BIOSTAR TA990FXE AMD 990FX Motherboard Review

BIOSTAR TA990FXE

BIOSTAR is one of those companies that has developed a rough reputation over the years. Lately, though, BIOSTAR has been working on changing the view that many have. Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t have considered using a BIOSTAR in the past. Being in the unique position that the review staff is in at Legit Reviews, we get to play with a number of products that we wouldn’t be able to use otherwise. I was able to have my first experience (in recent years) with the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD Motherboard back in July of last year. Overall, I was very happy with that particular motherboard, enough so that it garnered a Legit Reviews Value Award. It offered great performance at a great price. Since then I had the opportunity to play with the BIOSTAR TP67XE Intel P67 motherboard, and once again it offered great performance and features for a great price.

Twenty five years ago in 1986, BIOSTAR Microtech International Corp was established. In the early years BIOSTAR focused on mainboards that were built for the XT form factor. Since then BIOSTAR has expanded their manufacturing capabilities as well as their product base. Today BIOSTAR products include motherboards, graphics cards, embedded systems, and add in boards. BIOSTAR has a pretty vast product line to choose from. They offer motherboards for both Intel and AMD, as well as have graphics cards from both NVIDIA and AMD.

If you haven’t guessed it yet, today we will be looking at another product from BIOSTAR. The BIOSTAR TA990FXE motherboard is built on AMD’s latest 990FX/SB950 chipset which is the only AMD chipset to support the new AMD FX processors. BIOSTAR likes to keep their motherboards pretty barebones; they don’t use a lot of flash or an excessive amount of features to sell their motherboards. I doubt we will ever see a gun clip heatsink or an excessive amount of LEDs on a BIOSTAR motherboard (don’t quote me though). We pretty much have the basics on the BIOSTAR TA990FXE AMD 990FX motherboard. This allows BIOSTAR to keep the price down. The BIOSTAR TA990FXE is currently available for $129.99, which does put it on the bottom of the price spectrum.

Aside from the AMD 990FX chipset supporting the new AMD FX ‘Bulldozer’ processors, the most important feature of the new chipset was the addition of SLI. When the BIOSTAR TA990FXE was first launched the only multi-GPU technology that was available was AMD CrossFireX. BIOSTAR has been diligently working with NVIDIA to enable SLI on the TA990FXE. At the time that I’m writing this BIOSTAR hasn’t quite finished the SLI certification for the TA990FXE motherboard, but it’s coming! For those that picked the BIOSTAR TA990FXE up when it first came out at $115.00 that’s great news because all that’s required is a simple BIOS update to enable NVIDIA SLI technology.

While the BIOSTAR TA990FXE motherboard may be a barebones motherboard compared to some of the others out there, it isn’t without its own unique features. Among the BIOSTAR TA990FXE unique features is the G.P.U.; this is the Green Power Utility. The way the G.P.U. works is by monitoring the CPU load. Extra power phases that aren’t needed under a light load are disabled which will conserve electricity. The BIO-Remote 2 would be a handy little feature for those who plan on using the BIOSTAR TA990FXE in an HTPC. With the BIO-Remote 2 you can enable your Android mobile device or Apple device to work as an intelligent and functional remote control. The BIOSTAR TA990FXE also has features like BIO-Flasher, BIO-ReLife, eHot-Line, Rapid Switch, Rapid Debug 3, and Tweak Tech.

Chipset	AMD 990FX / SB950
CPU SUPPORT	AMD FX Processor AMD Phenom II X6 Processor AMD Phenom II X4 Processor AMD Phenom II X3 Processor AMD Phenom II X2 Processor AMD Athlon II X4 Processor AMD Athlon II X3 Processor AMD Athlon II X2 Processor AMD Sempron Processor Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 140Watt
HT	Support HT 5.2G
MEMORY	Support Dual Channel DDR3 2000(OC)/1866/1600/1333/1066/800 MHz 4 x DDR3 DIMM Memory Slot Max. Supports up to 32GB Memory
EXPANSION SLOT	2 x PCI Slots 1 x PCI-E x1 2.0 Slot 3 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot (x16, x16, x4)
STORAGE	5 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector Support SATA RAID: 0,1,5,10
USB	ASMedia ASM1042 USB 3.0 controller 2 x USB 3.0 Port 1 x USB 3.0 Header 4 x USB 2.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Header
IEEE 1394	VIA VT6315N 1 x IEEE 1394a Port 1 x IEEE 1394a Header
Gigabit Ethernet	Atheros AR8151 – 10/100/1000 Controller
Audio CODEC	Realtek ALC892 8-Channel HD Audio
REAR I/O	1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x eSATA2 3Gb/s Connector 1 x FireWire IEEE 1394a Port 2 x USB 3.0 Port 4 x USB 2.0 Port 1 x RJ-45 Port 6 x Audio Connector 1 x S/PDIF Out Port
INTERNAL I/O	1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Header 5 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x S/PDIF-OUT Header 1 x CPU FAN Header 2 x System FAN Header 1 x Serial Header 1 x FireWire IEEE 1394 Header 1 x CIR Header
Form Factor	ATX – Dimension: 30.5cm x 24.4cm ( W x L )
ACCESSORIES	4 x SATA Cable 2 x CrossFire Connector 1 x I/O Shield 1 x CD Driver 1 x User Manual
FEATURES	Supports BIO-Remote2 Supports BIO-Remote Windows 7 Compatible Supports AOD ACC Supports 100% X.D.C Supports Rapid Switch Supports Repid Debug3 Supports BIOS-Flasher Supports BIOS-Relife Supports T-OC Supports GPU