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I don't know what magic Biostar engineers infused into the TPower I45 motherboard to make it an overclocking monster, but reaching +600MHz FSB with this board is a real possibility!
90% Rating: 
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Maximum Motherboard Overclocking Chart
Overclocking is alive and well! PCSTATS has all the details
you need to see at a glance to know which board is best. The chart we've
compiled below lists the highest overclocked Front Side Bus speeds we were able
to achieve while maintaining 100% stability.
The Biostar TPower I45 is the fastest Intel P45 series
motherboard PCSTATS has tested to date. It achieved an impressive overclock of
575 MHz FSB with moderate voltage tweaks to the CPU/NB/Mem. That's mighty fast,
score 1 for Biostar.
Conclusions: TPower I45's
got Hidden Talent
 The P45 Express chipset represents
Intel's best mainstream desktop motherboard chipset before the introduction of
the socket 1366 Nehalem CPU architecture and its integrated
memory controller (IMC). Where the P45 Express makes advances on the P35 Express
is the inclusion of PCI Express 2.0 compliance. Yup, that's about it.
Intel is good at producing quick chipsets, so the
differences between various P45 mobo models is going to be minimal. What you
need to look for in any board you're considering is build quality, extra
features, and tweaker or productivity friendly aspects. The Biostar TPower I45
motherboard has the Intel ICH10R southbridge feature set, which means Gigabit
networking, plenty of SATAII and USB ports, RAID, eSATA, and HD Audio. Looking
beyond that is surprisingly good overclocking potential. The Biostar TPower I45
also has unofficial support for 1600 MHz FSB quad core chips, which most likely
means 1600MHz FSB by overclocking.
For the tweaker, the Biostar TPower I45 has hard power &
reset buttons and a handy PORT 80 LCD diagnostics display too. ASUS may have a
CMOS reset button on it's motherboards but I'd rather use a board that's
intelligent enough to realize when it needs to kick back into default settings
to boot. Biostar's BIOS recovery tool is beautifully simple when it comes to
overclocking misadventures, allowing you to tweak the last settings in the BIOS
after two or three failed boot attempts. I found overclocking the TPower I45 to
the cusp of 600MHz FSB fun, with most other boards it's a downright chore.
The Biostar TPower I45 retails for $160USD ($160CDN / £80GBP) through
e-tailers like NCIX. It's featured enough for home users
who will never overclock, and stripped down for overclockers who are chasing the
dragon and just want a fast platform with potential. Gamers may find the lack of
a second Gigabit networking port and coaxial SP/DIF audio port disappointing...
so as a gaming platform I'd say it's minimalist. The TPower I45 is AMD Crossfire
compatible, and will accommodate one or two PCI Express 2.0 videocards depending
on your gaming demands.
In the benchmarks the Biostar TPower I45 performed near
the top of its class. As far as overclocking goes, PCSTATS was able to push the
TPower I45 to 575MHz FSB with a 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor. Bottom
line, if you aren't waiting for the new class of integrated memory controller
Nehalem processors and X58 chipsets to arrive - or don't fancy buying all new everything - the Intel P45 Express and a
motherboard like the Biostar Tpower I45 is a great choice.
Find out about this and many other reviews by joining
the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS
latest reviews right here.
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