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- Date:
- Monday , August 07, 2006
- Author:
- Jake Brewer
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Biostar TForce 550
Biostar steps up to the plate with an $80 AM2 motherboard sporting the nForce 550 chipset. While this a budget motherboard is strapped for features, could it carry us to performance paradise? And yes, Biostar is making boards worthy of reviewing now days.
Introduction
Biostar has been a player in the motherboard industry for quite some time now. Typically, Biostar is known for their budget minded motherboards that are less feature-rich than their enthusiast oriented competition.
Despite that Biostar makes robust products that do exactly what they are supposed to. The TForce 550 is no exception to this rule.
The TForce 550 is Biostar’s latest addition to their Athlon64 socket AM2 based motherboard product line. The board uses the mainstream oriented NVIDIA nForce 550 chipset, with built-in support for the entire Athlon64 socket AM2 processor line, DDR2 type SDRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to speeds of 800MHz officially, and PCI Express x16 based video cards operating in single card mode.
The TForce 550 is feature complete, requiring a minimal amount of components for a working system including: Athlon64 socket AM2 based CPU, DDR2 memory, PCI Express video card, drives, and PSU. Biostar chose to integrate the following components in to the TForce 550’s design: 1 IDE ATA-133 and 4 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1 capable across the SATA ports); 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (6 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 1 Gigabit Ethernet port in the rear panel; Realtek ALC861 8-channel HD audio; 1 serial port; and PS/2 port support.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Motherboard Specification List:
Packaging
The TForce 550 motherboard comes in a standard sized box that features some very hard to describe art along with information about some of the features this board has. Biostar packaged in the following components with the TForce 550: 1 x ATA 133 and 1 x floppy ribbon cables, 1 x SATA cable, 1 x SATA power adapter, the rear shield, a single driver CD and a manual. Biostar also includes a cloth zipper pouch to hold this rather light-weight bundle. While this is a nice touch, I would rather see more SATA cables and rounded IDE/floppy cables included instead.
Board Layout
The layout of the TForce 550 is well thought out with only one area of concern. The ATX 12v and the 24-pin ATX power connector are located near the CPU socket and will require thoughtful cable routing in order to avoid restricting airflow to air-cooled CPUs. The DIMM slots are located above the CPU socket, in a favorable spot avoiding any clearance issues. The northbridge is located in the usual spot resting near the PCI-E and PCI slots the chipset cooler is of the low-profile variety and will not cause any issues with larger VGA cards. Biostar chose to use capacitors manufactured by United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan) marked as KZG, by Taiwan Ostor marked RLG, and an unknown manufacturer marked RLP.
The CPU socket is mostly clear of obstructions, but the 24-pin ATX power connector will prohibit use of some of the larger CPU coolers. The CPU cooling apparatus is held to the chip via the standard 4-hole Athlon64 socket AM2 based mounting mechanism. Along the upper edge are the DIMM slots, floppy, IDE, and SATA ports. The clear CMOS jumper is located conveniently in an open area near the SATA ports. In the upper right corner Biostar added power and reset buttons to aid those who like to run without a case. Along the right edge are the front panel header, USB headers, a parallel port header, SPD/IF, and front panel audio headers.
The TForce 550 comes standard with 1 PCI-Express x16 slot, 2 PCI-Express x1 slots, and 4 PCI slots.
The TForce 550’s rear panel contains the following ports: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 6 USB 2.0 ports; 1 Gigabit Ethernet port; and 6 analog audio ports.