14 DAY TRIAL // Determined to be among the hardware manufacturers that will offer support for Intel's upcoming Core i7 and Core i5 central processor, BIOSTAR released its so-called “TH55 XE” motherboard for consumer use. The “TH55 XE” is a uATX motherboard that integrates a total of seven phases power design and excellent performance capabilities, while offering high product reliability and quality through the “IR DirectFET MOSFET,” “Ferrite Choke,” and “Japanese Solid Caps.”
The specs of the motherboard reveal a highly capable platform that will make an excellent pair with Intel's upcoming processors with integrated graphics. The smooth, high-quality HD video playback and advanced 3D capabilities provided by said processors will be fully utilized thanks to the motherboard's 4 DIMM Dual Channel DDR3 2600+ (OC), non-ECC, un-buffered memory slots. With up to 16GB of memory, the performance will be seamless and enthralling.
Of course, the board has all the expected expansion and PCI Express slots that have already become mainstream. The “TH55 XE” features one PCI-E 2.0 x 16 slot and one PCIE x 4 slot, as well as two PCI slots. Connectivity options include Gigabit Ethernet, five SATA2 ports and one eSATA2 port, and the video output capabilities are represented by multi-VGA and audio outputs (D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI and optical S/PDIF digital audio output).
What the motherboard has over other models is its integration of three design implementations, which give it superior reliability and quality. These are the “IR DirectFET MOSFET,” “Ferrite Choke,” and “Japanese Solid Caps,” which come as part of the “Dura Max” technology. These features improve the overall quality through a perfect power-supply layout, IR Direct FET and the MOS pipe power supply chipset.
The Japanese solid capacitors increase the product lifespan by reducing the heat in overclocking scenarios and improving the power efficiency. The CPU fan and North-Bridge Chipset fans will be adjustable via the Smart-Fan control and the board will be equipped with Ferrite core chokes with lower hysteresis loss.
The motherboard will fully support Windows 7 and will even come bundled with the “Toverclocker” performance enhancement utility, which will enhance CPU and memory performance. The press release did not include pricing and availability details.