On the board, we see a good selection of ports available to the user — or builder. The board features the Intel B85 chipset that comes with Intel Rapid Storage Technology for faster load speeds from an SSD (or HDD), Intel Small Business Advantage for business-centered security and data reliability as well as Intel Smart Connect Technology. Riding along side the chipset is BIOSTAR’s home brewed Hi-Fi technology, which promises to bring support for Blu-ray audio as well as high fidelity audio output of 24bit192KHz. The Hi-Fi chipset that runs on this board features a new Double Hi-Fi integrated amplifier that allows the user to enjoy the same high quality sound output, whether from the front or the back of the PC. The BIOSTAR Hi-Fi B85Z5 boasts 100% solid capacitors with Super Durable Ferrite Chokes. At only $89 (USD), this is a pretty feature rich board, it looks absolutely gorgeous for a board this price and is very competitive in the market.
BIOSTAR’S Hi-Fi B85Z5 has a slot for LGA 1150 Processors (No AMD here, as expected). There’s support for 4 DDR3 DIMM at 1600MHz and up to 32GB of memory. For expansion, we have one PCI-E x16 3.0 slot, one PCI-E x16 2.0 slot, two PCI-E x1 2.0 slots and two PCI slots. On storage, there are four SATA3 connectors and two SATA2 connectors. On USB, there’s a USB3.0 header for the front panel if your casing supports it and two USB3.0 slots on the I/O on the back.
The I/O on the back has one PS/2 slot for a keyboard, two USB3.0 ports, 4 USB2.0 ports, a HDMI port that supports 4K video, one DVI connector, a VGA port, the RJ-45 port and three audio connectors. You’re not going to be able to get full-surround going on this motherboard, but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy using this in the office while enjoying some audiophile quality FLACs.
So, this is a pretty feature-rich board, looks really good even as a pretty high quality home computer, but did I mention this thing costs $89(USD)? Would I get one? Maybe, just maybe — maybe for a secondary computer for my girlfriend for some gaming and for her work. For more information, you can go here.
