I wonder if any company out there carries out regular overclocker surveys. It would be very interesting to compare the results of a today's survey like that against the one made, say, three years ago. I assume a mainstream computer enthusiast uses mostly Asus or Gigabyte mainboards these days. In fact there is nothing surprising about it.
While the majority of mainboard makers usually have one or two mainboard models on a new chipset, Asus and Gigabyte usually announce the whole line-up of solutions from the simplest and cheapest to the elite models. As a result, numerous choice options can satisfy almost any needs, and thanks to gigantic production volumes, these mainboards are available anywhere in the world: from cold Canada to scorching hot Australia.
With such cut-throat competition other mainboard makers have to find their own unique ways of survival. DFI Company, for instance, turned their back to mainstream users and bets on computer enthusiasts as their primary target group. Elitegroup, on the contrary, doesn't focus on overclockers?need and offers simple inexpensive mainboards without extended features. ASRock Company seems to be doing pretty well: they focus on using older chipsets for the platforms supporting newest CPUs and third-party chipsets.
Biostar Company also has its own unique path. Their mainboards are priced close to those from Elitegroup, however offer a much broader range of overclocking-friendly features. This is exactly why we are very much interested in taking a closer look at a few Biostar mainboards today. They will be two new solutions on Intel P35 Express chipset: one for DDR2 and another for DDR3 SDRAM.
Biostar TP35D2-A7 Mainboard
We would like to start our discussion with the simpler model. Biostar TP35D2-A7 mainboard uses DDR2 SDRAM, which is still more acute these days.
Package and Accessories
Biostar TP35D2-A7 is shipped in a standard box. It is designed in the traditional way for T-Series Biostar products that boast extensive overclocking-friendly features. To personify each particular package the model name and logotypes of all supported technologies are stuck to the front of the box.
Despite the not very big size of the box, there was enough room inside for two separate smaller boxes with neatly arranged accessories. One of them contained a printed user's manual and a CD disk with drivers and utilities. Another box contained an FDD and IDE cables, a pair of SATA cables, power converter for Serial ATA devices and an I/O Shield for the case rear panel.
