Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 Motherboard: The Importance of Looking Good
Final Thoughts about the Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 Gaming Motherboard
The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 has been touted as Biostar’s way of flirting with the idea of a high-end gaming motherboard and that is a weird description considering it is technically a budget Z97 motherboard price-wise. High-end Z97 motherboards are in the $300+ price range so a budget offering with the new flagship color theme/design is most likely Biostar’s way of testing the waters as safely as they can. Although I would argue, researching in forums and surveys would be much better than actually putting a motherboard in production and distribution. Before we talk about anything else however, let us discuss the elephant in the room. I am referring of course to the fact that the Hi-Fi Z97Z7 blatantly looks like an ASUS Z97 segment motherboard, complete with the black and gold heatsink designs. Biostar is not alone in this, as I have walked inside MSI’s CES suite three years ago to a row of prototype mainboards that look a lot like ASUS’ Republic of Gamers offering, except in blue color scheme. While I am not entirely against the idea of looking at what works from the competitor and applying it to your own product line (every motherboard manufacturer has been guilty of this in one way or another), copying the looks instead of the features is like looking at a car and thinking it is only the tires that is responsible for making it run. I also fail how to see how this could possibly be a gaming motherboard when the graphics expansion slots have been nerfed, granted PCI-E 3.0 is overrated as I have stated in my AMD FX-9590 CPU review, PCI-E 3.0 x8 for the secondary expansion slot in the Biostar Z97WE versus PCI-E 2.0 x4 in the Biostar Z97Z7 is a big difference.
The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 does look a lot better than the Biotar Z97WE, although I would have preferred if Biostar picked a more unique identity. Thankfully, the black and gold color scheme lends itself to moddabilty and the heatsinks themselves can be easily changed with the glued-in gold accents easily removed and repainted. Functionally,the new heatsink designs are much more preferable compared to the Biostar Z97WE’s and is more receptive to airflow. Both the Z97WE and Z97Z7 are within each other’s price range so they share some features and trade in a few to keep costs down. The new Biostar Hi-FI Z97Z7 of course, enjoys SATA Express support out of the box and improved layout but the Z97WE has the advantage of better VRM, two PCI-E 3.0 slots, one more PWM fan header and dual Gigabit LAN. The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 may have the looks, but the Hi-Fi Z97WE is the smarter one in the family. Just like the Hi-Fi Z97WE, the Realtek ALC892 based Puro Hi-Fi audio is very good but is outclassed by other ALC1150 solutions (or even better, an ALC898 HD audio codec) which are also available on boards in that budget price range, and some even in sub-$100 B85 mainboards.
Biostar does offer some advantage of convenience in the Hi-Fi Z97Z7 compared to the Hi-Fi Z97WE including the use of a switch for the LN2 toggle function compared to jumpers. The M.2 socket is also better situated now right below the CPU socket so that users can install or remove the SSD without removing the graphics card on the PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot. The power and reset buttons are also placed closer to the top edge with the LN2 switch so it is easier to access on a test bench. The Hi-Fi Z97Z7 is probably the best looking motherboard built by Biostar and at a very affordable price. Unfortunately, looks are not everything and you can only stare through that chassis side-window too many times to look at your motherboard if it is not obscured by a giant CPU cooler and large video cards.
For comparison purposes with the Biostar Hi-FI Z97WE motherboard previously reviewed, click on this link: http://www.modders-inc.com/biostar-hi-fi-z97we-motherboard-review/
