Motherboard upgrade!!??

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rodrigo123

Obliviot
hi there, i am new to this board and have a first question:I saw 1 of my friend's newly set up PC and i wanna upgrade mine too. I love to play ego shooters like crysis. I just got new good headphones last month. Now i am just looking for motherboard with good audio quality? worth to pay for the price that will last long even for so much usage of PC? and energy saving? Help please? im torn between asrock and biostar?

or any other idea?
 
Optix

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
I've never had any luck with ASRock, but I've never used a Biostar board either. It looks like both companies have stepped up its game in order to keep up with the big players, but they still fall short between ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI.

If you can scrounge up the extra dough for one of these three, I think you'll be much happier.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
I'd definitely suggest ASRock over Biostar! The processor depends on your budget range, but you'll be wanting to invest most of the system cost into your GPU if you're a gamer!
 
R

rodrigo123

Obliviot
Thank you for your input, guys!

may i ask whats better with Asrock? I dont really see their advantage. The big brands seem to have good quality of course but i always feel shabby paying the high price for a brand name. thats why i would prefer to go with the underdogs ;)

Anyway, what GPU would be a good match? I am using my good old AMD A6-5400.
 
R

rodrigo123

Obliviot
I was jus talking to the owner of a computer store nearby and asked him about the choice. He told me both brands would be just fine, but asrock is highly focused on low cost motherboards, although the quality is quite good for the price.

I also found some reviews, but they didnt really help me so much at all :D

Anyway, there was a Hi Fi A55S3 from biostar on stock, so he recommended me to simply try it. Thats why i am using it right now and first round of crysis was really good with it ;)

Thanks for your help and thoughts, guys!!
 
R

rodrigo123

Obliviot
Can you give any reasons for that opinion?

I am wondering because there are many reviews for asrock but only little for biostar on the web. One that i found was this: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Biostar/Hi-Fi_A85W/

Also there are some Z77 reviews out there, but still, asrock is much more present here. So based on the popularity i would certainly pick an asrock board here, but i could not find out a lot about there audio quality. I understand asrock is a low cost brand from asus, so i am not sure what asus changes to make them less pricey.... anyway, they are heavy focused on overclocking, which is not my priority.

On the other hand i see biostar as separate manufacturer that does not do a lot of marketing at all. So i could imagine they are running as underdog below the radar with a weaker brand (if you can call it like that)

For some reason i will give biostar the chance. The price is comparable and i like their feature set on audio and quality. My sennheiser will teach me if i am right :D

Refering to the GPU: Do you have any suggestion for a good value for money?
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Sorry, rodrigo... you had a couple of replies in the moderation queue. I've verified your account so that won't happen again :S
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Unfortunately, we haven't reviewed any ASRock or BIOSTAR here, but should do so in the near-future. I've heard great things about ASRock though and typically meh things about BIOSTAR (mostly about their short life before problems occur).

So, the thing is... onboard audio isn't stellar, and if you have a good pair of headphones, you should notice the difference. You might want to invest in a small Xonar card (around the $40) range if you do happen to get a mobo and don't love the sound. Typically, onboard audio changes little up until you get into expensive motherboards that feature special chips (like GIGABYTE with its Xfi, or ASUS with its onboard RoG solution).

Sorry again for the moderation issue!
 
B

BigRoddie

Obliviot
Hey Man! 2 of my colleagues are using this Biostar motherboard but im not sure which type of motherboard they are. so far 1 was saying its pretty cool to use well optimize as they say, audio is really the main focus. I just dont know how really good this kind of motherboard as they are quite new in the market.

Generally you can check out the nearest market so you can see it for yourself and hear their advice from your Motherboard preferences. Funny thing with this Biostar is they are always out of stock from some market, but for you can have it online order if it so,but then again I can say ASrock so far have gone far and it works well on my side.

250-300 bucks! more or less that could be a good price range.
 
R

rodrigo123

Obliviot
@ Rob Williams: sounds great. i will also have a look at the xonar sound card. maybe i can add it later if I am not satisfied at all?
 
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R

rodrigo123

Obliviot
i did not get any of the components yet. Due to lack of time the project got stuck at the moment, so there is plenty of time to browse around and compare. Honestly i feel the options are unlimited. Anyway, biostar is the only manufacturer focusing exclusively on audio features. Or does anybody know something comparable?

also, the A55 seems to be quite outdated now. I just found updates to the products websites. now they have even more Hi Fi 3D motherboards with A85 listed....
 
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