The Bad?

While the TPower I45 has a lot to like about it, in one respect the board is more humble - setting up Crossfire.

To enable Crossfire you'll need to get your hands dirty and move nine jumpers; eight red blocks of four, and one lone black jumper just above the second PCI Express x16 slot. A molex power connector will also need to be plugged into the motherboard to run dual videocards, not to mention power connectors into each videocard itself. By skimping out on costly chips to do the Crossfire switching automatically, Biostar are keeping the total cost of the board low.

Motherboard Highlights

Biostar's TPower I45 has two PCI Express x16 slots (single x16, Crossfire x8/x8), two PCI Express x1 slots, two 32 bit PCI slots. An auxiliary molex power connector is used with Crossfire to ensures the videocard has enough power. Headers are located along the bottom of motherboard. Notice the exclusive use of Low ESR solid aluminum capacitors.

Physical power/reset buttons and a POST code display make tweaking much more fun. The TPower I45 has six SATA 2.0, one IDE, and three USB2.0 connectors. There are three fan headers in total.

Each SATA2.0 jack comes from the Intel ICH10R southbridge which has something called Matrix Storage Technology to deliver RAID 0,1,5,0+1. Two eSATA ports on the back are supported by a Marvell chipset.

The TPower I45 has four DDR2 memory slots, these accommodate 2GB memory modules for a max of 8GB RAM. Install pairs of memory in same the coloured slots for dual channel operation, ie. both in orange or green. A 24-pin main ATX power and 8-pin Auxiliary power cable supply power to the board so you'll need a PSU of at least 500W.

This is an Intel LGA775 Socket-T processor socket. Many tower heatsinks have have 35-40mm of clearance before the first fin, which means they can fit onto boards like the Biostar TPower I45 without interfering with the aluminum Intel P45 Express chipset and MOSFET heatsinks.

The TPower I45 uses passive thermal solutions for the Intel ICH10R, Intel P45 Express Northbridge and processor power circuits. The upside is no noise, the downside is you'll need to ensure the case has good ventilation to keep these passive extruded aluminum chipset heatsinks reasonably cool.

Next PCSTATS will touch on the new Intel P45 Express chipset and what it has to offer to mainstream and enthusiast computer builders alike, and then overclocking!