Biostar Racing Z270GT9 Motherboard Review

[Crashman]

With six PCIe x16 slots, onboard 256GB SSD, and 10Gb Ethernet, the Biostar Racing Z270GT9 could probably win a value award based on just two of its three features.

Biostar Racing Z270GT9 Motherboard Review : Read more

 

[jaber2]

Not for me, I wouldn't use those combination of board and drive

 

[Crashman]

Not for me, I wouldn't use those combination of board and drive

Our drive reviewer has a low opinion of the 600p's performance and still wants the board because, with this particular 10GbE solution, it's an unbeatable deal.

 

[AgentLozen]

They put the word "Racing" in the name. What about this motherboard "races" besides the networking controller? Certainly not the overclocking potential. How about:

Biostar Casual Stroll Z270GT9
Biostar I'll Do It Tomorrow Z270GT9
Biostar Windows Vista Z270GT9

 

[Crashman]

They put the word "Racing" in the name. What about this motherboard "races" besides the networking controller? Certainly not the overclocking potential. How about:

Biostar Casual Stroll Z270GT9
Biostar I'll Do It Tomorrow Z270GT9
Biostar Windows Vista Z270GT9

You didn't see the checkered flag motif? The stripes make it go faster! Buy it for your clear PC case and put this chair in front of it!
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/corsair-t1-race-gaming-chair,34466.html

 

[shrapnel_indie]

I think the only racing this board does is to race back to what most of us expect of a BioStar motherboard: a disappointing board that can't function very well at what higher performance it is supposed to be capable of, and mediocrity at best for normal operation.

This board doesn't change my opinion of BioStar motherboards one bit.

 

[AgentLozen]

I think the only racing this board does is to race back to what most of us expect of a BioStar motherboard: a disappointing board that can't function very well at what higher performance it is supposed to be capable of, and mediocrity at best for normal operation.

This board doesn't change my opinion of BioStar motherboards one bit.

Nah brah. It's value lies in it's networking controller and it's sweet solid state drive. If you took those away, the price of this thing would drop significantly.

 

[SuperFist]

They put the word "Racing" in the name. What about this motherboard "races" besides the networking controller? Certainly not the overclocking potential. How about:

Biostar Casual Stroll Z270GT9
Biostar I'll Do It Tomorrow Z270GT9
Biostar Windows Vista Z270GT9

LMAO!!!

 

[the nerd 389]

I've had some very poor experiences with Biostar boards. Specifically, the capacitors that they use have been bargain-basement options in the past, and I've had them die on me on a few occasions. Does this board have decent quality caps? What about the other components?

 

[dstarr3]

Holy cow, I am NOT going to spend $300 on anything with the Biostar name on it. Unless it's a factory.

 

[the nerd 389]

Holy cow, I am NOT going to spend $300 on anything with the Biostar name on it. Unless it's a factory.

I would consider it. I would then either (half joking):
A) Replace all the caps on the board with decent models (and add the caps that they left out),
B) Pull the X550AT off this board, and pray that it's pin-compatible with one of the other Intel ethernet controllers, or
C) Pull the X550AT off this board, and print a custom PCIe card for it.

In all seriousness, I honestly can't picture a build that would both need a 10 Gbe controller, but could make do with Biostar quality as it has been in the past. The closest I can think of is as a tinkering build for an IT company, or possibly as a benchmarking build for a review site.

This board could be better quality than Biostar has had with previous products, though.

 

[dstarr3]

Holy cow, I am NOT going to spend $300 on anything with the Biostar name on it. Unless it's a factory.

I would consider it. I would then either (half joking):
A) Replace all the caps on the board with decent models (and add the caps that they left out),
B) Pull the X550AT off this board, and pray that it's pin-compatible with one of the other Intel ethernet controllers, or
C) Pull the X550AT off this board, and print a custom PCIe card for it.

In all seriousness, I honestly can't picture a build that would both need a 10 Gbe controller, but could make do with Biostar quality as it has been in the past. The closest I can think of is as a tinkering build for an IT company, or possibly as a benchmarking build for a review site.

This board could be better quality than Biostar has had with previous products, though.

Yeah, they've been coming up with some... uh, attention-grabbing products lately. They're clearly trying to make a statement. Hopefully that statement is "We're good now, please give us a second chance" and not "Build quality is just as bad as ever, we just invested more into marketing."

 

[Onus]

Your SSD problem and RAM issues look like the kind of anomalies I also found last time I looked at a[n otherwise nice] Biostar board. The boards look a lot better than Biostar's reputation would imply, but these glitches raise justifiable doubts. It looks like they're really trying, but they're up against some established competitors, and need to iron those glitches out. This one does look like a "Recommended" award winner, but only with a caveat over some oddities that some will find unacceptable.

 

[Crashman]

Your SSD problem and RAM issues look like the kind of anomalies I also found last time I looked at a[n otherwise nice] Biostar board. The boards look a lot better than Biostar's reputation would imply, but these glitches raise justifiable doubts. It looks like they're really trying, but they're up against some established competitors, and need to iron those glitches out. This one does look like a "Recommended" award winner, but only with a caveat over some oddities that some will find unacceptable.

It became readily apparent why they dropped the $240 version without SSD. What isn't readily apparent is why they put it on the development slow track to fix that small glitch, or couldn't even come up with a proper description of the board's features on the web site. It's like the HQ just cut off the funding a 99.7% complete.

 

[lucas_7_94]

300 USD for poor overclocking, no sli and no CF?

 

[Crashman]

300 USD for poor overclocking, no sli and no CF?

$300 for the high-priced 10GbE controller and SSD. Not bad for a free board right? And they didn't validate CrossFire, but I don't believe AMD has any restrictions so it's like they ran a full marathon, got within eyesight of the finish line, and sat down.

 

[weberdarren97]

Typo in Specs.

(6) v3.0 (x16/x4/x0/x4/x4/x4, x8/x4/x8//x4x4/x4)* *4-lane slots share (2) U.2 and (4) SATA Ports

Please ignore the space after x4x4. I didn't edit the message, the bold tag does that when quoting.

 

[weberdarren97]

I was helping a user develop a parts list earlier... For some reason, when I had the 6700K as the CPU (because budget), a bunch of Biostar motherboards were hogging the top positions of the list. I didn't have any sort options selected, they were just there at the top. It's like they wanted me to recommend them.

I just checked back to the same page, those positions are now being held by Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock (basically the brands I respect).

The amount of users I see that select components because they think there's a good reason why they're at the top of the list is simply amazing. Being at the top means people are buying them, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're any good.

 

[weberdarren97]

I think the only racing this board does is to race back to what most of us expect of a BioStar motherboard: a disappointing board that can't function very well at what higher performance it is supposed to be capable of, and mediocrity at best for normal operation.

This board doesn't change my opinion of BioStar motherboards one bit.

Nah brah. It's value lies in it's networking controller and it's sweet solid state drive. If you took those away, the price of this thing would drop significantly.

So like even though you just told him that you disagree, I think I agree with both of you. lol I hate this company.

 

[bloodroses]

This could be a high quality board. I know Biostar is known for making cheap boards, but so was MSI (Micro Star International) at one point. Maybe the company wants to change its image.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

This could be a high quality board. I know Biostar is known for making cheap boards, but so was MSI (Micro Star International) at one point. Maybe the company wants to change its image.

I'm all for Biostar to change their image for the better. Unfortunately, the performance of this board doesn't do much to do that. It's great to have choices, but this is a non-choice as-is.

 

[JonDol]

This is the right step towards the ideal MB. For those whom do not care about CF/SLI, it maybe lacks a 2nd M.2 slot for a Samsung 960 Pro. That DP port and the 10 Gbe instead of the pathetic 5 or 2.5 Gbe attempts of other manufacturers are a HUGE improvement.
Hopefully there won't be any sacrifices with the upcoming Skylake-X MBs even if that means EATX size... Hat up for this one.