Product Listing

Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe (Intel P965)

By Zachary Chan - 7 Sep 2006

TForce P965 Deluxe Examined

Features

The Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe motherboard features the Intel P965 chipset paired with the higher-end ICH8R Southbridge, our first indication that the board isn't a plain mainstream offering. The ICH8R as many would know by now, comes with six SATA 3.0Gbps ports with advanced AHCI/NCQ and Intel's Matrix Storage technology. As such, the board will have support for RAID 0,1,5 and 10 as well for a pretty sizable storage capacity. However, as mentioned before, there are also indications that Biostar is trying to keep costs low on the board. It uses a simple VIA VT6410 controller to provide the single extra IDE port for legacy storage support (even though the controller can support dual IDE ports).

Six SATA 3.0Gbps ports with one IDE port provided by the VIA VT6410 controller. However, being grouped all at the bottom isn't really ideal.

HD Audio is a staple feature of the ICH8R and the TForce P965 Deluxe comes with Realtek's value edition ALC883 8-channel CODEC. While the board only features analog connections for the onboard audio, Biostar has provided an extra bracket for coaxial and optical S/PDIF jacks. As for network support, the board is sadly stuck with a PCI-based Gigabit solution (Realtek RTL8110SC) instead of a PCIe one. We've also yet to see the new ICH8R onboard Gigabit MAC utilized. As you'd expect, the board comes with ten USB 2.0 ports, but unlike most motherboards, Biostar has enabled six ports on its rear I/O panel instead of the standard four. The one feature that is lacking though is FireWire support.

Headers for S/PDIF In and Out are available on the board, but only S/PDIF Out bracket is provided in the package.

As with most manufacturers these days, the TForce P965 Deluxe comes with its set of proprietary technologies. One of the more interesting features is the Memory Integration Test (M.I.T.), which is actually an integrated Memtest86+ (v1.60) in the BIOS that can be enable to test memory at POST. Other features include Automatic Overclocking System (A.O.S.), which speaks for itself and CMOS Reloading Program (C.P.R.). C.P.R. is supposed to be able to save up to 50 different BIOS profile settings, but from our experience, the saved settings are also stored within the BIOS itself, thus if you ever needed to clear the CMOS, all your settings are gone as well, which really defeats its purpose.

Onboard power and reset buttons.

Layout

The TForce P965 Deluxe is a single graphics motherboard with a decent set of expansion slots. We like how Biostar separates the PCIe x16 slot from the rest so that one can install large graphics cards without sacrificing even a single expansion slot. That being said, the rest of the board doesn't show the same mindfulness in design.

Decent amount of expansion capability with three PCI, one PCIe x1 and one PCIe x4 slots available. Biostar made sure all slots can be used even with a large PCIe x16 graphics card installed.

Storage connectors are all groups towards the bottom of the board and with the IDE connector below the SATA ports, you can be sure it will make it slightly difficult to connect optical drives, usually installed towards the top of a chassis. Because of this though, the DIMM slots can be pushed towards the front edge of the board, leaving a good amount of room for the CPU to breathe, which is a good thing. However, we then have both the ATX power connectors located above the CPU socket, which might potentially cause air flow issues with the power cables if you have a cramped case.

DIMM slots at the edge of the board, properly spaced out and color coded.

Both ATX power connectors are in an unfavorable position.

The TForce P965 Deluxe has a very spacious CPU socket, but is hampered by poor ATX power connector location.

Overclocking

  • FSB Settings: 266MHz to 500MHz
  • DDR Settings: DDR2-533 / 667 / 800
  • PCIe Frequency: 100MHz to 200MHz
  • CPU Voltage Settings: 1.00000V to 1.80000V (in 0.00625V steps)
  • Memory Voltage Settings: 1.80V, 2.0 to 2.2V (in 0.1V steps)
  • NB/SB Voltage Settings: 1.5V to 1.8V (in 0.1V steps)
  • FSB Termination Voltage: 1.2V to 1.5V (in 0.1V steps)
  • Multiplier Selection: No

While the Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe holds an appearance to be a strong mid-range motherboard, it lacks the overclocking capacity of similar mid-range to high-end boards. One of the first indications of this was its lack of a CPU multiplier selection, limiting overclocking of unlocked and high-multiplier CPUs and provisions only for memory speeds up to DDR2-800. Our premonitions turned out to be true though once we started our overclocking tests.

The past few P965 motherboards we've tested proved to be excellent overclockers when paired with the Core 2 Duo processor, achieving amazing speeds up to 480MHz base FSB. The TForce P965 Deluxe didn't fare that well, as it only managed a cool 360MHz - modest at best when compared to the likes of Gigabyte's GA-965P-DS3 or the ASUS P5B Deluxe. Since we know that the Core 2 Duo E6300 CPU isn't the bottleneck here, we've reached the board's limits on the current retail BIOS (IP96A803).

CPU-Z overclocking results. Click for full size image.

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