Seven Sub-$160 Z77 Express Motherboards, Reviewed

Overclocking With Biostar Toverclocker

With few overclocking options enabled, Biostar uses monitoring pages to bulk-up its Toverclocker utility. The first two tabs, for instance, show CPU and memory status.

Overclocking settings are few, but they do work for the most part. We say “for the most part” because we were only able to increase our BCLK to 105 MHz on a CPU known to work at up to 109 MHz via UEFI changes. The utility also doesn’t recognize the TZ77XE3’s 300 MHz maximum base clock setting, though that hardly matters, given the roughly 110-112 MHz limit inherent to most LGA 1155-based platforms.

CPU core, memory, and chipset voltage levels can be adjusted via Biostar's app, but GPU voltage changes don’t work at all, while a system agent voltage entry appears missing from Toverclocker’s menu. We weren’t able to show maximum values in our screen shot because voltage changes are made in real-time, without the need or even the ability to click Apply.

An unfortunate lack of multiplier adjustment makes Toverclocker appear optimized only for low-end processors. Neophytes are welcome, however, to try Biostar’s V6 and V12 automatic overclocking profiles.

Biostar actually protects inexperienced users by creating V6 and V12 profiles without added CPU core voltage. But the resulting frequency increases are fairly small. The third choice, Auto, crashed our system.

Don't worry too much about the limited readings available in Toverclocker’s CPU and Memory monitoring menus, as a far greater selection of data exists across its three H/W Monitor pages.