14 DAY TRIAL // The words “free CPU upgrade” will most likely grab the attention of any bystander when spoken, even of those that do not plan on making any changes to their computers. When speaking of something like this, however, motherboard makers usually refer to the unique capability of some CPUs from Advanced Micro Devices to multiply their number of cores, from dual- or triple-core to quad-core and, now, even from quad-core to six-core. This is exactly what Biostar promises to enable with its TA890FXE motherboard.
As part of the T Series, the TA890FXE is powered by the 890FX AMD chipset, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip maker's high-end chipset that forgoes integrated graphics in favor of a greater performance scalability. As such, the motherboard itself boasts four DDR3-1800 memory slots, four PCI Express x16 slots with support for CrossFireX. Furthermore, there is support for AMD Athlon II or Phenom II chips, as long as their TDP (thermal design power) does not exceed 140W.
The most important technology featured on this platform is known as the BIO-unlocKING and can turn certain quad-core central processors into six-core units. This is done automatically by the BIOS, which detects and enables the disabled cores that the unit itself has. As for the rest, there is a set of five SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, 7.1 channel audio, an eSATA port, Gigabit Ethernet, a FireWire connector and a debug LED.
Basically, the motherboard is a high-level platform that can allow users to reach the same level of processing power with a less expensive CPU. One can simply buy a Phenom II X4 960T central processing unit, for instance, and use the BIO-unlocKING to turn it into a Phenom II X6 chip. Unfortunately, there is no information, so far, on what price this board has, but this mystery should be uncovered soon enough.