Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe: Sharpshooter
Founded in 1986, Biostar's legacy in high-value components is unsurpassed. Yet the company's popularity has declined over the last five years, leading many enthusiasts to question its continued existence. Biostar's T-Series looks to re-establish the company's brand recognition.
Feature Overview
If motherboards were compared to cars, the TForce P965 Deluxe would be a sports model. Stripped nearly to its essentials, this low-cost board still uses the high-performance ICH8R Southbridge, and adds something not often seen on recent boards: a space between the graphics card slot and the next lower slot.
With so many graphics cards using double-slot coolers and many more running extra-hot on single-slot coolers, the "missing slot" would normally have gone unused anyway. But Biostar also moved the PCI Express x16 slot up one position, thereby increasing the number of usable slots while decreasing the space between the graphics card and DIMM slots. There's no consensus on whether slot-availability or easy RAM installation is most important.
Another unique design consideration was Biostar's use of PCI controllers for IDE and Gigabit LAN support, a decision that allowed it to fix PCI Express pathways for both the x4 and x1 slot. In contrast, other manufacturers reduce the x4 slot to x2 mode when an x1 slot is filled. This too comes with consequences, however, as Gigabit Ethernet supports a combined 2 GB of upstream and downstream, but the PCI interface is limited to one gigabit total.
The six SATA and single UltraATA connector are placed behind slots and oriented to allow cables to slip between long PCI cards. On the other hand, the floppy connector is stuck inconveniently along the bottom edge.
A look behind the back panel ports leads to a few raised eyebrows. Both the 24-pin ATX and 4-pin ATX12V connector are located behind network/audio ports, a position that will undoubtedly force most builders to route power cables over the CPU fan. The 3-phase voltage regulator is also located here - with a sink outline surrounding it but no sink installed - along with a 25-pin parallel port header where an actual connector might have normally been soldered.
| Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe (Rev. 1.0) | |
|---|---|
| Northbridge | Intel P965 |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH8R (82801HR) |
| Voltage Regulator | 3 Phases |
| BIOS | 803 (08/17/06) |
| Clock Generator | ICS9LPR509EGLF |
| 266.6 MHz (FSB1066) | 266.7 MHz (+0.01%) |
| Connectors and Interfaces | |
| onboard | 1x PCIe x161x PCIe x41x PCIe x13x PCI4x USB 2.01x Parallel Port1x Floppy1x IDE6x SATA 3.0Gb/s1x Front Panel Audio1x CD-In1x S/P-DIF Out1x S/P-DIF In1x Fan 4 pins (CPU)2x Fan 3 pins (System) |
| IO panel | 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse)1x Serial Port1x Network6x USB 2.01x 7.1 Channel Audio, Mic-In, Line-In (6 jacks) |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |
| ICH8R | 6x SATA (RAID 0,1,5,10) |
| VIA VT6410 | 1x IDE (ATA133/100/66) |
| Network | |
| Realtek 8110SC PCI | 1x 1 Gbit/s LAN |
| Audio | |
| Realtek ALC883 7.1 | AC97 or High Definition Audio |
Rear panel ports remind us of days gone by, but with a twist: Biostar put six USB connectors here, rather than the customary four. The additional USB ports may explain the company's decision to remove the parallel port from this location, as they were likely unable to source a connector that would fit.
Six analog connectors allow simultaneous 7.1 sound plus microphone and headphone jacks, but digital audio users must employ the included slot plate.
