BIOSTAR Unveils A68MHE Motherboard

[lexluthermiester]

It’s fm2+ so it’s only really old not really really old. Has usb3.1 as well which is kind of cool

Oops! LOL! Not that it matters much, but corrected. Still, it's not AM4.

 

[cdawall]

Oops! LOL! Not that it matters much, but corrected. Still, it's not AM4.

Still tons of people with the chips so I could see the idea

 

[Keullo-e]

Still tons of people with the chips so I could see the idea

But pretty stupid that probably this motherboard costs more than those ancient chips have value.

 

[biffzinker]

But pretty stupid that probably this motherboard costs more than those ancient chips have value.

An A10-7890K can be yours for only $199.89 USD = 171.43 EUR

 

[cdawall]

But pretty stupid that probably this motherboard costs more than those ancient chips have value.

The chips are still popular in China soooo

 

[lexluthermiester]

But pretty stupid that probably this motherboard costs more than those ancient chips have value.

That's actually an interesting perspective because as old as the socket is, there have been a few recent CPU/APU's released for it. For a budget build this might be a compelling motherboard to consider. Biostar does make solid boards(my experience).

The chips are still popular in China soooo

They're still dead cheap here too;
https://www.ebay.com/sch/164/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw="fm2+"+quad&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&LH_PrefLoc=1&_blrs=recall_filtering
Pricing isn't bad.

 

[silentbogo]

BIOSTAR does it, cause no one else wants to take a risk. CPUs are still around (I mean on store shelves), platform is still in use, and no one wants to dump nearly twice as much into an entry level platform based off sAM4. These are perfect for super-duper low-budget builds, especially if used parts are a part of the equation. I have sFM2 machine in my office right now. The only thing that's confusing, is that BIOSTAR keeps rolling dozens [literally] of variations of the same motherboard under different names, which makes no sense to me.
...and keeps re-releasing same boards over and over and over again... I think I've seen a press-release for this exact board at least 3 times since November.

Regarding quality: meh... BIOSTAR is OK (just bare essentials, reeks of mediocrity all the way around), but there is one thing I love about them: their boards are the easiest to repair. Just a simple straight-forward design, all parts are readily available. Another reason I like BIOSTAR (and ECS) is their tech support. Need a raw firmware dump? Just ask support and you'll get it within a couple of days.

 

[Mescalamba]

Im still using X58, so.. some old HW is decent.

 

[Keullo-e]

Im still using X58, so.. some old HW is decent.

X58 platform can still perform fine, these were slow already when they were released.

 

[Mescalamba]

X58 platform can still perform fine, these were slow already when they were released.

Hm, true.. you got point there. I wouldnt mind new X58 motherboard tho. Preferably with USB C, USB 3.2 and NVMe (UEFI BIOS native), yea and SATA3 or SAS3 (or both).

 

[Keullo-e]

That's actually an interesting perspective because as old as the socket is, there have been a few recent CPU/APU's released for it. For budget build this might be a compelling motherboard to consider. Biostar does make solid boards(my experience).

Well, this was pretty interesting 10 years ago since we had already Socket AM3 and LGA1156.
https://www.techpowerup.com/104795/asrock-innovates-socket-939-motherboard-with-amd-785g-chipset

 

[dario27]

Impressive with 2600MHz with OC. Would be a nice catch if the price is right who have a bit older PCs and wanted to get something out of it. Cheaper but still could work nicely.

 

[cdawall]

X58 platform can still perform fine, these were slow already when they were released.

Same performance as an AMD bulldozer core so if x58 is fine so are these chips.

 

[Keullo-e]

Same performance as an AMD bulldozer core so if x58 is fine so are these chips.

Well, it wouldn't be just 4 threads with X58.

 

[cdawall]

Well, it wouldn't be just 4 threads with X58.

Minus the ones that are.

 

[dorsetknob]

Minus the ones that are.

I5 what your getting at

 

[Keullo-e]

Minus the ones that are.

Well, I don't remember any "normal" user ever have using those 4c/4t Xeons on X58 platform.

 

[Mescalamba]

Same performance as an AMD bulldozer core so if x58 is fine so are these chips.

Its kinda higher..

X5690 (mine) can do around 1k points at Cinebench R15 and also its pretty much enough for most games. 6c/12t is still rather up to date, more than some abominations that even new today have 4c/4t or 6c/6t.

Effectively its around Ryzen 5, nothing amazing, but considering only upgrade I did was buying cheap CPU.. Well, not bad.

 

[kanecvr]

Are Biostar MBs any good nowadays I remember I bought one for AM3+ and it died after about 4 months of use

In my experience Biostar is great reliability-wise. I have Biostar mainboards as old as socket 3 (486 motherboard) - based on a UMC chipset - it is still runs great, despite it being ~24 years old. I also have socket 370, AM3 and LGA 775 Biostar boards - they all work great. Even more, I found a mud covered Voodoo 1 made by biostar at a recycling center a couple of years ago - cleaned it up - working. My ITX living room gaming build uses a B350 biostar board + a 1600x - it's chugging along fine and I've never had a problem with it despite it being cramped into a tiny Fractal Design Node 202 case.

They make pretty reliable hardware.

Its kinda higher..

X5690 (mine) can do around 1k points at Cinebench R15 and also its pretty much enough for most games. 6c/12t is still rather up to date, more than some abominations that even new today have 4c/4t or 6c/6t.

Effectively its around Ryzen 5, nothing amazing, but considering only upgrade I did was buying cheap CPU.. Well, not bad.

Might be around a Ryzen 5 in cinebench (alltough I doubt it) but in FPU performance and SMT a 6-core ryzen is much faster then a Nehalem based chip. Hell, my 2600 @ stock is faster then my old i7 3930k running @ 4.4Ghz (tested with Aida64 FPU Julia, FPU mandel and 3DMark 1.0 physics test).

[EDITED] - just ran cinebench R15 on my HP Z800 (pics of it in on my imgur album) witch runs two X5680's... two of them only managed to score a little bit more then my 2600.... despite being 12 cores and 24 threads vs 6 cores / 12 threads... that's 1414 for the ryzen chip and 1652 for the dual 1366 xeons.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Same performance as an AMD bulldozer core so if x58 is fine so are these chips.

Incorrect. All CPU cores made for X58/E5500/E5520 have a higher IPC than the Bulldozer and Piledriver cores on a clock per clock basis. All benchmarks and performance measurements. It's not a huge gap, but it is significant.

EDIT; That is not to say that CPU's based on Bulldozer/Piledriver are worthless. They are still usable, functional and worthy of consideration for budget general purpose or even light gaming systems.

 

[cdawall]

Incorrect. All CPU cores made for X58/E5500/E5520 have a higher IPC than the Bulldozer and Piledriver cores on a clock per clock basis. All benchmarks and performance measurements. It's not a huge gap, but it is significant.

EDIT; That is not to say that CPU's based on Bulldozer/Piledriver are worthless. They are still usable, functional and worthy of consideration for budget general purpose or even light gaming systems.

Piledriver is about dead even, steamroller is probably better.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Piledriver is about dead even, steamroller is probably better.

True, just like Core2.