Biostar First To Launch AMD X870E Platform
June 3th, 2024, TAIPEI, TAIWAN — At 10:59 AM, BIOSTAR proudly announced the launch of the brand-new X870E VALKYRIE motherboard a full minute ahead of its competition: Scheduled for 11AM Taipei (23:00 EDT USA), the embargo on AMD’s Ryzen 9000 and related platform news actually ended with its live presentation. It appears that this happened at 10:59 AM Taipei, and that an observer from Biostar was keen enough push the “publish now” button. We approve.
Filled with puffy words and keywords like “game-changer” and “content creators”, the announcement goes on to detail such qualifications as a “smart layout” and “extensive hardware support”. You know, the stuff that all X870E motherboards are expected to do.
As with any X870-series motherboard, buyers are assured of out-of-the-box AMD Ryzen™ 9000 Series support because the board simply didn’t exist before 9000-series firmware. Casual gamers often like to display their AAA gaming titles at high detail by using extreme graphics, so Biostar mentions all three, along with those who make their money off them: Streamers. Review sites are unfortunately a bit farther down the list.
After casually tossing in a few more superlatives, Biostar gets down to the nitty-gritty: The X870E VALKYRIE is equipped with a 22-phase & 110A Dr.MOS power design, 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, PCIe 5.0 M.2, 6 x SATA3, multiple M.2 sockets, Rapid Debug 3 troubleshooting feature on an 8-layer, low-loss, moisture-proof PCB. M.2 screws get replaced with an M.2 Anchor to simplify the installation of M.2 devices.
Biostar VIVID LED DJ + RGB SYNC is said to be new, with improved compatibility for controlling RGB peripherals. Other (older) enhancements include USB PD Charging (rapid charging) via the USB Type-C interface, and Biostar even adds an automated driver installer similar to what its competitors have been including for the past few years.
The rest, AMD Ryzen™ 7000, 8000, and 9000 Series processor support, 4-DIMM DDR5 memory up to 192 GB, AMD EXPO technology are a given for any X-series Socket AM5 model. Biostar claims AMD’s USB 4.0 refocus as its own, right down to its 40Gb/s data rate.
The X870E VALKYRIE features HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 graphics output options, along with a SMART BIOS UPDATE button and a SMART BIOS UPDATE USB port, eight rear USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gb/s) Type-A ports, two rear USB 4.0 Type-C ports with DisplayPort throughput, and stated support for WiFi 6, 6E & 7 modules (but no actual module stated), Realtek RTL8125B (2.5GbE) LAN, and Realtek ALC1220 7.1 Channels High Definition Audio.
That last thing? A legacy feature that you’ll need if you want to run multichannel surround. As the newer audio controllers found on certain competing products merely provide a subset of these legacy features, we’re glad to count Biostar as one of the few companies that continues to support the broader market.
