Biostar TPower i55 Review

Introduction and Technical Specs

Published: 2nd September 2010 | Source: Biostar | Price: £111.59 | Author: Bryan Waters

Biostar TPower I55

Introduction

It's very easy when reviewing hardware to get your head turned by all the latest and greatest. Things bristling with monster technology, breaking world records and the bank.

Thankfully for you guys and gals, we're enthusiasts just like you. So whilst we all enjoy looking at the latest hardware, or the most expensive hardware, we don't ever look down our noses or ignore the most value conscious choices. We've all got bills to pay and rarely do you find yourself able to splurge extraordinary amount of money on the best. Most often we have to look down the price list a little to find something that wont leave you having to eat thermal paste for a month.

This brings us neatly to the Biostar I55. A motherboard that has been around for a little while now, happily plugging away at the value end of the P55 market.

As you should know though, the LGA1156 line of processors contains some real barn-burners so is the Biostar TPower I55 a great value choice, or is it just cheap?

Technical Specifications

Firstly let's grab the specifications from the Biostar website.

 CPU SUPPORT
  • Intel® Core™ i7 LGA 1156 Processor
  • Intel® Core™ i5 LGA 1156 Processor
    • POWER DESIGN
  • 8 -phase CPU power
  • 4 -phase VTT power
  • 2 -phase DRAM power
    •  MEMORY
  • Support Dual Channel DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/2600(O.C.) MHz
  • 4 x DDR3 DIMM Memory Slot
  • Max. Supports up to 16GB Memory
    • EXPANSION-SLOTS
  • 2 x PCI Slots
  • 1 x PCI-E x1 Slot
  • 1 x PCI-E x4 Slot
  • 2 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot (CFX x8 or SLI x8)
    • STORAGE
  • 6 x SATA2 3Gb/s Connector
  • 1 x eSATA2 3Gb/s Connector
  • 1 x IDE Connector
  • Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10
    • USB
  • 8 x USB 2.0 Port
  • 3 x USB 2.0 Header
    • IEEE 1394
  • LSI FW322
  • 1 x IEEE 1394a Port
  • 1 x IEEE 1394a Header
    • GbE
  • Intel 82578DC Gigabit Ethernet PHY
  • Realtek RTL8111DL - 10/100/1000 Controller
  • ※Dual GbE
    • CODEC
  • Realtek ALC888S 8+2 Channel HD Audio
    • REAR I/O
  • 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
  • 2 x eSATA2 3Gb/s Connector
  • 1 x FireWire IEEE 1394a Port
  • 8 x USB 2.0 Port
  • 2 x RJ-45 Port
  • 6 x Audio Connector
  • 1 x S/PDIF Out Port
    • INTERNAL I/O
  • 3 x USB 2.0 Header
  • 6 x SATA2 3Gb/s Connector
  • 1 x IDE Connector
  • 1 x Floppy Connector
  • 1 x Front Audio Header
  • 1 x Front Panel Header
  • 1 x CD-IN Header
  • 1 x S/PDIF-OUT Header
  • 1 x CPU FAN Header
  • 1 x North Bridge FAN Header
  • 2 x System FAN Header
  • 1 x FireWire IEEE 1394 Header
    • DIMENSION
  • ATX Form Factor Dimension: 30.5 cm X 24.4 cm ( W x L )
    • OS SUPPORT
  • Support Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7
    • ACCESSORIES
  • 1 x IDE Cable
  • 6 x SATA Cable
  • 6 x SATA Power Cable
  • 1 x SLI Setter
  • 1 x I/O Shield
  • 1 x CD Driver
  • 1 x User Manual


    • As you can see this really only lacks for the very latest features such as USB3.0 or SATA 6Gbps. It would be easy to leap up and berate such a last-gen feature set. The moment you notice the price, just north of a ton, you'll see that actually this is a feature-rich motherboard, rather than lacking one or two more 'enthusiast' technologies.

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    Most Recent Comments

    03-09-2010, 05:44:34

    alienware
    £11.59? I'll have five....

    Right, I'll stop extracting the urine and read it now

    OK fantastic review as ever lads, ta muchly

    There were two things that had me in stitches.

    Firstly this -

    http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...buron/lol1.jpg

    And then this. I think the person who designed this is from Yorkshire. Down't t'pub for a pint of bitter and t'chip butty

    http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...buron/lol2.jpgQuote

    03-09-2010, 05:49:29

    tinytomlogan
    Think you need to clean your glasses and have another coffee dude Quote

    03-09-2010, 06:00:03

    alienware
    Oooo ya sneaky bugger I should've screen grabbed it

    Haha, I can't stop saying "Be sure to have t'fun with t'overclocker" in a Yorkshire accent.

    hahahaha !Quote

    03-09-2010, 07:08:47

    JN
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Scrotie McBoogerballs View Post

    Oooo ya sneaky bugger I should've screen grabbed it

    Haha, I can't stop saying "Be sure to have t'fun with t'overclocker" in a Yorkshire accent.

    hahahaha !
    Aiiiigh t'be sure t'be sure.

    Great review mr veebles as per usual Quote

    03-09-2010, 08:55:54

    SnowWhite
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Scrotie McBoogerballs View Post
    LOL

    At first this seems like a great P55 board !

    Al tho i personally don't like all these pre overclocking features, seems all the P55 boards have them now ...

    this OC genie on my MSI P55-GD65 is a complete joke ! EDIT sorry i mean i just doesn't seem to work , all it does is BSOD lock...

    and i believe my EVGA P55-FTW has the option in the bios ?!Quote
    Reply

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