Price / Where to Buy:
US – Approx. US$99 – BIOSTAR HIFI H170Z3
PH – N/A
With many people still holding on to their older systems, upgrading to the new Intel Skylake platform is sometimes deemed as an expensive task especially with the increase in the component pricing. With new processor and memory, the motherboard only takes up more of the price. With this in mind, many budget-oriented brands have taken to themselves to deliver solutions that allow upgraders to easily transition to the Skylake platform.
One of these brands is BIOSTAR and today we’ll take a look at their dual-type memory motherboard for the Skylake platform that takes in DDR3 and DDR4 memory. This allows upgraders to easily transition to system by using their existing DDR3 memory or buying cheaper ones. By purchasing only a board and processor, this product serves as a bridge for transitioning system builders to the new 6th-gen series processors with lower acquisition cost.
Features
- Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor
- Intel H170 single chip architecture
- Support 2-DIMM DDR3L-1866(OC)/ 1600/ 1333 up to 16G maximum capacity
- Support 2-DIMM DDR4-2133/ 1866 up to 32G maximum capacity
- BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Technology inside
- Support USB 3.0
- Support PCIe M.2(32Gb/s)
- Support SATA Express(16Gb/s)
- Support DisplayPort
Closer Look – BIOSTAR HIFI H170Z3
The BIOSTAR H170Z3 is a mATX motherboard featuring BIOSTAR’s signature Hi-Fi series branding: dark PCB (brownish) with gold highlights. The board takes in LGA1151 processors and sports a 7-phase VRM underneath light piano black finish heatsinks.
The board sports a single full-speed x16 PCIe slot with two legacy PCI slots available. A single x1 PCIe slot is also present for other expansion cards. A single M.2 slot is also present for those that want to go that route which supports full 32Gbps speeds. Further high-speed storage is available via SATA Express but pretty sure nobody’s using that.
The real wonder here is the memory support with the BIOSTAR H170Z3 supporting both DDR3 and DDR4. DDR3-1866 is the max for DDR3 and DDR4-2133 for DDR4 with 16GB and 32GB capacity limits respectively. Only one type of memory can be used at a time.
Performance Testing
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K
Motherboard: BIOSTAR HI-FI H170Z3
Memory: ADATA DDR4-2133
Storage: Kingston HyperX FURY 240GB
PSU: Thermaltake ToughPower 1000W
Cooling: Custom loop (XSPC Raystorm block, EK DCP 4.0, BlackIce Stealth GT 360 rad)
Monitor: LG 42UB820T UltraHD TV
VGA: GIGABYTE GTX 980 Ti GAMING G1
We test the motherboard using DDR4-2133 and only show results from those testing. The board has been tested with HyperX Fury DDR3-1866 kits but to show maximum performance numbers, the DDR4 results were used.
Performance Testing – Synthetic
wpDataChart with provided ID not found! wpDataChart with provided ID not found! wpDataChart with provided ID not found! wpDataChart with provided ID not found!Performance Testing – 3D Benchmark
3DMark Fire Strike
wpDataChart with provided ID not found!Power & Temperatures
We check to see how motherboard makers tune their default BIOS settings and see how it impacts temperatures and power consumption. The system is left to idle for 30 minutes before readings are taken and load data is taken 30 minutes while AIDA64 stress test is running. Power readings are taken for the entire system from the socket. Power draw for the entire system is captured for this test via an outlet wattmeter and temperatures are recorded via Intel Extreme Tuning app.
wpDataChart with provided ID not found!Conclusion
Let’s break it down for the BIOSTAR Hi-Fi H170Z3:
Performance. The BIOSTAR Hi-Fi H170Z3 is consistent in terms of performance and while it doesn’t bring out the A-game of the skylake processor, its enough to not choke it also. For i3 or G4400 usage this is an excellent option.
Build Quality. Good solder work and clean layout but the dark brown PCB and heatsinks need a bit more work. That’s quite subjective still but is quite alright for the price. The BIOS also remains quite underwhelming despite the advancements in their build quality.
Functionality. BIOSTAR’s Hi-Fi branding has been one of the strength of the company’s midrange line and they have been very successful in particularly giving flavor to the rather older audio chips and making it work for them. Overall this is a good board but we feel the ALC892 chip is a bit dated and could really do well with one of the newer ones. I know BIOSTAR is trying to keep costs down but as a highlight of the series, it should also be a key consideration.
Bundle. The Hi-Fi H170Z3 arrives in a vanilla package of manuals and SATA cables.
Value. The BIOSTAR Hi-Fi H170Z3 is intended to be a value product and at around $99 its easily one of the cheapest mid-range boards out there and its dual-type memory support is obviously its greatest draw. With only the ASROCK H170 Pro4 serving as its direct competitor but that one doesn’t have DDR3 support.
Price / Where to Buy:
US – Approx. US$99 – BIOSTAR HIFI H170Z3
PH – N/A
14 Comments
wala kya magiging problema kung parehas na meron kang ddr3 at ddr4 sa mobo na yan?
Tried it, won’t boot. Not sure if prob saken pero never ko napagana DDR3 side by side with DDR4
so either ddr4 rams or ddr3 lng tlga d pwd pagsamahin d kya masisira un procie kpag gamit un ddr3 na mababa mhz
yeah 2 of each type pero di pede sabay, dami na nagsasabi nyan pero di naman nila ilalagay kung alam nila masisira. Wala rin kasi official word
Un din kasi inaantay ko kung ano ang nasisira. Kadi nag release sila nun z170t na ddr3 capable.
H170S3H ung DDR3 ni biostar gonna review that next, sabay ng B150 and H170 ni asrock although DDR4 ung mga un
Ddr3 or ddr3l?
DDR3L (1.35v)as much as possible and yan yung officially supported pero we used DDR3 sticks just fine.
Nice (y)
Back2Gaming As far as I’ve researched, not officially supported ang DDR3 and might cause damage in the long run. Pero hindi mo manonotice until na hindi na gumana one time. Good thing we have DDR3L rams.
Yeah from my personal perspective chip damage ang naiisip ko possible result since IMC ung madadale not the actual DIMMs. Right now though I think hindi na sya ganun ka-big deal since mas mura or halos same price na DDR4 right now so I think boards like this aren’t going to last once 2017 comes in.
One thing though, 1.5v I think is tolerable since from my overclocking experience, the jump from of .2v isn’t that big. We’re not putting more voltage sa IMC so I’m not too sure how it’ll directly affect the DIMM voltage as those get delivered through the slots not the chip but I haven’t looked into this yet if the IMC gets more voltage when DDR3 is used vs DDR4.
kung asus yan
shut up and take my money
XD
errhgghh… i’ll just stick with my 4690k for the next 3 – 5 yrs i guess