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Biostar TP35D2-A7 P35 Express DDR2 Motherboard Review
Biostar TP35D2-A7 P35 Express DDR2 Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Biostar's TP35D2-A7 motherboard is built with Intel's P35 Express and ICH9 chipsets, so with a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor it becomes the backbone for a good WindowsXP or Vista PC.
 84% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Biostar Oct 19 2007   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Biostar TP35D2-A7

Overclocking the Biostar Motherboard

Overclocking Results:
stock max. oc
motherboard speed: 333 mhz

483 mhz

if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

Biostar has worked wonders for us recently in terms of overclocking, be it videocard with voltage tuning, or its mainstream motherboards. The TP35D2-A7 motherboard will be equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor as well as a 2GB set of Corsair's DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-8888C4DF memory in this PCSTATS test. Before overclocking began, the CPU clock multiplier was reduced to 6x and the DDR2 memory set to run at 667 MHz.

Starting at 333 MHz FSB, the clock speed of the Biostar TP35D2-A7 motherboard was increased in 5 MHz steps. As with all the other Intel P35 Express motherboards, the Biostar TP35D2-A7 reached 400 MHz FSB without breaking sweat. Continuing from there, at 455 MHz the Northbridge required a bit of a voltage increase to 1.4V to keep things stable.

Other than that, it was smooth sailing until the TP35D2-A7 hit a road block at 480 MHz. Any speed higher than this and the system was unstable when running benchmarks. After about half an hour of tweaking I was able to put my years of overclocking to use and squeeze out an extra few megahertz... to 483 MHz. That was that. Increasing voltages didn't help, so I suspect the P35 Express Northbridge chipset was overheating.

An overclocked speed of 483 MHz FSB is pretty good considering the Biostar motherboard retails for just over $100 CDN! If you're looking for a low cost, mainstream P35 Express workstation motherboard, and want to have a bit of fun, the TP35D2-A7 fits the bill!

Inside the BIOS:

There are only the basic memory timing adjustments available for the Biostar TP35D2-A7. That's alright, this is not a high end overclockers motherboard after all. If you want more features you can spend more and get a tweakers motherboard.

The TP35D2-A7 motherboard supports FSB speeds between 333 to 700 MHz, in 1 MHz increments. There are a whole slew of memory speed options and the maximum CPU voltage can be increased 0.787V. Maximum Northbridge voltage is 1.55V and DDR2 voltage 2.6V.

Prelude to Benchmarks

The details of how the Biostar TP35D2-A7 Deluxe motherboard test system was configured for benchmarking, including the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below. In the second column are the general specs for the reference platforms this Intel P35 Express based system is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations
test system reference system #1 reference system #2
processor: intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (775) AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (AM2)
Clock Speed: 8 x 333 = 2.66 GHz 9 x 266 MHz = 2.4 GHz 13 x 200 MHz = 2.6 GHz
Motherboard: Biostar TP35D2-A7 (P35 Express)

Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (X38 Express)
ECS PN2 SLI2+ (NF 680i SLI)
Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H (975X)
Biostar TForce P965 DLX (P965 Express)
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (P965 Express)
Foxconn P9657AA-8KS2H (P965 Express)
MSI P965 Platinum (P965 Express)
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (P965 Express)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 (P35 Express)
MSI P35 Platinum (P35 Express)
Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe (P35 Express)

ASRock AM2V890-VSTA (VIA K8T890)
Albatron KM51PV-AM2 (GF6150)
MSI K9N SLI Platinum (NF 570 SLI)
Asus M2-CROSSHAIR (NF 590 SLI)
Videocard: MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E
Memory:

2x 1024MB Corsair DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-8888C4DF (DDR2)
2x 1024MB Corsair DOMINATOR Twin3X2048-1800C7D (DDR3)

Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740
CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI
Heatsink: Intel E6600 Reference AMD Athlon64 FX-62 Reference
Software Setup:

Microsoft WindowsXP SP2
Intel INF 7.22
nVIDIA Forceware 91.47

Microsoft WindowsXP SP2
nVIDIA Forceware 9.35
nVIDIA Forceware 91.47

Benchmarks: SYSMark 2004
PC Worldbench 5.0
Super Pi
SiSoft Sandra 2005
PCMark05
3DMark05
3DMark06
FarCry
Doom 3

Quake 4

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Contents of Article: Biostar TP35D2-A7
 Pg 1.  Biostar TP35D2-A7 P35 Express DDR2 Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  Biostar TP35D2-A7 Motherboard Highlights
 Pg 3.  — Overclocking the Biostar Motherboard
 Pg 4.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sysmark 2004
 Pg 5.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PC Worldbench (Graphics)
 Pg 6.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PC Worldbench (Office)
 Pg 7.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PC Worldbench (Data Crunching)
 Pg 8.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra, Super Pi
 Pg 9.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PCMark05
 Pg 10.  Motherboard Benchmarks: 3DMark05, 3DMark06
 Pg 11.  Motherboard Benchmarks: FarCry, Doom 3., Quake 4
 Pg 12.  PCSTATS Maximum Motherboard Overclocking Chart & Conclusions

 
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