14 DAY TRIAL // As one of the main remaining providers of motherboards, Biostar always keeps with the time, which means that its products definitely reflect current trends, even when it means taking on the appearance of some rather strange paradoxes.
Mainboards have been losing more and more of their assets each year, as CPUs and GPUs continue to assimilate what once belonged to the chipset.
The CPU now integrates both the RAM memory controller and the PCI Express controller, while GPUs do everything in regards to graphics, assuming that task isn't also left to the CPU's integrated graphics processor.
This all has led to a very odd quirk: the only entertainment feature that motherboards can still exploit and refine is audio support.
That's why there are many platforms with Hi-Fi in their name, suggesting they possess high-fidelity audio technology. Biostar has just unveiled one such motherboard.
The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7
This motherboard is good enough to play in the higher echelons of the hardware market, even though it has a single PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot.
It means that you won't set any records for video support, but the newcomer isn't intended for hardcore gaming anyway, despite possessing support for up to 32 GB of DDR3-2800 RAM.
More like it is meant for multimedia PCs that could occasionally be used for a game session or two. The on-board HDMI with 4K and 2K resolution support definitely suggests it.
Moreover, the greater hint is the motherboard name itself: “Hi-Fi” Z97Z7. Biostar integrated its exclusive Super Hi-Fi Audio technology, which consists of several elements: Hi-Fi Power and Hi-Fi AMP power regulation upgrades, full video & Hi-Fi 7.1ch Blu-Ray audio support (through normal DVI), and other components that maximize audio consistency.
Not only that, but the company went through the trouble of wiring the M.2 port through the PCI Express interface, rather than SATA. It allows M.2 SSDs to reach 1.8 GB/s speeds instead of just 500-600 MB/s. Admittedly, this has been becoming more and more common, and soon it won't be such an amazing asset, but it's still a good thing to know.
Other assets include Super Durable Solid Caps, ultra low ESR design, 8-phase power (so that overclocking goes well) and new Super Durable Ferrite Choke (better stability, among other things). The Super Conductive Heatsink Design rounds things up (massive heatsink, as the pictures show).
Availability and pricing
The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard should show up in stores soon enough, but an exact ETA and the price were left out of the press release.
