Biostar's TA75M+ motherboard is a micro-ATX entry level platform with relatively robust onboard graphics care of the AMD Fusion APU processor and thorough storage options via AMDs A75 chipset. Built around the AMD Fusion A75 chipset, the board supports socket FM1 AMD A8/A6-series processors which feature integrated graphics in the form of a Radeon HD 6550D/6530D graphics core. With the AMD Fusion platform it's possible to build a very economical mainstream computer system on a tight budget.

The Biostar TA75M+ motherboard is equipped with four DIMMs that support up to 32GB of dual channel DDR3-800/1066/1333/1600/1866 memory in a 64-bit Widows 7 environment. Entry level 4GB DDR3 memory modules don't cost much these days, but a better option would be a pair of 8GB memory modules for this platform. The integrated Radeon HD 65xxD-series IGP will allocate up to 512MB of system memory to itself, so more system memory is best if you plan on using the AMD Fusion A8/A6 processors' integrated graphics.

In brief the integrated graphics core has up to 400 shader processors, supports DX11, runs at clock speeds of up to 600MHz and supports DirectCompute, Blu-Ray 3d, UVD3 and OpenCL. The IGP is powerful enough to get you in the door on most FPS games at reasonable frame rates and screen resolutions. When it comes to HD video decoding and regular old desktop 2D graphics, the AMD Fusion IGP is more than capable. If your gaming needs eventually demand higher resolutions or image quality, the TA75M+ board has a PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard slot ready and waiting.

The Biostar TA75M+ motherboard has been built with a good variety of expansion slots; the aforementioned PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot for discrete NVIDIA or ATI graphics cards (at x16), a PCI Express 2.0 x4 and x1 slot and legacy PCI slot. As with most microATX motherboards, space is at a premium. Storage options on the Biostar TA75M+ consist of six internal SATA III ports capable of 6Gb/s transfer rates - no IDE devices are supported at all. The SATA ports can be configured to RAID 0, 1 and 10 modes. The board also has three USB 2.0 and a single USB 3.0 header onboard, yet unfortunately Biostar does not provide even a single USB bracket to make use of these headers.

Biostar TA75M+ Motherboard INCLUDES: User's Manual, Driver CD, (3) SATA cables, I/O Shield Chipsets: AMD A75 CPU Support: AMD Socket FM1 Memory Type: Dual Channel DDR3 Videocard Support: (1) PCI Express x16 2.0 IGP Video Ports: HDMI, Analog VGA, DVI-D Estimated Price: $95 USD/CDN (Newegg.com, NCIX)

At the back of the Biostar TA75M+ motherboard you'll find two USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, three onboard graphics ports (HDMI, DVI-D and VGA), Gigabit LAN and the usual assortment of 7.1 channel HD audio jacks. Given that there's a bit of space remaing on the rear I/O, we're surprised Biostar haven't added Firewire, or at the very least an eSATA port.

Biostar's TA75M+ motherboard is a fairly conservative take on the AMD A75 chipset, fortunately what this motherboard lacks in bundled-in extras it delivers in price. Expect to find the Biostar TA75M+ for less than $95 CDN, ($95 USD, £55 GBP) online.

Integrated Graphics