14 DAY TRIAL // During the past couple of months, most news involving Advanced Micro Devices and its OEMs were about graphics cards, with few exceptions. However, that does not mean that its chipsets have been neglected.
As if to prove this, Biostar has formally released the TA70U3-LSP, a mainboard powered by the A70M chipset and, thus, compatible with FM2+ processors.
That means it is ready to receive and run accelerated processing units (APUs) from the AMD A-Series and AMD E-Series up to quad-core models.
Needless to say, Biostar outfitted the platform with all the necessities, though that isn't to say it didn't go beyond them of course.
Biostar's TA70U3-LSP
The Full-ATX form factor means there is more than enough room for a PCI Express slot and a pair of DIMM DDR3 memory slots (up to 32 GB).
Indeed, there would have been room for a lot more than that, but Biostar decided to make this a high-endurance upgrade for A58-based motherboard users, rather than some gaming-grade piece of hardware.
Thus, you won't see a second PCI Express slot, other than the miniature one. Instead, Biostar provided a trio of legacy PCI slots, of all things.
Based on the press release, Biostar intends for this to make use of AMD's Dual Graphics Technology, which combines the resources of the APU-integrated GPU with those of whatever add-in card you install (if sufficiently recent).
Storage-wise, we have six SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, as well as some USB 3.0 ports (also good for peripherals, naturally).
We mentioned endurance, so perhaps we should elaborate: Biostar designed the TA70U3-LSP with LAN Surge Protection, which uses an integrated chip to strengthen the electrical stability of the system, preventing damage from current spikes (voltages which are much greater than the normal working voltage and which appear in a system for a short period of time).
Other features include full HDMI 3D 1080p support, complete I/O at the back (audio, network and such) and the obligatory headers for USB, power ports, etc.
Availability
The black and yellow Biostar TA70U3-LSP motherboard should start shipping soon, but the price has not been disclosed.
Casual system and business users are the ones most likely to get benefits from it, but a good enough video board can be added easily enough, so gaming isn't out of the question.