Biostar TA890GXB HD Micro-ATX Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Once again I relearned a lesson taught to me by my parents many years ago. Good things can come in small packages. My experience with the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD turned out to be a good thing! Featuring the latest 890GX chipset from ATI with Radeon HD 4290 integrated graphics, the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD will be able to provide untold hours of quality computer fun — all in a small package!

When it comes to performance the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD performed comparably to the other boards. Although, I wouldn’t recommend the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD if you are planning on doing any heavy overclocking. Nor would I recommend most of the micro ATX boards that are out there; extreme overclocking just isn’t what most of them were designed for. The BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD wasn’t able to push the AMD Phenom II 910e as far as we have seen in the past. The ASRock 890GX Extreme3 that we tested here was able to take the AMD Phenom II 910e past that pesky 4GHz barrier, while today we were able to hit just over 3.5GHz. Though being able to achieve an extra 900MHz+ in itself it is a solid overclock. Even though the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD may not have been the best overclocking motherboard we have ever seen here at Legit Reviews, the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD will be able to squeeze out a few hundred extra MHz’s if you want a little extra performance out of your processor. It wasn’t that all that long ago that being able to overclock on a micro ATX board was pretty much unheard of. Even less common was a micro ATX board that could push out nearly an extra 900MHz+! The BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD was able to squeeze out a 36% overclock — not bad at all.

One minor issue did arise during my time with the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD; the BIOS was a bit tough to navigate. Certain things aren’t where you would expect them to be. The example that comes to mind is the CPU voltage. I would have expected it to be on the Voltage Configuration page under the T-Series tab, but it isn’t. It is located under the CPU Tuning page. It wasn’t hard to find, but I would have liked to have seen the voltages consolidated into one page. Instead they are a little spread out. The BIOS is workable, it just took a little bit of getting accustomed to. After a few minutes in the BIOS I didn’t have any issues navigating my way around the BIOS and was able to find everything I needed to.

Overall the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD is a solid board for what it is. It isn’t being marketed as an extreme overclocking board, because it’s not. It is a board designed for the mainstream market who are looking for a board that will support the latest processors from AMD and have great integrated graphics without breaking the bank. I could easily see the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD being used in a system for an HTPC or any system that you want the best bang for the buck! At the time of this writing, the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD is the lowest cost 890GX chipset motherboard at Newegg.com at a nice low cost of only $94.99 plus shipping and is $35 less expensive than the next Micro ATX motherboard. If it has the features you want, the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD is a great value.

Legit Bottom Line: Whether you plan on using the BIOSTAR TA890GXB HD in a gaming machine, office computer, or an HTPC, you can count on great out of the box performance at a great value!