The one, The only, Biostar X370 GT3!

[Damascus]

In terms of a swift rating on this board I give it:

 

Construction

8/10

 

Lighting 

7/10

 

Software

-infinity/10

 

 

 

Installation

All in all this mobo has been pretty hassle free in terms of installation aside from the fact that the mounting holes on the far right don't match up with those in the inwin 301.  I am running it without those stand-offs to avoid any damage to the board.

 

Lighting

I. Despise. Red. LEDs.  I'm putting up with the red front IO illumination of the 301 until I can get some RGB up there but the top right led on the mobo (racing logo) LIGHTS UP RED!  In all advertising by Biostar its RGB but in every consumer video I've seen its red...  Severely disappointed, I'll be getting out some electrical tape.  When I attempted to contact Biostar directly I got no response.  Will update as time goes on.

 

The LEDs that actually work work well, a nice little accent to the stock cooler (rgb yee) and I'm kind of surprised by how nice lit up PCIE covers look.

 

 

Software

Awful in every way imaginable aside from, of course, the rgb control software.  The LED controller is actually pretty solid with some nice effects and its easy to use.  Quite literally everything else is opaque and a pain in the ass to maneuver around from the fan controller doing basically nothing to the simple way to OC (changing the multiplier) being locked but P-state isn't.  The interface is also poorly thought out and very dated looking.

 

OC capability

Currently running burntest of P95 on my 1700 using all cores on the hottest setting, 3.6Ghz stable on the stock voltage.  About an hour so far and no issues here.  3.725 was a bit too much on stock voltages however and when I have better cooling I'll update with higher voltages/OC

 

Pros:

• Dual bios
• Surprisingly good manual
• Already has AGESA (6/15/2017)
• Good RAM support (untested as of right now)
• Subdued PCB color
• RGB LEDs and lots of RGB header
• Decent VRMs/heatsink for mATX ryzen (4+3)
• 2 PWM fan headers on top of PWM CPU header

 

Cons:

• Software is the biggest dumpster fire you will ever find.  EVERYTHING is difficult
• CPU multiplier is locked, OC is based on P-state (still works but... meh)
• No wifi/bluetooth
• IO plate is kind of shite
• IO is mediocre
• Top right LED never turns off and is red, despite advertising as RGB (software maybe?)
  Spoiler

  

   

[Damascus]

@STRMfrmXMN Hope this is helpful, the board is actually pretty good at OC'ing.  I'd definitely help them out though

[domandric034]

I personally hate biostar. I prefer ASUS or Gigabyte.

[STRMfrmXMN]

13 minutes ago, Damascus said:

@STRMfrmXMN Hope this is helpful, the board is actually pretty good at OC'ing.  I'd definitely help them out though

Still only a 4+3 design but it's better than nothing.

[Damascus]

14 minutes ago, domandric034 said:

I personally hate biostar. I prefer ASUS or Gigabyte.

Yeah, so far I've always gotten gigabyte (convienence more than anything) and the BIOs they have are 10 000 000 000 times better

[Damascus]

6 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Still only a 4+3 design but it's better than nothing.

Pretty much, this board is likely the best of the current crop of mATX boards but  that isn't all that impressive...

[STRMfrmXMN]

10 minutes ago, Damascus said:

Pretty much, this board is likely the best of the current crop of mATX boards but  that isn't all that impressive...

Still waiting for Asrock to release an OC or Taichi lineup for mATX

[Damascus]

Just now, STRMfrmXMN said:

Still waiting for Asrock to release an OC or Taichi lineup for mATX

If they do a good job on the mATX side of things I may sell the Biostar one and nab asrock, especially if its Taichi.  Love that design language

[domandric034]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

If they do a good job on the mATX side of things I may sell the Biostar one and nab asrock, especially if its Taichi.  Love that design language

Taichi has to be my favorite motherboard in a very long time. Match it with White GPU, white case, white sleeved cables for modular psu, black/white ssds and hdds and black AIO cooler and you got stylish build.

[Damascus]

Well update 2 on the Biostar customer service, they have responded but haven't been particularly helpful.

[Damascus]

Update 3 on customer service, they no longer return my emails.

[Nocte]

On 2017-6-15 at 8:34 PM, Damascus said:

Top right LED never turns off and is red, despite advertising as RGB (software maybe?)

You need to download the Racing Utility to change the LED.

 

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

Update 3 on customer service, they no longer return my emails.

They sometime take their time to answer, which is not great at all.

[Damascus]

Just now, Eibe said:

You need to download the Racing Utility to change the LED.

 

I know, every other LED works just fine.  its just the racing logo.

 

Just now, Eibe said:

They sometime take their time to answer, which is not great at all.

Yeah, took em a day to respond in the first place and then stopped talking to me after I told  them my CPU was compatible.

[Nocte]

Just now, Damascus said:

I know, every other LED works just fine.  its just the racing logo.

 

Yeah, took em a day to respond in the first place and then stopped talking to me after I told  them my CPU was compatible.

When I sent them my first email, it took more than 3 weeks to get an answer.

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, Eibe said:

When I sent them my first email, it took more than 3 weeks to get an answer.

Wow.  What was your issue?

[Nocte]

Just now, Damascus said:

Wow.  What was your issue?

I just asked them some random pre-purchase questions, like if they knew what BIOS would the boards ship with in Europe (since they arrived way later than the US), etc. Nothing fancy.

[Damascus]

Just now, Eibe said:

I just asked them some random pre-purchase questions, like if they knew what BIOS would the boards ship with in Europe (since they arrived way later than the US), etc. Nothing fancy.

Huh, I guess I can only hope

[Nocte]

On 2017-6-15 at 8:34 PM, Damascus said:

Already has AGESA (6/15/2017)

Really? It is not even available on their website to download and update...

EDIT: You mean 1.0.0.4 or 1.0.0.6? Mine shipped with 1.0.0.4 and I am still waiting for the new one - even though I am not sure I would update as my RAM is running fine.

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, Eibe said:

1.0.0.4

 

[HotterThanA]

how has this board held up over the long term? are u happy with it? thx

[Damascus]

34 minutes ago, HotterThanA said:

how has this board held up over the long term? are u happy with it? thx

Poorly.  The top pcie slot is extremely shoddy and I recommend either the ab350m pro4 or asus tuf

[BetaTester552]

Honestly, I've had this board since Jan 2018 and its been good. I hate the bios, the configurations for voltages I wish was better, but the regular updates are nice. I haven't had a problem with the PCI-E slot, but I only change graphics cards every couple of years so yeah.

 

The LEDs on the board is nice, except for the "Racing" at the top right. Nothing a bit of electrical tape can't fix if it bothers you.

 

My only real gripe is, to what would I change this board, and what would I really gain. with this you get a full fat x370 chipset and at the price I paid 2 years ago, that was unbeatable.