Biostar Gaming Z170X Motherboard Review

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stairmand

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This is however the first board with HDMI 2 support. If it was a Micro-ATX board it would be perfect for my HTPC. Oh well, the wait continues.
 

Crashman

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Is it? I don't see a lot of companies flagging the term "HDMI 2", but I do see a lot of boards rated for 4k resolutions. Z170 Claymore supports 4k:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ecs-z170-claymore-intel-skylake-motherboard,4263.html

As does Z170 Extreme6:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-z170-lga-1151-skylake-motherboard,4254-2.html

And Z170A Gaming M7:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-z170-lga-1151-skylake-motherboard,4254-3.html

As did several Z97, H97, and even B85 boards that came before these:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z97m-oc-formula-motherboard,4259.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-b85-g41-pc-mate-motherboard,4311.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/biostar-hi-fi-b85s3-motherboard,4273.html

Unless the company lists "HDMI 2" in its features chart, it's probably not going to end up on the features chart. Most of those are probably HDMI 1.4. I should probably start scanning their information for 4k support though, like, now :)

 
The front panel is such a missed opportunity for Biostar. They could have made wonders with it, but decided to make it gimmicky instead of actually useful. Pity.

I just want a ROG board with a front panel like in the old old Asus days. Man, those front panels were good.

Cheers!
 

stairmand

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"Unless the company lists "HDMI 2" in its features chart, it's probably not going to end up on the features chart. Most of those are probably HDMI 1.4. I should probably start scanning their information for 4k support though, like, "

HDMI 1.4 will do 4K but only at 24Hz HDMI 2 will do 4K @60Hz. All of those are HDMI 1.4.
 

Davinlevey

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No... Sli support? Not that everyone uses two cards, but I personally bought 2x 970's.. this board is instantly out of the loop for me. Oh well!
 

firefoxx04

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I feel like they made too many compromises for the price they are offering.

My z97 extreme 6 is more feature packed at a lower price point (however outdated it may be)

The control panel is cool but I personally would not be valuing it when the rest of the board is not as feature rich as other competitors options.
 

Crashman

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Nope, companies still have to get Nvidia to certify Intel-chipset motherboards. I believe there's money involved. That is, unless anyone is still able to hack the driver :D
 

zthomas

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I like the board and easy access to the bio's.. rebooting and tapping the delete key is such a pain in the ass.. all those sub screens is killer coool.. plus gives the puter case a class of its own with the added control panel..
 

I don't think so. The colors are nice to make sure you're using the right port. I've seen some MSI boards that compromise the two. They use gold-plated connectors and just the outside of the ring is colored for identification.
 
If the lack of SLI support (presumably because of the cost of NVIDIA certification) had resulted in a cheaper board, I'd be more forgiving.

A $220 gaming motherboard with 3 pci-e 3.0 slots has no excuse to lack SLI support, no matter how many additional bells, whistles, and trombones may be on the board.
 
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