The Biostar TForce4U...

[cr0ssfire]

My ABIT AN-8 Ultra went bad on me a few days ago and I'm planning on selling its RMA replacement. uGuru wasn't anything special and the board tended to flake quite a lot when it came to overclocking even a little bit, so I'm looking for a motherboard that might be a little more suitable for my needs. I'm not looking for a hardcore overclocking board like a DFI, mind you - I'm a novice at overclocking and I don't have any intention of pushing my computer as high as it can possibly go. I guess you could say that I'm looking for an amateur overclocker's board that has some nice, friendly features to go with it.

I had always associated Biostar with crappy, cheaply made boards that were never any good for anything but I saw the TForce4U on Newegg while I was browsing their NF4 Ultra section and what I saw surprised me:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138270

It looks like it got almost universally good reviews from the people who've had it, and many owners seem to point towards the board being very stable and very easily overclockable (Memtest is even integrated into the BIOS). The layout doesn't look to be cluttered. The bundle is probably one of the most comprehensive I've come across yet and includes quite a few things - rounded IDE cables, a gaming headset, a USB cell phone charger (go figure) and most importantly an overclocking guide. It doesn't have any fancy marketing fluff like uGuru with it, but then again who really cares? It's got a few nice, basic features listed on Biostar's web site, one of which is a windows-based overclocking utility.

The only problem I can see with getting this board is that nobody on Anandtech or Hardocp seems to have ever heard of this motherboard, much less even used it - the Newegg reviews are nice but as I now know you really can't trust what they say. Everything I've seen from investigating the TForce4U seems to indicate that it's a very good value geared towards my needs but I don't want to jump the gun and purchase it without getting a second opinion...or two, or three, or however many choose to respond. Your thoughts?

 

[mb103051]

i helped my neighbor build his biostar tforce ultra 2 weeks ago and it was a very fine build.nice board/a cut above the standard biostar model.the board has a good bios and alot of settings you can use for o/clocking.a good bundle with the board.i think he paid 92.00 dollars off newegg.the board quality seemed as good as any out.i have the asus a8n-e o/clocked and i love the board.in my opinion its the best non sli board out.perfect layout,mature bios,o/clocks well and rock stable.
ive used biostar in the past and have had good luck with them and i would buy a tforce series board no problem.the only thing i didnt like with the biostar was the floppy placement,too far down the board and the agp slot is not needed.its performance is bad with agp,its kinda a waste.my neighbor and i benched are boards with the same settings and speeds and the asus beat the biostar by about 5 persent.he used buffalo ram 3200 on his board,i have corsair xms 3200c2.he has a 3500 venice running at 2.4 and my 3200 venice running at 2.4 alco.both are 1 to 1 with ram at 240 and htt at 4x.we both have x800 gto cards,mine is powercolor and his is d connect.
i build computers for a living and the only thing that concernes me is are they gonna keep up with bios updates.its a good board but for my personal build i would consider the asus a8n-e for the 10-12 dollar difference.i would consider the biostar for a customer build if he needed to keep his agp for a while before going pcie.
i looked at the biostar tforce sli board and the layout is better in my opinion and thats the one id buy personally if going biostar even if i wasnt going to use sli.for 113.00 its a bargain.take a look at the asus a8n-e and see what you think.newegg had it on sale for 105.00 over the weekend.

 

[cr0ssfire]

I looked over the A8N-E and it does seem to be not that bad of a board - not necessarily the flashiest or most complete, but a solid board nonetheless. The layout is especially nice - it's very simple and not cluttered at all. The only thing that somewhat worries me is that after a quick scan of the Newegg reviews and posts in prominent forums, it seems like the board isn't entirely without its issues. From what I gathered, some of the A8N-E's have some very poor chipset fans and some users are having assorted issues with stability. The price is also only ~$3 cheaper than the TForce4 SLI board, which comes with quite a lot of extras.

You did bring up a legitimate issue with being concerned about BIOS updates for the Biostar boards, but aside from one guy whose board arrived DOA every other review was 5 star with an exemplary rating for stability and ease of use. From this limited feedback it doesn't appear that the board actually has any outstanding issues (which is very impressive to me) so I'm not overly concerned about constant BIOS updates. Don't fix what isn't broken, yeah? After looking over the TForce4SLI, I agree with you that the layout is much better and easier to work with. And although I don't currently plan to make use of SLI, having the option available to me would come in handy a lot more in the future than an XGP slot. The layout, the bundle, the SLI capability and the positive reviews made me start to really consider the TForce4SLI, but I still thought that they didn't really have a lot of enthusiast features. None of the reviews seemed to mention any.

Then, I took a look at Biostar's TForce page and I found this page which details the features of the TForce series:

http://www.biostar.com.tw/t-series/uniqufeature/unique_features.php

Maybe the features are nothing earth-shattering but overall it looks like a very solid lineup they've managed to integrate with the TForce's. Those features, they layout and the possibility of future SLI made up my mind and I decided to go with the TForce4SLI. It's cheap, it looks to be easy to use, it has some great features and accessories and I can use SLI. I'll post here again when I get my system set up...if it's anywhere near as good as it seems to be then I'll have quite a lot to say.

 

[Zap]

I just got a Biostar Tforce6100 and I have to say that so far it's been really nice. Tons of overclocking options, really nice CPU fan control, stable, inexpensive... I really don't have any complaints for the $43 shipped that I paid for it. Well, that was the refurb price on Newegg and I basically got the board and manual, nothing else. I've also used other Biostar boards before and while most have been pretty basic, they were still solid products.

There is one NEGATIVE thing about Biostar... warranty. They (like ECS and probably others) state that warranty is through the reseller - here's the problem, most resellers will have a 30 day DOA period and then the reseller will tell you to deal with the manufacturer. Well, Biostar will fix a broken board for you, but if you as an end user contacts them to fix the board, they'll charge you a flat $30 fee - regardless of whether the board was purchased less than a year ago.

 

[cr0ssfire]

No worries - I purchased it through Newegg so it should be good for at least a while, and from what I've read these Biostar boards don't tend to be problematic at all so I have confidence that I won't have to have it repaired.

I think the only thing I'm unsure about is how it lists "1x IrDA" as one of the features. I googled it and found out that it's some sort of infrared device, which sounds interesting...but what can you actually do with it? I downloaded the manual on-line and found that the IrDA isn't even mentioned in the manual. I'm not sure why it was overlooked, but I'm almost certain it's there because a reviewer on Newegg mentioned that it had an infrared device.

 

[shimp]

Originally posted by: Zap
I just got a Biostar Tforce6100 and I have to say that so far it's been really nice. Tons of overclocking options, really nice CPU fan control, stable, inexpensive... I really don't have any complaints for the $43 shipped that I paid for it. Well, that was the refurb price on Newegg and I basically got the board and manual, nothing else. I've also used other Biostar boards before and while most have been pretty basic, they were still solid products.

There is one NEGATIVE thing about Biostar... warranty. They (like ECS and probably others) state that warranty is through the reseller - here's the problem, most resellers will have a 30 day DOA period and then the reseller will tell you to deal with the manufacturer. Well, Biostar will fix a broken board for you, but if you as an end user contacts them to fix the board, they'll charge you a flat $30 fee - regardless of whether the board was purchased less than a year ago.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1803836&enterthread=y

 

[Bibble]

Will this mobo work with my Antec True-power 430? Its max outputs are 36A on +5V, 20A on +12V, 28A on +3.3V, .5A on -5V, 1A on -12V, and 2A on +5V SB