The company's new line of motherboards for 4th Generation Intel CPUs includes the HiFi-B85S2, the HiFi-Z87X3D and the HiFi-H87S3+.
At this year's CeBIT, Biostar revealed three new LGA1150 motherboards that feature the company's Puro HiFi on-board audio technology and a number of other interesting features. Starting off the line-up is the HiFi-H87S3+ mATX motherboard which is based on the Intel H87 chipset features 4 DDR3 DIMMs, one PCIe 3.0 x16 and legacy PCI slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. Also included are 2 USB 3.0 ports, six SATA 6 Gb/s connectors and DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs.
The HiFi-B85S2 is a slim ATX motherboard based on the B85 express chipset and features 2 DDR3 DIMMs, one PCIe 3.0 x16, PCIe 2.0 x16 (wired to the PCH) and two PCIe x1 and legacy PCI slots. The board also holds six SATA 6 Gb/s connectors, gigabit ethernet, 4 USB 3.0 and DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs.
Biostar's high-end offering is the HiFi-Z87X 3D which is based on the over-clocking friendly Z87 chipset and features support for 3 way SLI / CrossfireX courtesy of its two PCIe 3.0 x16 and single PCIe 2.0 x16 slots. Also included are three PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, 4 DDR3 DIMMs, six SATA 6 Gb/s connectors, USB 3.0 and DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs.
Haswell has slightly higher TDP ceiling but its on-package VRM makes it 10X more efficient/faster at switching between standby and high performance modes so for a typical desktop environment where the CPU is almost idle most of the time between activity bursts (most computing falls in this category between computing-intensive tasks like gaming, rendering, simulating, etc.), Haswell can actually be a whole lot more power-efficient than Ivy Bridge.
Also, Ivy Bridge's 77W TDP is for the CPU/IGP alone while Haswell's includes its ~80% efficient integrated VRM. Since only 80% of Haswell's 84W reaches the CPU die, the Haswell die itself would have a ~68W TDP.
Finally, even though a chip may be rated at 77W or 84W, actual power use under real-world loads will not necessarily come anywhere near those figures. According to SMBus data, my motherboard's VRM only provides ~30W to my "77W" i5-3470 when under (CPU-only) full-load. TDPs are only a worst-case design guideline, you should not reach them under normal circumstances unless you have a worst-case CPU running a worst-case load.
I would not be so sure about record overclocks: the integrated VRM might raise immovable walls on power delivery - can't deliver more core power than what the integrated VRM can handle or whatever hard-limits may be programmed or designed into it.