Biostar 1155 TZ68A+ Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 19th July 2011 | Source: Biostar | Price: £92.89 | Author: Bryan Waters

Biostar TZ68A+ Review

Introduction

When the LGA1156 first appeared it was mooted as being the lower cost alternative to the almighty X58. To some degree it was although the cost of the higher-end CPUs and some of the better motherboards didn't leave it far short of a medium X58 setup.

Now LGA1155 has been around for a while and we've had the initial P67 influx, more and more manufacturers are shifting to the Z68 Chipset to power their LGA1155 socket motherboards. Unlike its P55 and, to a lesser degree, P67 brethren most of the Z68 boards we've seen have been definitely at the affordable end of the spectrum.

Biostar have often been a supplier of some no-frills, good performing motherboards at reasonable pricing and todays review, the TZ68A+ absolutely falls into the reasonable pricing category, being available for a hair over £90.

Is it really possible to get all the bells and whistles of Z68 boards but for such a tiny price?

Technical Specifications

Certainly the specifications aren't lacking. Only the limited number of USB ports and inclusion of some fairly last gen stuff such as a Printer Port and a couple of PCI slots hint at its 'value' roots.

CPU SUPPORT

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 Processor

2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processor

Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 95Watt

MEMORY

Support Dual Channel DDR3 2200(OC)/2133(OC)/2000(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066 MHz

4 x DDR3 DIMM Memory Slot

Max. Supports up to 16GB Memory

It is recommended to install memory module on the red DDR3 DIMM slot (DDR3_A2 or DDR3_B2) to boot the system.

EXPANSION SLOT

2 x PCI Slots

1 x PCI-E x1 2.0 Slot

2 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot (x16 + x4)

STORAGE

2 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector

4 x SATA2 3Gb/s Connector

Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10

Support Intel Smart Response Technology

USB

ASMedia ASM1042 USB 3.0 controller

2 x USB 3.0 Port

2 x USB 2.0 Port

3 x USB 2.0 Header

LAN

Realtek RTL8111E - 10/100/1000 Controller

CODEC

Realtek ALC892 6-Channel Blu-ray Audio

REAR I/O

1 x PS/2 Keyboard

2 x USB 3.0 Port

2 x USB 2.0 Port

1 x HDMI Connector

1 x DVI Connector

1 x VGA Port

1 x RJ-45 Port

3 x Audio Connector

INTERNAL I/O

1 x Printer Header

3 x USB 2.0 Header

2 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector

4 x SATA2 3Gb/s Connector

1 x Front Audio Header

1 x Front Panel Header

1 x S/PDIF-OUT Header

1 x CPU FAN Header

2 x System FAN Header

1 x Serial Header

1 x CIR Header

DIMENSION

ATX Form Factor Dimension: 30.5 cm x 23 cm ( W x L )

Most Recent Comments

19-07-2011, 14:20:41

SieB

Not bad and as said in the review it's only £92 and for that it is a good board and value for money.

19-07-2011, 14:46:46

Jaster

for an extra £15 though you can get the gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3...which is much the same ... BUT Biostar have a lot of returns .. and following suit with most e-tailers who now have to return all products to the manufacturers (this is the bain of my working existence)...its far easier to deal with Gigabytes RMA team then Biostars ... as a discussional point the mid range section of all components seems to be getting out of hand ... I spend most of my day explaining that for an extra £5 here and an extra £2 there you can get a better class of component ... check ebuyer for example ... the gulf in class between high end and top mid range (especially graphics cards) is but a few quid ... even though its a good priced board I have a feeling it will disappear amidst the swamp of other boards within this price range that are on the horizon ...

19-07-2011, 14:53:38

SieB

But for someone who is on a budget it's a good deal, there is always something better you can get for a few quid more but for the bellow and around the £100 mark on motherboards there ain't much of a difference anyway. This board is for general use it's not a board you would buy for overclocking or running high end GPUs on and for £92 you get what you pay for.

19-07-2011, 22:22:08

murphy7801

I have to say that is one of the ugliest motherboards. I looks like they went through there stock list of MB fittings and pulled out all there over stock and slapped it on one motherboard. Well good thing its cheap and performs with looks like that (as I once about my ex girlfriend lol).

20-07-2011, 12:58:26

sheroo

Looks like its made from lego...

20-07-2011, 13:06:39

badtaylorx

that is one sad looking VRM cooler.......

24-07-2011, 00:38:07

shyguy094

I can't say anything bad about this board, or any other Intel-based Biostar board, because I don't own one, but I can say I won't waste the money to find out. My A880G board just crapped out( no lan, unstable/wrong CPU voltage). And besides , M/Bs are the second to last place you should cheap out on.(PSU is first. )

24-07-2011, 01:38:06

S_I_N

M/Bs are the second to last place you should cheap out on.(PSU is first. )

allow me to correct this

lol
M/Bs are the second to last place you shouldNT cheap out on.(PSU is first. )

24-07-2011, 22:01:51

AlienALX

Why is it that el cheapo part makers are determined to make their el cheapo parts look cheap?

Had they stuck to red and black it would have looked pretty nice. Instead some clever pleb goes "Ooo let's throw some white on there and ruin it!"

27-07-2011, 21:03:47

AlienALX

Hello Den.

Bye Den.

Biostar 1155 TZ68A+ Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 19th July 2011 | Source: Biostar | Price: £92.89 | Author: Bryan Waters

Most Recent Comments

Related Content

Register for the OC3D Newsletter