CeBIT 2009: Biostar hit a few design wins for its P45 products, providing an excellent price-performance ratio with its superb Overclocking, and we can only hope the same is true with its next generation P55 products for Intel's upcoming Core i5 CPUs.
Biostar mentions in its descriptive blurb that the standard memory speed for Core i5 CPUs is 1,333MHz, but it supports 1,600 to 2,000MHz via OC functions (we assume are either Intel XMP or part of the BIOS).
With twelve phase power (8+4) around CPU socket, dual channel DDR3, plenty of space around the CPU socket and a set of features to match the Gigabyte P55 product, Biostar has everything setup to directly compete.
There are slight difference though: the PCI-Express slot layout is a simple two GPU CrossFire setup, and Biostar doesn’t mention Nvidia SLI support so we presume it's not included. With two slots between the cards for extra cooling room this could be a favourable design, and between sits a PCI-Express x1 and x4 slot, while below are a couple of PCI slots: all good here then.
What perked our interest is that Biostar has not included any display outputs on the rear I/O. Whether this is intentional “feature” or just an early sample we’re not sure, why design and build a PCB to not include them? No enthusiast will want to use Intel integrated graphics, so perhaps Biostar is tuning this board's feature set for overclockers and gamers that cannot afford Core i7? We can only hope so.
Discuss in the forums
Biostar mentions in its descriptive blurb that the standard memory speed for Core i5 CPUs is 1,333MHz, but it supports 1,600 to 2,000MHz via OC functions (we assume are either Intel XMP or part of the BIOS).
With twelve phase power (8+4) around CPU socket, dual channel DDR3, plenty of space around the CPU socket and a set of features to match the Gigabyte P55 product, Biostar has everything setup to directly compete.
There are slight difference though: the PCI-Express slot layout is a simple two GPU CrossFire setup, and Biostar doesn’t mention Nvidia SLI support so we presume it's not included. With two slots between the cards for extra cooling room this could be a favourable design, and between sits a PCI-Express x1 and x4 slot, while below are a couple of PCI slots: all good here then.
What perked our interest is that Biostar has not included any display outputs on the rear I/O. Whether this is intentional “feature” or just an early sample we’re not sure, why design and build a PCB to not include them? No enthusiast will want to use Intel integrated graphics, so perhaps Biostar is tuning this board's feature set for overclockers and gamers that cannot afford Core i7? We can only hope so.
Discuss in the forums
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