Conroe Buying Guide: Feeding the Monster

Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe
Basic Features

Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe
Market Segment:	Mid-Range/Performance
CPU Interface:	Socket T (Socket 775)
CPU Support:	LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo
Chipset:	Intel P965 + ICH8R
Bus Speeds:	266 to 500 in 1MHz Increments
Memory Speeds:	Auto, 533, 667, 800
PCIe Speeds:	Auto, CPU, Fixed at 100MHz, 100MHz~200MHz
PCI:	Fixed at 33
Dynamic Tuning:	V6 Tech - 10%~15% V8 Tech - 15%~25% V12 Tech - 25%~30%
Core Voltage:	Startup, 1.10000V to 1.80000V in 0.00625V increments
CPU Clock Multiplier:	Auto, 6x-11x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked
DRAM Voltage:	1.8V, 2.0V, 2.1V, 2.2V
DRAM Timing Control:	SPD, 8 Options
FSB Termination Voltage:	Auto, 1.2V, 1.3V, 1.4V, 1.5V
NB/SB Voltage:	Auto,1.5V, 1.6V, 1.7V, 1.8V
Memory Slots:	Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total
Expansion Slots:	1 - PCIe X16 1 - PCIe X4 1 - PCIe X1 3 - PCI Slots 2.3
Onboard SATA/RAID:	6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - Intel ICH8R (RAID 0,1,1+0,5,JBOD)
Onboard IDE:	1 Standard ATA133/100/66/33 Port (2 drives) VIA VT6410
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394:	10 USB 2.0 Ports - 6 I/O Panel 4 Headers No Firewire Support
Onboard LAN:	Gigabit Ethernet Controller Realtek RTL 8110SC
Onboard Audio:	Realtek ALC883 HD-Audio 8-channel CODEC
Power Connectors:	ATX 24-pin, 4-pin EATX 12V
I/O Panel:	1 x Serial 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x RJ45 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 8-Channel Audio I/O
BIOS Revision:	AWARD ip96a614

Biostar has delivered a basic but performance oriented P965 board that should sell for around US $135 or under. While our board and BIOS are from the first production run, we were surprised after dealing with our other P965 based boards at how stable and generally dialed in this board is right now. Although we certainly believe that future BIOS releases will extract additional performance from this board, it was nice to boot up this board and have it just plain work as advertised. This board did not require a BIOS of the day or week to work with various Conroe steppings or to address memory performance and stability issues.

Click to enlarge

The layout of the board is very nice with a double slot next to the PCIe X16 connector that allows the use of dual slot GPU cards without losing either a PCIe or PCI connector. We think Biostar provided the right combination of PCIe and PCI slots for today's market considerations. While the 24-pin ATX power connection is in an awkward position, Biostar stated this was the best possible location for stable power delivery, and we are seeing this location utilized more and more on other P965 and 975X boards now. The floppy drive connector is also located at the opposite end of the board and for those still using this type of drive it will create a cabling issue. Overall, we like the general layout and options on this board.

Basic Performance

The performance of the board was at times in the upper segment of our roundup and at others near the bottom when excluding the ASRock value board. We found the board to be a very consistent performer and extremely stable up to its limit. Unfortunately, we do not know what the true limit of this board will be until we see further BIOS optimizations and improvements in the memory voltages. As with recent Biostar boards in the new TForce series, we see significant BIOS options available for the performance oriented crowd yet they have once again let us down on memory voltages.

This board only supports up to 2.2V and only allows four total memory voltage choices. Without additional memory voltages up to 2.4V that we see in the majority of boards being released at this time, it was impossible to really push our memory and improve the overall performance of the board when overclocking. We once again contacted Biostar and chastised them for this omission. One could argue that a board in this market sector would probably not require higher memory voltages but a board being marketed for the performance user should include voltages up to 2.4V along with additional adjustments. The balance of the BIOS is obviously tailored for this type of user and unlike others we have tested this BIOS was stable and almost error free for a first release.

We still believe overall that this board is a great value at this time and offers what appears to be the best blend of performance and price in our roundup. While Gigabyte, Foxconn, ECS, Abit, and others have released or are in the process of releasing mainstream P965 boards, we congratulate Biostar for having a board of this quality available quickly.

Overclocking

Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Dual Core, 2.67GHz, 4MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier
CPU Voltage:	1.525V (default 1.2V)
Cooling:	Tuniq Tower 120 Air Cooling
Power Supply:	OCZ GameXStream 700W
Memory:	Corsair Twin2X2048-PC2-8500C5 (2x1GB) (Micron Memory Chips)
Hard Drive	Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Cache
Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio)	364x10 (3-3-3-9) 3640MHz (+36%)

We were quite surprised by our overclocking results on this board but we did have to gradually increase the FSB speeds and alter the memory settings in order to reach this level. While this is generally indicative of a board at its limits, we believe part of the hunt and search activities that were required are due to a BIOS designed for stability/compatibility first with hopefully the inevitable performance tuning coming in the next revision.

When we installed our X6800 and started testing for maximum FSB overclocking we were treated with a 9x379 result that indicates additional headroom is available on this board and hopefully the board will reward us with higher overclocks in the next BIOS revision, so we might find the true FSB ceiling on the board to be near 380.