Biostar TPower i55 – Super Middle Weight Contender
by Rajinder Gill on November 25, 2009 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
There's really no other way to say this: Biostar’s Tpower i55 performs almost exactly the same as any other P55 motherboard in every single benchmark we ran.
Application tests, game tests, LAN tests, even USB, Firewire, and SATA controller performance was virtually identical across the board. We've known for a while now that motherboards of a given generation all perform the same, but there's honestly no more to it than that.
We've included a wealth of application, gaming and peripheral performance data for you to see for yourself, but honestly, features, overclocking potential, support, and price point are what matter here.
The biggest difference between the boards, from a performance standpoint, actually surfaces in power consumption:
At idle the Biostar TPower i55 draws just 2W more power with the Core i5/750 than the MSI GD-65, which is excellent considering MSI’s advantage over other boards in this sector. When the 750 is overclocked, it draws slightly less power than all competing P55 boards except for the MSI GD65.
Application/Gaming Performance
We're presenting all of the application/gaming performance data without commentary because, as we mentioned before - there's no real appreciable performance difference between these three boards. All of the boards were run with the Core i5 750 and we've included the Phenom II X4 965 BE as well as the i7 860, 870 and 920 purely for reference. Please check our Lynnfield launch article to see how well this processor performs against a variety of CPUs.
In many of our tests, the Core i5 750 is the same speed or faster than the Phenom II X4 965 BE. The lack of Hyper Threading prevents it from being a runaway success. In other cases, the Phenom II X4 965 is faster - and by a large degree.
Intel was very careful to disable HT on the 750, without it, there would be no reason to spend the extra money on the Core i7 860. Just as it was with Bloomfield, $284 is the sweet spot for Lynnfield if absolute performance is a requirement. Now for the benchmarks.
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treesloth - Monday, December 7, 2009 - link
I first used the internet when the main protocol was IP over smoke signals, so keep your fancy "flexibility" off my lawn!Seriously, though, good points. I also have to compliment Anandtech on basing their article layouts on visitor convenience, as opposed to the many sites that seem to try to herd as many visitors as possible into as many page views (and ad impressions) as possible.
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
Yes, the summary/conclusion is on the first page. For the exact reason that Bull Dog mentions. We've had a lot of requests from people that want 'bare all' on the first page, so here it is. Saves you having to trundle through every page picking up tidbits here and there of what the board can or cannot do. We know it won't appease everybody, but then appeasing everybody is impossible anyway..lolregards
Raja
poohbear - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
I think it doesnt make sense. who says u hafta "trundle" through every page to get to the conclusion?? u just click the drop down menu & go to the conclusion. A site for computer enthusiasts & the readers can't even figure out how to use a drop down menu????Devo2007 - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
I agree - the new layout is confusing.What I'd suggest is a small summary of the article (either Pros/Cons, or small highlights of the product being reviewed. That way, people can get a quick overview of the product, and delve into the article more if they wish.
Putting the full-fledged conclusion on the main page just doesn't seem to fit right.
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
I'll try and find a happy medium that does not confuse people too much..loltreesloth - Monday, December 7, 2009 - link
Put the conclusion right in the middle-- page 10 of a 20-page review. Oh, and since programming languages can't seem to settle whether indexing should start at 0 or 1, we'll compromise and start at .5.Seriously, though, I think people will get a little confused exactly once, figure it out, and never have another problem. I like the new way.
sonci - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
Its called abstract,its used on medical articles..
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, November 26, 2009 - link
Whichever way you look at it; you click on the review, read the first page for everything relevant and then if it interets you to lo at the figures, read on. Can't get much simpler than that.later
Raja
Bull Dog - Wednesday, November 25, 2009 - link
First/second page conclusion.Kinda wierd but I like it over the standard "go through 11 gazillion pages of nearly meaningless numbers."