- Great value and affordable
- Decent software and BIOS
- Excellent audio at this price point
- Meager accessory bundle
- Misuse of the term "Hi-Fi"
- No real "outstanding" features
Manufacturers have put their best engineering minds together to create new features and designs in a seemingly all out MMA fight for market share. We have things like improved or upgraded audio, high speed M.2 storage support, highly tuned BIOS for the best possible CPU performance, overclocking, easy to use software and new design themes. Things what would put any design that didn’t at least have these features as standard equipment to shame today.
We’re happy to take a look at a board from BIOSTAR whom we haven’t seen in the labs before. The board in question is the BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard aimed at audio and potentially gaming enthusiasts at a leg sweeping affordable price. We ran the board through extensive testing to see if it hits its mark as well as whether or not it meets our tried and true standards.
Features and Specifications
Biostar’s Hi-Fi theme for the Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard can be a little confusing. The board offers seemingly high quality audio but also components like Hi-Fi Power, Hi-Fi Ground, Hi-Fi AMP, Hi-Fi Resistor, Hi-Fi Cap, Hi-Fi 100dB+ and Hi-Fi 192/24 which of course don’t really apply. Hi-Fi is a High Fidelity moniker pertaining to high end audio quality and not usually to electrical components. We’ll see if that is the case in testing later.
The board supports both PCIe M.2 and SATA M.2 devices which is always a nice touch. If you can’t afford a premium PCIe M.2 device like the Plextor M6e 256GB PCIe SSD, then users can purchase something a bit cheaper like a Kingston SATA M.2 SM2280S3 240GB SSD.
SmartSpeedLan is a lot like other network management apps popping up that allows users to prioritize network traffic. If you have a good internet connection, you most likely won’t need it. Otherwise, you can use it to enable UDP and TCP traffic (gaming, browser, media streaming, etc). Charge Booster will be a favorite among mobile fans as it charges basically any portable device quickly.
Quality wise, Biostar boards utilize Moistureproof PCB, Low RDS P-Pak MOSFETS, Ferrite Chokes, 8-Phase VRM design, high dissipation heat sinks and low ESR solid state caps. These common components are par for the course among quality motherboard manufacturers.
All other features are common to the Intel Z97 chipset. The Z97Z7 also only supports AMD CrossFireX. The platform does not support NVIDIA SLI. Keep that in mind if you plan to operate two NVIDIA cards.
How much will the board set you back? The board has been on and off the shelves ranging between $130-140 US. That’s pretty standard for AMD CrossFireX capable boards.
What’s in the Bundled Accessories?
Well, that’s about as basic as it can get. There are just a couple of black SATA cables along with the IO shield. Otherwise, it’s some literature, manual and software driver/utilities disc. However, with a value range price point, this is not to be unexpected. What is important is the performance, which we’ll be looking at very soon.
Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 Layout
The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 layout is as logical as possible. It’s nice to see the M.2 slot in a different place not completely blocked off by the video card. Also, all of the sockets are wrapped around the edges of the board for easy access. It’s also a good thing that the audio is implemented separately.
Connectivity includes six USB ports: four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0. For charging devices, the USB 3.0 (blue) are the ports to use. HDMI, DVI and VGA video out ports make it easy to utilize integrated CPU video. A single Gigabit NIC and PS2 port are also offered. The PS2 is long since antiquated anymore. And, finally, six gold analog ports allow users to sample the Hi-Fi audio.
There are a couple things to point out. Four of the fan headers are found in the middle and top half of the board. Only one is found at the bottom which means a splitter is needed. Also, the VRM heat sinks are very close to the CPU socket. Fortunately, the heat sinks are low enough to miss most coolers. However, really large coolers with substantial mounting systems could get tight really quick.
We’ve got some test components to try out while benching the board. Lets get to it!
Test System
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon
- Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7
- Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 1866MHz 16GB DDR3
- Graphics: ASUS STRIX GTX 750 Ti OC
- Storage: Kingston HyperX Fury 240GB SSD
- Other Storage: WD 2TB Caviar Black HDD, Thermaltake 5G USB 3.0 and Plextor M6e 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD
- Cooling: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU Cooler
- Power: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W 80Plus Gold
- OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit / Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
The motherboard BIOS was flashed to the Z97BF912.BST file. An NVIDIA Graphics driver 344.75 ensures gaming performance is on point. For the latest Intel drivers, visit Biostar’s webpage or Intel for more direct files.
Installation and BIOS Notes
The test system physically was easy to set up. The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard boots up similarly in speed to most other Z97 boards. There were a couple issues using the BIOS and included software. The board BIOS froze after hitting the confirmation button to update the launch BIOS. If the update fails, try again. It took a couple tries now and then when repeating the issue. The companies that care always release new BIOS updates and it appears that this issue has been alleviated in newer BIOS updates.
The BIOS is cleanly laid out. Most of the user setup functions are all on the first pages. If you’re prone to giving overclocking a try, the D.N.E. page holds all the functions from CPU configuration, DRAM configuration and Voltage configuration. While enthusiasts typically use the BIOS, there are easier ways like using bundled OC software.
Software Bundle – TOverclocker
After installing the software bundle, for some odd random reason, the TOverclocker software wouldn’t work with the lab patched OS-benchmark image. However, TOverclocker worked with a standard Windows 7 and Windows 8 installation which is important to enthusiasts.
Increasing the Active Core Ratio Limis to 47 and upping the CPU clock took our system to about 4.75 GHz relatively easy. The BIOS route allowed just over 4.8 GHz. That’s just about par for the course on the very hot Devil’s Canyon processor on air cooling.
Gaming Performance
Well, this answers the question as to how well the Biostart Hi-Fi Z97Z7 handles gaming. Unfortunately, we don’t have any worthy AMD CrossFireX capable video cards to really test the dual card function.
Synthetic – 3DMark 11
It’s not really completely a CPU benchmark but it does show us PCIE performance which is part of the motherboard’s back bone.
SANDRA – Mathematical and Multimedia
This time around, math computation is closer as it’s all CPU for the most part. However, multimedia bandwidth (megapixels) differs with the platforms thanks to extra features.
Cinebench R15
The fight is pretty close among the platforms. CPUZ revealed a slightly slower max turbo during testing which could account for the lower score.
PCMark 8 – Overall System Performance
Overall, it’s a close quarter battle. The most feature rich boards will score higher. The point here is to make sure the platform performs respectably which it does.
IO Connectivity
IO performance is stable and comparable to other platforms. Of course, one of the Hi-Fi Z97Z7’s better features especially for power users or enthusiasts who need maximum bandwidth is the M.2 PCIe port. It moves a lot of data quickly.
Media Transcoding – H.264 GraySky 5.0.1
BIOS tuning in regards to CPU and memory typically assist transcoding the most. The Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 keeps up relatively well with the rest of the boards despite a little slower turbo action.
Audio Performance
To the naked ear, the Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard produces relatively clean audio. It’s clearer than it is louder in some respects. However, any noise isn’t noticeable and signal leakage wasn’t evident. Voices and higher frequencies could be heard during the gaming benchmarks which is important if you want to pwn your opponents.
Final Thoughts
This is honestly the first time I’ve officially lab tested one of Biostar’s mainstream motherboards. Like any motherboard that comes through the lab, it had to measure up in stability, quality and performance. Beating after beating, the shy looking Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 kept up. The back lit Hi-Fi audio LED tracing kind of adds an enthusiast’s touch. It’s also quite handy being able to see the CPU temperature displayed on the little LED indicator.
The main things Biostar could improve upon are the easy to use UEFI BIOS which needs just a little touching up to make sure users can update their BIOS confidently, blinking Reset LED button which would be better if lit all the time and rather meager accessories bundle. Another SATA cable and/or even 3-4pin fan wire extension would make it useful. As for the Reset button, it’s unclear if that’s intentional or a glitch after consulting the manuals.
While the Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 motherboard isn’t quite the fastest performer or highest overclocker, it still a comparable performing platform given its $130-140 price range. As far as affordable Intel motherbords go, the Biostar Hi-Fi Z97Z7 is worth its cost given its features and price.