Biostar TF550 Motherboard Review :: Setup and Usage

Board Logo

Setup of a motherboard is like second nature to me by now, as I have installed hundreds of motherboards into the test stations and computers over the years. The key is to use known working components, take your time and make sure the connections are correctly inserted.

The first step in installing the motherboard is to take out the contents of the box and make sure everything you are supposed to have is in there. The second step is to mount the board on the case with mounting screws and washers. We use a custom air test station so insertion/removal of a board is easy.

The AMD Athlon 5000+ CPU that we use for testing is a good CPU as it is one of AMD's Dual Core CPUs. Once we move further into 2007 I can foresee the 5000+ being the primary test CPU for motherboards until AMD releases their next platform. Setup of the CPU is easy, just lift the lever, insert the CPU into the Socket, apply thermal paste and attach the heatsink/fan assembly.

Without two slots for video cards, the choice of where to put the 7900GT we use for testing was easy. The positioning of the DIMM sockets does not block the video card slot and vice versa, even though they appear close together. I installed the Crucial memory we use for motherboard testing, the video card and the connectors. At this point first boot was the next step to see if the system boots with all the components installed.