Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard Review

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS

At the time of this article, the latest and greatest 4th generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 “Haswell” refresh chips haven’t become available yet. However, that’s not stopping companies like Biostar from pumping out their all new Z97 boards. With the exception of the added feature of M.2 SSD support, nothing has really changed since the Z87 chipset. However, the M.2 support may be just enough to make some people want to upgrade to the new chipset. It’s nice to know that the newest chipset is still fully compatible with the older Core series of processors. Once the new 5th generation Intel Core series of CPUs becomes available, they will be compatible with the Z97WE motherboard.

Biostar doesn’t have a reputation for pushing out the most cutting edge boards on the market, however they are known for making cheap but reliable boards. The Hi-Fi Z97WE is no exception to that. With a very modest price tag of just $125 USD at the time of this article, it’s hard to compare it to the higher end more expensive boards on the market. However the Z97WE does just that, it’s able to hold it’s own with the much more expensive boards that are currently available.