BIOSTAR TZ77XE3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Decent, mid priced motherboard. Comes with all the connections you would want.

Cons: The PCI slots are poorly laid out. My hopes of one day SLIing two video cards will never be fulfilled with this MB.

I also thought the onboard audio would be adequate with this rig. However, there is a feedback that is causing a buzzing to come through any speakers or headphones I plug in. I've explored power source feedback, moving my graphics card to different slots, running with HD graphics.... But no luck. I don't think I'll be considering a biostar in the future.

Pros: not good! I guess there is a price for everything. Lesson learn is you can't go cheap and expect things to be stable. I should of stuck with ROG boards.

Cons: It's been 2 months since i last posted here. For the last 2 weeks, this mobo is becoming more and more unstable. I had not OC yet, every setting is set at default only. Not only when gamimg, but when i browse the internet or watch streaming video. The mobo BSOD's, i get BSOD when playing games like SCII, the computer will actually crash with nothing running. I upped the Vcore voltage and still crashes, but not as often. The problem is with the added voltage, with same default clock speed. The idle temp was in mid to high 20's celsius. Currently, with added voltage; the idle temp is in high 30's. And...it still BSOD when i play games like SC II. Basically, default setting will crash no matter how I set it.

Other Thoughts: My Win7 64 is up to date with SP1, the mobo bios is up to date. Tested the memory with Memtest 86 with no errors. With defaut settings, running Prime 95 will either BSOD or 1 or 2 worker stops working, usually at 2 to 5th round during the test. If I up the voltage, Prime95 is a bit more stable, runs a little longer but it will eventually crash/BSOD. At this point, no games i play is stable, I'm getting more BSOD. Extremly unstable and hard to work with. Very dissapointed, I hate dealing with RMA, and be even more disaptointed if i get another board with same issue. ON TOP of that, i have to pay for shipping. This really sucks!!!

Pros: A decent motherboard for the price. Comes with lots of pretty colors and hookups. Solid feel, and seems stable enough.

Cons: Well, this is my 2nd. Since August of 2012. I got this along with all my other parts for a decent gaming rig. Then suddenly, coil whine. Oh man, the coil whine. I've been having nothing but problems with the dang coil whine. So I got it RMA'd, and they said even though they can't hear it, they'll send me a new one. :/ Hm, okay. So I get the new one, and it fits as akwardly as ever, but still nice and snug. I reinstall all my other parts, [sans cooler, forgot my S524's rubber gaskets], and lo and behold, three weeks later [early march, late feburary] -> Coil whine! Again! Not as loud, for now, or as insistent, but MADDENING. Coil whine is probably the equivalent of nail on chalkboards for most people. I email Biostar back again about this, and they're asking me all these questions about overclocking and whatnot. I tell 'em I have the ram bumped up to 1866 instead of 1600, and that's it. No response. They have seemed to just begun to ignore me, and that's how it's going to be, I guess. They boast solid capacitors and all this high-quality material, but you're going to sit there and tell me it can't handle everything it says it's designed to? No.

Very unhappy with how this is going, and I don't want another replacement. This one proved that it's a solid feeling but overall poorly built board, and can't handle simple use and moderate gaming.

Other Thoughts: Coil whine... Ugh. I feel so let down as a customer and consumer. I'd gladly take another board over this one, at this point. I actually am considering duct-taping anything that's not a fan to shut this thing up.

Pros: I originally gave it three stars because I didn't receive my mail-in rebate. Well, after a mere seven months, it did finally come in the mail. So there ya go.

Cons: The rebate process could be more expedient.

Other Thoughts: Old Review:

Pros: Bought this for my first build. It works. I plugged everything in and... it all works! No issues whatsoever so far. I don't know a great deal about computers, but I've been very happy with the performance so far.

Cons: Nothing to report.

Other Thoughts: The reason I gave it three stars is that it appears Biostar will not honor their mail-in-rebate. I am not happy about this. I simply would not count on a mail-in rebate in the future with Biostar.

Pros: Looks great, feels sturdy, installed smoothly. On-board power, reset, and debug, are nice touches make it stand out against others in this range. Pleasantly surprise to get noticeable sound quality improvement from THX.

Cons: F-audio header and Sata port layouts not the best for clean wire management. The two upper most heatsinks could be more firmly mount. Sys fan = 3 pin header so no 4 pin fan headers on this board vs 1 to 3 headers on some competitively priced boards. Toverclock is worthless dont waste space on it.

Other Thoughts: Overall a great board for the price your paying.

Also in regards to Mikek's angry review 2slot card absolutely fit the second PCIe-16 slot without overlapping sata ports, and of course there is a PCIe bandwith limitation on all z77 boards there is nothing off about this PCI layout.

Pros: price AR

Cons: XE3 has bad composition
what's the point to have 3 PCI-e if yiou can use just one, middle slot only
the 1st is to close or even overlaps with CPU HS, so it can't be used
the 2nd is too close to SATA ports that any modern video cards that takes 2 slots (which isn't?) overlaps on top of SATA sockets that are vertical

and the last 3rd is PCI-E 2 that also can't take 2 slots video card as it comes on top of other connectors.

The XE4 a bit better due to SATA on the side, while 1st PCI-E has the same issue

QC for XE3 isn't good and RMA takes forever ...
I got SATA port 2 issue due to one pin isn't in place and never been soldered, while all 2 QC stickers are there
My bad that I didn't test all SATA ports - who will test 6 ports at MB arrival?
I used 1 SSD for port 1 and HDD for ports 3-6. Whne I got 2nd SSD I discovered that port 2 has issue, but that was a day above return period, who knows?
So I got RMA and S/H at my expense just to be out of my system for 3 weeks already and keep counting

It was send for RMA 3 weeks ago and I didn't get back repaired MB for a while
Keep out from this MB and Biostar if you can, test every port till return period!!!
that's my personal "bad" experience with it

Pros: I did not expect Biostar to build such nice motherboard at a terrific price. I got this as a birthday gift and my friends told me she got it for $75.00 brand new. the color scheme is nice. Support CFX/SLi, Sata3's, plus many more support. Temp display is nice to have feature. on/off directly from the motherboard is very nice. No overclocking yet. Looks like im going sell my old 1366 socket board and keep this fine motherboard from Biostar.

Cons: Anyways, this board did have some issues with blue screens. I've test the memory with memtest 86, SuperPI, Linx, test my Graphic cards and every piece of hardware seems to be fine. So turned up the voltage memory in bios and the board seems to stable. it's been on for couple weeks with no blue screens, freeze or crashes. Maybe i solved the issue? who knows, we'll see what happens when I began to OC in a few months.

Other Thoughts: none, for 75 bucks with all these features is a steal no matter how you put it. Unless the board came fail by default.

SETUP: i5 357k on water and 2 GTX 680 with Heatkiller Nickel waterblock. Patriot Extreme memory 1600mhz

Pros: Cheap, under 70$ at time of purchase
comes with utilities for monitoring temps and voltages
easy to use bios
flash bios and install windows from USB3.0 ports
autoupdate bios utility through windows
ports large enough to plug cables in with my large man hands
stood up to 5-6 insert and removes as I learned what stand-off screws were (10 total) and when to install faceplate (before you put it in the case)
Rebate was processed in matter of days

Cons: bought 1.35V low profile Ram. The board does not autoadjust in small enough stepsizes to reach this voltage. Only options were 1.318 or 1.375V, even though board registered XMP1 profile at correct voltages and timings. Defaults to 1.5V, but does run stable at 1.375.
No idea what the Green CPU utility does or how much effect it actually has. Internet doesn't seem to know either.

Other Thoughts: My first time assmebling computers. hVanet' owned a desktop since 2003, and this one went along fairly well. Had some issues originially installing my OS from the USB 3.0 ports. Discovered it will only install from the REAR PANEL USB3.0 slots, not the on-board plug (on board extension cable running from motherboard to USB3.0 ports attached to computer case)
Front panel plugs: i imagine will vary depending on case. If you didn't know, most of these can be plugged inverted (Hard drive light, power and reset, front panel light) without affecting use.
There is no need to short the power switch when testing the board. There is a physical "On/Off" and "reset" button on the board.

Pros: Solid, stable and reliable. Overclocks awesomely. Easy to use BIOS and the black pcb looks good.

Cons: None. I don't care much for the orange accents on the heat spreaders.

Other Thoughts: Biostar doesn't get enough credit. definitely up there with asus and gigabyte

Pros: - Beautiful metallic orange and black design, which matches my Ares RAM almost perfectly
- Pin placement makes cable management easy and visually appealing (although audio header seemed to be in a strange place at first, my graphics card hides the cable and makes it look a lot cleaner, so I like it)
- Bios is intuitive and user-friendly

Cons: - Two of the USB ports don't work properly.
- Included software seems old and doesn't work as well as it should.
- User manual is not very informative.
- Weird audio problem. Audio pops once every second, making listening to music and talking on Skype very annoying. This is a deal breaker for me.
- Tech support is kind of poopy. "We aren't here right now, please leave a message after the beep.... Beep."

Other Thoughts: Will probably be RMA-ing this unless support can help me fix my problem.

Manufacturer Response:

Sorry to hear of you troubles, please contact gerry@biostar-usa.com for direct assistance, thanks!