Normally, you'd lack USB 3.0 and SATA III support

Dec 16, 2014 09:21 GMT  ·  By

Sometimes, an OEM or other will negotiate a deal with a processor or chipset provider, giving them a little advantage against their rivals. Such is the situation for Biostar and AMD, though we suppose it was Biostar itself that did most of the work.

Advanced Micro Devices has all sorts of chips and chipsets, from low-end, low-power configurations to high-end, overpowered technologies.

The entry-level chipset capable of supporting FM2+ socket accelerated processing units is the A68H, which was released not that long ago.

Unfortunately, that chipset lacks support for USB 3.0 and SATA III (SATA 6.0 Gbps). This was what Biostar didn't find altogether agreeable.

So, after jumping through some engineering and design hoops, Biostar and AMD made an exclusive chipset called A70. Said chipset was then used in the motherboard we're bringing you today.

The Biostar A70MGP

This motherboard comes in the micro-ATX form factor and has a pair of DIMM memory slots, allowing for up to 32 GB of DDR3 memory.

No, there is no DDR4 support, and there won't be until 2015. Not that you even need DDR4 in a low-end or multimedia PC anyway.

The FM2+ socket means that you can install dual-core and quad-core AMD APUs from the AMD A-Series and E-Series.

Biostar also made sure to include four SATA connectors (SATA III, as we said), as well as two USB 3.0 connectors (5 Gbps SuperSpeed rate).

Finally, AMD Dual Graphics Technology is present, allowing the GPU of whatever APU you buy to combine forces with an add-in PCI Express video board.

All in all, the Biostar A70MGP should provide everything an A68H or A58 chipset-based motherboard would, only with twice the SATA HDD/SSD performance and ten times the USB top speed.

Availability and pricing

The Biostar A70MGP, complete with HDMI 3D 1080p support and VGA output, should be put up for sale soon. Unfortunately, exact availability and pricing details are unavailable, since Biostar did not include them in the press release.

If you find yourself browsing and want to check out this platform in particular, look for a micro-ATX board with two yellow DDR3 and PCI Express slots, but an otherwise black printed circuit board.

Even if retailers don't list it immediately, it shouldn't take more than a few days for the product to go up for order. The top RAM speed is of DDR3-2600 by the way. It means you could use the newcomer to produce a pretty strong gaming mini system, even a LAN party model with the right case.

Show Press Release

Biostar A70MGP (4 Images)

Biostar A70MGP
Biostar A70MGP, top viewBiostar A70MGP overview
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