Also..the Biostar board has better components,is stronger, and has more features in the BIOS
than any AsRock 1150 except Z97 OCF ATX.
Yeah...no. Even the Extreme4 that I posted is better than that Biostar.
The Biostar board doesn't have better components. It uses bog standard chokes and Low RDs MOSFETS for the CPU VRM. The Extreme4 uses standard chokes as well, but uses better Dual-stack MOSFETS. At the same time the Biostar is actually using standard MOSFETS for the RAM power while the AsRock is using Low RDs MOSFETS. The Biostar has dual-GBe(big deal, no one cares) but uses the Realtek chipset, the Extreme4 uses an Intel GBe chipset. The Intel chipset is better, quality over quantity counts here. The AsRock board uses Nichicon caps, I can't ID the Biostar caps right away(which is never good and probably means they aren't as high of quality as Nichicon). Also, I'd just like to point out that Biostar falsely advertises their board as having 100% Solid caps, but there are clearly electrolytic caps on the board...shame on your Biostar!
The Biostar board definitely isn't stronger. I've partially explained above why. All the MOSFETS are a step down in the Biostar board compared to the AsRock. But also the Biostar board only has a 10-Phase VRM while the AsRock is 12-Phase. Though, lets be honest here, unless you are using extreme cooling any Z97 board will do fine with overclocking and the CPU VRM won't really matter. You chip is going to determine the maximum overclock more than the motherboard. Though I wouldn't use the board with 4-Phase VRMs for overclocking just out of principle.
I'm not sure about features in the BIOS because I've never used the Biostar board, but I can say their wasn't a single feature missing from the Extreme4 that I wish it had. And I will say I LOVE AsRock's ability to do an internet flash of the BIOS from inside the BIOS. It is so nice. Does Biostar do that?
And while we are talking about features, lets actually talk about features. The Biostar board doesn't have SLI, the AsRock board does. The Biostar board only has two PCI-E x16 slots, the AsRock has 3. The AsRock board has SATA Express, the Biostar doesn't. The AsRock board has 8 SATA 6Gb/s ports, the Biostar has 6. The Biostar board uses the older ALC892, the AsRock uses the newer(and some say substantially better) ALC1150. The AsRock board has Displayport, the Biostar doesn't. The AsRock board has 6 USB3.0 ports on the back panel, the BioStar has only 4.
And I know this isn't a functional thing, but the AsRock board looks a heck of a lot better than the Biostar. The Biostar has that horrible brown poop colored PCB that cheap "black" motherboard have while the AsRock is a true black PCB. I know it isn't anything that affect the performance of the motherboard, but that poop brown colored PCB just bugs the crap out of me, and saddly even good manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte are all releasing boards with the brown PCB...
Funny you say ASRock support is bad as they have always responded to me within hours of asking them. Unlike ASUS and a good chance they will send the same thing back to you with no changes lol.
Support is always hit and miss when dealing with large companies. A lot of times it comes down to whoever is handling your particular case. Also, a lot of the time the problem isn't the motherboard's fault. People like to blame the motherboard, but when you send it in it works fine. The problem is the RAM or the Video card, or PSU, or something else. It happens a lot more than you think. It even happened to me when I sent my P5B board in to ASUS thinking it was dead. Turned out the RAM just wouldn't post at the default voltage. ASUS was actually very good at handling the RMA, but they did send me back the same board without doing anything with a note saying it was tested and it worked fine. When I called their tech support they were very helpful, we spend about an hour troubleshooting the machine. They stuck with me the whole way while I swapped out parts until we figured out it was the RAM.
The O.P. stated they have Windows 8.1, which is tied in to the BIOS. ie: the activation key is stored there.
That isn't how it works. UEFI allows you to input the product key into the BIOS, and Windows 8/8.1 will read the key from the BIOS when you install it. However, the activation key is not stored in the BIOS. Activation still works the same it always has, Windows contacts Microsoft servers and activates. It is very easy to move Windows 8/8.1 to a different computer. If your key is stored in the BIOS and you don't have a sticker with the key on it, you have two options to retrieve it. They make a tool that reads the BIOS and will extract your key, and they make a key that will read your hard drive and extract you key from that. However, with most custom built computer, like the OP's, the builder usually just buys an OEM copy of Windows that comes with the key on a sticker, so you just use that key when you re-install with the new motherboard.
