Biostar 1155 TZ68A+ Review

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® Coreâ„¢ i7 Processor
  • 2nd Generation Intel® Coreâ„¢ i5 Processor
  • 2nd Generation Intel® Coreâ„¢ 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 )