Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard Review
It is a misplaced romantic notion to think that some things can be made whole cloth from aether and that great ideas are some sort of a divine blessing from the universe to only a select few. The truth is that copying and imitation have their place in the creative process just as much as random chance does and the end result is a culmination of various sources which in turn feed the cycle of creativity once again to inspire another. This is why progress has been exponential historically and when you look at the creative process as a whole in terms of cycles, then the concept of idea ownership is absurd. This is why nobody really gives a rats ass who did what first (except for maybe Han Solo shooting first for Star Wars fans) but it is a matter of who did it better and who did it best. In the motherboard world right now, every manufacturer has a custom segmented audio solution, each with their own unique twist but to truly stand out, some out of the box thinking is required.
Biostar has been actively promoting their Puro Hi-Fi audio technology even before the current crop of Intel Z97 boards with isolated audio PCBs. Their initial Z97 offering however in the form of the Hi-Fi Z97WE offers something unique that many of their competitors that offer the same features lack: a low price.
Review Sample Provided by: Biostar
Product Name: Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard
MSRP: $124.99 USD
Product was given in exchange for work done to produce this review.
Biostar’s Hi-Fi series boards touts the Puro Hi-Fi media technology aimed at HTPC, Audio enthusiasts and Gaming users so the main front graphic on the box is a speaker woofer. The box color is the traditional Biostar red with accents of gold hinting the new color theme of the Z97 series. Inside, the top compartment contains the accessories while the motherboard itself is inside an anti-static bag with padding on the rear side.
Accessories for the Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE include the essential driver disc, IO shield, a multi-language user’s guide, Smart Ear Utility usage sheet and four of straight latching SATA cables.
The full official specifications table can be seen below.
Specifications:
| CPU | Intel® Core™ i7 LGA 1150 Processor Intel® Core™ i5 LGA 1150 Processor Intel® Core™ i3 LGA 1150 Processor Intel® Pentium® LGA 1150 Processor Ready for Intel 4th Gen. unclocked CPU (codename Devil’s Canyon) Ready for Intel next enthusiast-class CPU(codename Broadwell) Support CPU Bclk overclock |
| Chipset | Intel® Z97 Express Chipset |
| Memory | Support Dual Channel DDR3 2800(OC)/ 2600(OC)/ 2400(OC)/ 2200(OC)/ 2133(OC)/ 1866(OC)/ 1800(OC)/ 1600/ 1333/ 1066 MHz Support non-ECC memory modules Support Extreme Memory Profile(XMP) memory modules 4 x DDR3 DIMM Memory Slot Max. Supports up to 32GB Memory |
| Slots | 2 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot (x8 + x8, support CrosfireX) 2 x PCI-E x1 2.0 Slot 2 x PCI Slot |
| Onboard Graphics |
By CPU model Supports DX11.1/ 11/ 10.1/ 10/ 9 Supports HDCP Support DirectX Video Acceleration(DXVA) for accelerating video processing —Full AVC/VC1/MPEG2 HW Decode Support Advanced Scheduler 2.0, 1.0, XPDM Support OpenGL 4.0 Support HDMI, 1.4a specification compliant with 3D Support 3 Displays(HDMI + DVI + VGA) |
| Multi GPU |
Supports AMD CrossFireTM Technology |
| Storage | 6 x SATA3 Connector Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10 Support both Legacy and AHCI Mode Support Hot-Plug in AHCI mode Support Intel Smart Response Technology 1 x M.2(N.G.F.F.) Connector up to 1000MB/s Support both PCIE NAND for PCIE SSD and SATA NAND for SATA SSD |
| USB | 4 x USB 3.0 Port 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Header |
| AUDIO | Realtek ALC892 8-Channel Blu-ray Audio Support Blu-ray Audio Support HD Audio Support 2/4/6/8-channel Support SPDIF_out Support Biostar Hi-Fi |
| LAN | Realtek RTL8111G – 10/100/1000 Controller Support Wake-On-LAN Support PXE ※Dual GbE, support Teaming |
| Internal I/O Ports | 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Header 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector 1 x M.2(N.G.F.F.) Connector 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x Front Panel Header 2 x CPU FAN Header 4 x System FAN Header 1 x Serial Header 1 x CIR Header 1 x TPM Header(TPM V1.2) |
| Back I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 4 x USB 3.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Port 1 x HDMI Connector, resolution up to 4096×2160@24Hz, 24bpp / 2560×1600@60Hz, 24bpp / 1920×1080@60Hz, 36bpp 1 x DVI Connector, resolution up to 1920×2000@60Hz @24bpp 1 x VGA Port, resolution up to 1920×2000@60Hz @24bpp 2 x RJ-45 Port 5 x Audio Connector 1 x S/PDIF Out Port |
| Bundled Software |
BullGuard Smart Ear headphone Utility BIO-Remote2 BIO-Remote Biostar MAGIX Multimedia Software Suite Smart Speed LAN Intel Rapid Start Technology Intel Smart Connect Technology Intel Rapid Storage Technology(include Intel Smart Response Techmology) |
| Dimensions | ATX Form Factor Dimension: 30.5cm x 24.4cm ( W x L ) |
Great review as usual, i might suggest to you guys to add a article navigation bar like other sites do, sometimes we want to find a specific topic like overclocking, power consumption, specs tec.
Thanx
Working on trying to find the right plug-in that will do that.
Thanks for the suggestion. We could probably do a temporary solution for now with manually created table of contents linking to each page. I will update the previous articles.