5th slot, USB3, and better overclocking potential, which on a system with that many graphics cards, you're going to have to do to get a CPU that can keep up with all 5
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Earthmonger - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
I saw the color scheme and thought, "Hey, that's pretty attractive", then noticed the slot layout as you mentioned. What were they thinking? Those extra PCI-E slots are effectively useless because of it. And anyone running three or four GPUs is going to buy a board with balls, so this Biostar isn't even a consideration. Which leads me back to wondering why they bothered with the extra PCI-Es at all.It's a pretty doorstop.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
Seems to be a common trend with Biostar. The last two boards we reviewed also suffered from odd slot layout syndrome.later
Raja
Etern205 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
Which is why they are at the bottom of the food chain...leptonsoup337 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
The second I noticed that they put all four PCI-E slots side by side, I thought to myself, "what the hell are they thinking?! Or were they just NOT thinking?" Talk about taking careful aim and shooting yourself in the foot.ochentay4 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
it all comes down to the price. 890amd motherboards are not cheap. i want to get the cheapest mb and it could be this one. crossfire its not my interest. best mb chipset is (and price.)Taft12 - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
Agreed, this will surely be the least expensive 890FX board on the market - not likely to see many buyers of this thing shelling out for dual-5850s.We need some USB 3.0 devices before it's time to start caring about the lack of a USB 3.0 controller and by that time, we'll have a new generation of CPUs and chipsets from AMD anyway.
Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - link
MSRP is $159mygrillz - Monday, May 3, 2010 - link
the # of VRMS doesn't matter as long as they are designed to handlethe load. 6 big VRMS can handle more power than 18 smaller VRMS
on this board Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 140Watt
PCIe Slots are configured as follows:
PEX16_1/PEX16_3: PCI-Express Gen2 x16 Slots
- PEX16_1 & PEX16_3 slots are reserved for graphic or video cards.
PEX16_4: PCI-Express Gen2 x4 Slot
PEX16_2: PCI-Express Gen2 x1 Slot
So disk controllers etc will fit in just fine. And CFX at less than 16x speed
is a big no on amd chipsets for those dreaming of triple.
Nice to see ACC unlock supported this is new for BIOSTAR.
simple_inhibition - Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - link
if its priced right, i might pick one up for an inexpensive folding board and pair it with 4x 9800GTsRajinder Gill - Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - link
MSRP is around $159 I'm told. So you'd need to look at what other vendors are offering at the same price point in terms of layout and features.regards
Raja
faxon - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link
So i just stocked this board today @ palo alto frys since it's my job to manage the motherboard demos. board retails for $140, and considering it's 890FX i would say that's pretty damn cheap, considering that we have 890GX boards which cost that much or more on the shelfs already. still doesnt hold a candle to MSI's 890FXA-GD70 though if you just want a shit ton of PCI-e slots without spending to much money, since it has a 5th slot, USB3, and better overclocking potential, which on a system with that many graphics cards, you're going to have to do to get a CPU that can keep up with all 5