Biostar J3160MD – 4 cores for less

Biostar J3160MD - Introduction and Specs Biostar J3160MD – 4 cores for less Introduction Soc (System on Chip) may not of ever become as common place in the home PC as it has with Cellphones and Consoles but Biostar has worked hard to change that with the new J3160 Intel Quad core Celeron CPU. The J3160MD motherboard is a very low cost Motherboard with a lot of great features and a lot more power than you would expect for a SOC CPU. With the use of a great passive cooler pushing the quad core J3160 to 2.24Ghz, HD Graphics 400, DDR3 1600 dual channel ram, usb 3.0 and a full sized PCIe 16 2.0 slot you can make this little $59-$89 board into a very impressive little computer. Specifications and Features CPU Intel® Celeron J3160 Quad-core 2.24G MEMORY Support Dual Channel DDR3L 1600/1066 MHz 2 x DDR3 DIMM Memory Slot Max. Supports up to 8GB Memory for DDR3L-1600 OR 16GB Memory for DDR3L-1066 ※The DIMM must be installed to DIMMA1 slot first. EXPANSION SLOT 1 x PCI-E x16 2.0 Slot(x1) 2 x PCI Slot STORAGE 2 x SATA3 Connector USB 2 x USB 3.0 Port 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Header LAN Realtek RTL8111H - 10/100/1000 Controller INTEGRATED VIDEO Intel HD Graphics Supports DX11.1 Supports HDCP CODEC Realtek ALC662 6-Channel HD Audio REAR I/O 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 2 x USB 3.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Port 1 x DVI Connector 1 x VGA Port 1 x RJ-45 Port 3 x Audio Connector INTERNAL I/O 1 x Printer Header 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Header 2 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x Front Panel Header 2 x System Fan Header 1 x Serial Header H/W MONITORING CPU / System Temperature Monitoring System Fan Monitoring System Voltage Monitoring DIMENSION Micro ATX Form Factor Dimension: 22.6cm x 18.8cm ( W x L ) OS SUPPORT Support Windows 7(x64) / 8.1(x64) / 10 BUNDLE SOFTWARE BullGuard BIO-Remote2 Smart Speed LAN ACCESSORIES 2 x SATA Cable 1 x I/O Shield 1 x DVD Driver 1 x Quick Guide FEATURES Supports 100% Solid capacitor Supports BIOS-Flasher Supports Charger Booster Supports BIOS Online Update Biostar J3160MD - Closer Look The J3160MD front of the box is not flashy in anyway but for its price it does not have to be. The back of the J3160MD box gives you all you want to see. The full board specs and a fancy high resolution photo. Accessories are basic but again Biostar included all you will need with the J3160MD. A great guide book, Driver disc, aluminum I/O shield and 2 Sata Cables. The board itself looks great, it’s absolutely tiny but does provide a great look for a sub $80 board. Back of the board is again very clean and basic with a full sized PCIe 16 slot and 2 PCIe 1. You can also clearly see the separated audio electrical line. Beautiful SoC cooler, there is a SoC fan plug directly under the SoC cooler but no fan is provided. In the review you will find a fan is in zero ways required. USB 3.0 internal socket is provided right above the PCIe x16 slot as well as the 2 Sata ports, this does not cause much issues even when installing a gpu as the spacing is great due to the small SoC cooler. The back is nicely laid out with 2 ps2 ports, Vga, Dvi-D, 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0 with Gigabit Ethernet on top and 5.1 HD Audio. Biostar J3160MD - Bios With the bios on the J3160MD Bios we were unbelievably surprised with Biostars new beautiful interface and the fact it gives you a lot of great controls. On the left Biostar added a great live chart showing: System Time, CPU Current Clock Speed and Voltage, Ram Speed and Voltage, Fan speed if applicable and J3160 Temp. Biostar thankfully added the ability to up the dedicated iGPU Ram and due to this we saw some rather impressive numbers when running at 512MB dedicated. Biostar J3160MD - Test System & Synthetic Review Setup and Test Bench For today’s test system we did not rush out and pickup a GTX1080 and a badass 1Gbs SSD we went with the value side to best fit what consumers of this board would look at. Motherboard: J3160MD CPU: SoC Celeron J3160 Quad-core 2.24Ghz 6 watt Ram:2x Hynix 4GB 12800U CL12 1600Mhz GPU: Intel HD Graphics 400 512MB Assigned and PNY GTX 950 2GB OC HDD: PNY CS2211 480GB SSD OS: Windows 10 Pro 64Bit (all updates done) Passmark, Cinebench R15 OpenGL, 3DMark Vantage The following tests were each ran three times and scores were created from the average of each 3 results. The reason this section is so shortened from our norm is due to the fact The J3160MD is not our normal Motherboard/CPU review and because of this we want to keep this short and sweet. Sadly the J3160 did not impress us in Passmark with just CPU score against its older E8400 rival but it is impressive that the much lower Ghz rate of the J3160 did compete with the much higher clocked E8400. Intel did tell us the J3160's HD400 would show great improvements over the past on CPU GPU's and that it did. When comparing the HD4000 to the HD400 you can see from CineBench that the HD 400 shows impressive improvements. When testing with Vantage we see the Biostar CPU is still being held back by the HD400 even though the HD400 is a massive step forward it sadly is not enough to make it a high or even modern gaming gpu. With that said the J3160MD still is a great option for super low cost MOBA's or CS:GO as we will get into next. Biostar J3160MD - League of Legends, CS:GO & Fallout 4 From the Synthetic to the Real World we benchmark again three runs each time of LoL,CS:GO and Fallout 4(Where we can) as our results amazed us, read on to find out how the J3160MD won our hearts in the silent PC 1080p retro gamer market. League of Legends may not see many of our Reviews but when it comes to a bargain build we cannot think of a better game to be our minimum test, with all sets kept at default Medium High and 1080p we were impressed to see a average score of 40 FPS and nearly 60 at a Max. The Low times of 24 FPS still were not able to hold the J3160MD back as the game still felt very smooth and enjoyable. With a average FPS of 32 FPS we found CS:GO on medium settings easy to play but from time to time frame drops were seen but mostly during game start and taking screen shots. Max FPS at 90 was very impressive with a 1080p resolution we were able to play without feeling like J3160MD was holding us back. We also tested Fallout 4 but sadly the game would not load in with the Intel HD400 but ran on the GTX950, that we will get into later. Biostar J3160MD - Throwing a GPU into the MIX Throwing a GTX 950 into the mix the J3160MD CPU became the bottleneck but did preform impressively well while playing on the same Medium High Settings we never dropped under 40 FPS but mostly they sat at a buttery smooth 60 FPS making for great game play. CS:GO is still a massively played game with millions of players per month and requirements that are not in anyway high-end. Amazingly the FPS hit 119 when gaming but like LoL the J3160 CPU was the only thing holding the system back while playing CS:GO but still the cpu was more then enough to enjoy CS:GO with a dedicated GPU. Now we throw a newer triple A game into the mix, that game being Fallout 4, setting all settings to High and AA off we found Fallout 4 ran impressively well, with a 37 FPS average the game felt enjoyable and looked great. The CPU again was the bottleneck but did run the game very well, the J3160MD really is an impressive SoC Board, CPU, GPU combo and because of this when a Dedicated GPU is thrown in the mix the J3160MD can make an impressive gaming system. Biostar J3160MD - Power Consumption and Temperature Power Consumption testing is done using the Belkin Wattage tester on a 550VA APC UPS. At idle the J3160MD uses less power then a good quality USB Phone Charger, at max the J3160MD hits 28 Watts which is next to nothing considering most CPU's alone take over 50 watts at max and some even into the hundreds. With a open air fanless system seeing CPU temps never go above 56C is no small miracle of engineering. Biostar did a great job with their SoC cooler and the above numbers we hope illustrate this. Biostar J3160MD - TL;DR, Score Card and Closing Statement It's not every day you can say the a $59 motherboard is impressive, with that it has yet to be said before now in my life a $59 CPU,GPU,Motherboard combo at $59 even existed that was worth getting besides the Raspberry PI. Biostar did the impossible they created a great low cost option for the workplace or for anyone wanting to pickup a cheap GPU and get into some great gaming. Packaging & Accessories : 3 out of 5 The packaging lacks anything impressive and the accessories are a little lacking, the backplate is standard cheap metal with enough SATA cables to fill the 2 sata ports. The guide is good but not amazing giving us little reason to give the J3160MD any higher accessories score then 3 out of 5. Layout & Aesthetics : 3 out of 5 Biostar is famous for non standard layouts and hte J3160MD is no different, with the Sata ports being above the PCIe x16 slot as well at the USB 3.0 Ports. This makes the board look less than clean while doing a build but does not give you build issues. Build Quality & Warranty : 4.5 out of 5 All solid caps, good audio and a 3 year warranty Biostar has done all they could to make you impressed with how little you spend and the great warranty/build quality you get in return. BIOS & Software : 5 out of 5 We are not sure how they did it but Biostar pulled no punches with the J3160 when it came to their impressive UEFI bios and the bloatware free Driver disc they included with it. For $50-$79 the J3160MD Biostar made sure the customer did not feel cheated of their money even if it is super low cost. Special Features : 2 out of 5 Other then the Bios the J3160 lacks anything really special in the way of added features that you would not see else where. This is not enough to hold the board back but does make for a great buy either way. Value : 5 out of 5 With a super low cost, good quality and impressive all around setup the Biostar J3160MD is a perfect value, we cannot say that enough the price is just too good to pass up if your looking for a low cost system with the option to be a basic gamer when you add a GPU to the mix. Final Score : 22.5 out of 30 The Biostar J3160MD is a great buy and one of the best value boards we have ever had the pleasure of testing. The J3160 CPU is great for its price bring Quad Cores to the low cost market. The HD400 though it breaks no records is a epic buy and really is nothing short of impressive, it can run 1080p Video issue free and even do basic gaming easily. The J3160MD has easily earned the Real Deal Award with its super low cost and ability to be more than just a headache when it comes to performance like many of the older dual core SoC boards. In closing if you are looking to build a great low cost way to get into the PC world or looking to build a value gaming rig at as low of cost as possible Biostar has you covered with their new J3160MD. To Discuss this board or Review please join us on our forum: J3160MD Forum Discussion

Biostar J3160MD – 4 cores for less

Biostar J3160MD – Closer Look

Biostar J3160MD – Bios

Biostar J3160MD – League of Legends, CS:GO & Fallout 4

Biostar J3160MD – Throwing a GPU into the MIX

Biostar J3160MD – Power Consumption and Temperature

Biostar J3160MD – TL;DR, Score Card and Closing Statement

Biostar J3160MD – Closer Look

Biostar J3160MD – Bios

Biostar J3160MD – League of Legends, CS:GO & Fallout 4

Biostar J3160MD – Throwing a GPU into the MIX

Biostar J3160MD – Power Consumption and Temperature

Biostar J3160MD – TL;DR, Score Card and Closing Statement

John Fleming

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Biostar J3160MD – 4 cores for less

6. Setup and Test Bench

Biostar J3160MD – Closer Look

Biostar J3160MD – Bios

Biostar J3160MD – League of Legends, CS:GO & Fallout 4

Biostar J3160MD – Throwing a GPU into the MIX

Biostar J3160MD – Power Consumption and Temperature

Biostar J3160MD – TL;DR, Score Card and Closing Statement

6. Setup and Test Bench

Biostar J3160MD – Closer Look

Biostar J3160MD – Bios

Biostar J3160MD – League of Legends, CS:GO & Fallout 4

Biostar J3160MD – Throwing a GPU into the MIX

Biostar J3160MD – Power Consumption and Temperature

Biostar J3160MD – TL;DR, Score Card and Closing Statement

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