Biostar TA890GXB HD Micro-ATX Motherboard Review

By Dan Stoltz

Biostar TA890GXB HD Motherboard

BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD Performance Review

Today we are going to take a look at one of the more recent motherboards from BIOSTAR’s socket AM3 line up. The BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD motherboard is based on AMD’s 890GX and SB850 chipsets. Utilizing AMD’s 890GX chipset gives the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD the Radeon HD 4290 integrated graphics and can take advantage of ATI’s Hybrid CrossfireX technology.

The BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD motherboard has a few exclusive features that are worth mentioning. One of the exclusive features is BIO-unlocKING. It isn’t exactly a secret that many of the current X2 and X3 AMD processors are actually quad core processors that have had one or more cores “locked”. There are multiple reasons that this has been done; it could be a bad core or that they simply didn’t need any more of that particular processor at that time. Either way, BIO-unlocKING has the potential to unlock those “locked” cores and turn a processor like the AMD Phenom II X2 555 into a quad-core processor!

Another of the exclusive features is BIOSTAR “GPU” Technology. The BIOSTAR G.P.U is a green power utility. What this does is disables the extra power phases to the CPU while under light load. If you want to monitor the number of phases that the CPU is utilizing, there are two ways. The first is the onboard LED’s, which is fine if the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD isn’t in a case. Once installed into a case it’s not exactly practical to keep an eye on those lights.

BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD GPU Utility

That brings us to the second way you can monitor the power phases. There is a desktop GUI that you can install from the driver disk that will tell you how much power you are using for the processor, temperature, CPU fan speed, CPU Voltage, Wattage and, of course, number of phases.

CPU Support
  • AMD Phenom II, Athlon II 125W TDP Max
HT
  • Support HT3.0 up to 5.2GT/s (Depends on AMD CPU Specification)
MEMORY
  • Support Dual Channel DDR3 1600(OC)/1333/1066/800 MHz
Maximum Memory
  • Max. Supports up to 16GB Memory
Expansion Slots
  • 2 x PCI Slots
  • 1 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot
Storage
  • 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connectors
  • Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10
USB
  • 4 x USB 2.0 Ports
  • 3 x USB 2.0 Header
Ethernet
  • Realtek RTL8111E – 10/100/1000 Controller
Integrated Video
  • ATI Radeon HD4290 Graphics
  • Max. Memory Share Up to 512 MB
  • Supports ATI Hybrid Crossfire.
Rear I/O
  • 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
  • 4 x USB 2.0 Port
  • 1 x HDMI Connector
  • 1 x DVI-D 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
  • 6 x SATA3 6Gb/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
Form Factor
  • Micro ATX Form Factor Dimension: 24.4cm X 23.3cm ( W x L )
Accessories
  • 3 x SATA Cable
  • 1 x SATA Power Cable
  • 1 x I/O Shield
  • 1 x CD Driver
  • 1 x User Manual

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