BIOSTAR HI-FI Z97WE Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅17-09-14
Closer Look


The socket area


Z97WE uses an 10+2 Phase power design. Over the MOSFETs sit thin, golden heatsinks which, unlike many designs are not interconnected by a copper heatpipe. Just behind the heatsinks resides an 8-pin CPU power socket and adjacent to this socket are dual CPU fan headers.

Z97WE uses Socket 1150 and supports Intel’s 4th and 5th Generation Processors.


Dual Channel DDR3 support


Z97WE supports dual channel DDR3 – up to DDR3 2800+ and 32GB of capacity. From the above, you can clearly see the contrasting colour between the memory slots and the heatsinks, they don’t match particularly well.

Around the memory there is the obligatory 24-pin ATX power, a system fan header and a single USB 3.0 header to get connectivity for the front panel of your computer case.


Up to six SATA III ports



Advanced features in the lower region


Positioned further along there are six SATA III (6GB/s) ports for HDD storage.

In the same area of the motherboard there is an LED debug panel for diagnosing any potential problems at POST (a code is displayed which corresponds to the user manual key). BIOSTAR has also placed an onboard power and reset button for easy access to such controls.

Behind these features sits the heatsink covering the Intel Z97 chip.


Expansion slot options and audio


Z97WE has a variety of different slots which consist of the following:

• 2 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot (Top x16, Lower x8)
• 2 x PCI-E x1 2.0 Slot
• 2 x PCI Slot

For users who are planning to use a single card on Z97WE it’s advisable to use the top yellow PCI express slot since this operates at x16. Since the lower yellow PCI express slot runs at x8 then using two cards means the overall speed will drop to x8. We’re surprised to see two legacy PCI slots on the motherboard since devices using this interface are obsolete.

In the middle of the PCI express slots BIOSTAR has placed an M.2 connector for installing a drive of this form factor. Transfer rates of up to 1000MB/s can be taken advantage of here.

The audio capacitors and heatsink are located to the left of the expansion slots. The audio components on Z97WE are all backed by BIOSTAR’s HI-FI series and at the heart of the audio lineup is Realtek ALC892.

The capacitors used are Non-Polarized Electrolysis Electric audio capacitors which deliver low distortion properties.


USB 3.0 ports and other features


Last of all we arrive at the rear IO panel which has a wealth of varying ports and functionality. Included here are the following:

• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
• 4 x USB 3.0 Port
• 2 x USB 2.0 Port
• 1 x HDMI Connector, resolution up to 4096x2160@24Hz,
• 1 x DVI Connector, resolution up to 1920x2000@60Hz @24bpp
• 1 x VGA Port, resolution up to 1920x2000@60Hz @24bpp
• 2 x RJ-45 Port
• 5 x Audio Connector
• 1 x S/PDIF Out Port


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