The Biostar A10N-8800E Motherboard Review: Carrizo in 2019?!
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on August 14, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- CPUs
- AMD
- Biostar
- Mini ITX
- HTPC
- Carrizo
- A10N-8800E
- FX-8800P
- Athlon 200GE
Visual Inspection
The Biostar A10N-8800E motherboard uses a simplistic, yet striking color theme throughout with yellow DDR4 memory slots, a yellow full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, on a black PCB with black connectors. This full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot allows users to use a discrete graphics card which is an option if an option with DisplayPort is desired, although the AMD FX-8800P does feature integrated graphics of its own.
In the centre of the PCB is an integrated cooling solution which is made of an aluminium heatsink with a straight-forward fin-array, and a small black fan. This is more than ample for the AMD FX-8800P quad-core processor with its low operating 15 W TDP. There is no overclocking here.
Located at the top of the Biostar A10N-8800E is two memory slots which have support for DDR4-2133 and up to a maximum of 32 GB of capacity. These slots also only support non-ECC memory so users looking to use server grade memory with the intended use of a building a small form factor microserver will have to re-think their options if error correction is a buying factor.
Located above the full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot is a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot which is also capable of running SATA based drives. This is somewhat unique for a Carrizo desktop system, and well worth the addition. There are also two SATA ports with straight-angled connectors located just below the 24-pin 12 V ATX motherboard power input. With the AMD FX-8800P coming with its own low profile CPU cooling solution, there are two 3-pin fan headers to use for case fans. Nothing fancy and 4-pin PWM fans aren't supported, but the level of cooling required for operation on an integrated SoC option such as this isn't a hefty requirement.
Driving power to the basic three-phase power delivery is a single 4-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input. The power delivery of the A10N-8800E is operating in a 2+1 configuration with each CPU VCore phase consisting of two Sinopower SM4364A N-channel high-side MOSFETs, and a single Sinopower SM4377 N-channel low-side MOSFET. Providing power to the integrated graphics of the AMD FX-8800P is a single dual-driver ISL62773A and is designed for AMD Fusion mobile processors specifically. None of the power delivery includes any form of a heatsink, but due to the low operating power of the FX-8800P, this isn't a requirement.
On the rear panel of the Biostar A10N-8800E is a basic set of inputs, connectors and outputs usually associated with integrated SoC solutions. USB capability is provided by two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports. A single front panel USB 3.1 header provides an additional two G1 Type-A ports, where the single USB 2.0 header also contributes an extra two ports to the cause. Additionally from left to right, is separate PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, an HDMI video output capable of delivering the 4K2K high definition resolution, a single D-Sub output, a single 1 GbE LAN port, and three color-coded 3.5 mm audio jacks powered by a Realtek (insert model) audio codec.
What's in the Box
Included in the accessory bundle of the Biostar A10N-8800E are two SATA cables, a silver IO shield, a DVD driver disk and a quick guide to get users up and running. It's a very basic set of accessories, but more than ample as the PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot includes the mounts and screws required for installation on the board already.
- Two straight-angled SATA cables
- IO shield
- Driver installation disc
- Quick installation guide
73 Comments
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DanNeely - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
page 4: "Comparing $88 vs $112 is an important point here - if you are tied for cash, you might go with the $88 option. But what performance uplift do you get from an additional $14?" That's $24 not 414.sing_electric - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
And it continues through the next page. It means you're looking at 27% more price, and that's roughly fair given the performance differences seen. Both could be good buys depending on where you want to spend your cash on the build. (I kind of love planning REALLY cheap builds since the low budget makes you really work at trade offs - the $24 difference is a 120GB SSD or 4GB stick of RAM, for example. It's like a haiku, where you really need to strip things down to what matters.)The_Assimilator - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
"...Biostar believes there is a new market out there for mobile-class gaming machines"There is, but not for gaming machines that suck.
JWade - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
I think it would make for a good little multi media pc, its itx with an m.2 slot. can have a good little media player for under $200. the 200GE is with a micro atx board and is quite a bit bigger. when ever Newegg gets around to selling it, I will definitely buy one for the size its great I thinkDug - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
"if you are tied for cash, you might go with the $88 option"If you are that tied for cash you might consider buying food instead of buying new computer parts.
sing_electric - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Fair, but there's always marginal cases where you just want something under a certain price. Say you're outfitting a community center or something with computers, the $24 you save might be significant when you look at the # of units you need. There's always ways to spend more money for better performance, but for a lot of applications, the speed difference might not be noticeable.Plus, within any budget, there's smart and dumb ways to spend your money - the price difference between these is basically enough to get you a 120GB SSD at today's prices, for example, or go from 1 4GB stick of RAM to 2.
Tams80 - Thursday, August 15, 2019 - link
You can be tied for cash within a budget. If you have a budget for a computer, you almost certainly have budgets for food, utilities, transport, etc. So by not buying a cheap computer, you end up with possibly a few nicer meals but no computer.digitalgriffin - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Do a search in article for (insert model here) for the Audio Driver.Also listing the HDMI version would be critical to those looking to use this as a Media Server. One would hope it's HDMI 2.0 at least.
sandtitz - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
As stated in the article:Realtek ALC887
HDMI 1.4
Flunk - Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - link
Carrizo doesn't support HDMI 2, you need to go newer.