CeBIT 2008: The Best of the Rest

Biostar

Never one to stop trying, Biostar is slowly adding extra features to its motherboard range. Its upcoming P45 line will feature the option of an extended heatpipe system that has the option of an extra fin array and fan that sits on the CPU power regulation.

This can be integrated with a Biostar GPU cooler as well, so that you can cool all three at the same time. The extra fins are placed right by a CPU cooler so they get the most airflow possible.

In addition, Biostar has updated its software support on its motherboards to include an auto-update utility and in-Windows BIOS flashing, as well as auto overclocking too.

The software even includes a newly patented feature where it will automatically grab your entire system specs and fire off an email to a Biostar FAE support engineer if your motherboard is having issues – this could certainly be a help for less able users unable to diagnose system problems themselves.


However, the board itself really doesn’t look that good – we feel the blue doesn’t really go with the green and orange. When we asked why these colours were chosen, Biostar said it was just to be different. Different is good, but not here, unfortunately. While the layout is quite good it’s not that well featured – it includes some new motherboard LEDs but the CrossFire switch is back to manual jumper changing rather than the readily available digital switch.

The software also looks like even more of a mess than is usual for Taiwanese software developers – overly elaborate and difficult to use with no idea what is and what isn’t a button. There is no “simple” design to make it intuitive, just different coloured skins.