BIOSTAR TB250-BTC Introduction:

Last time we saw a huge spike in the price of bitcoins, it was back in 2013 where the price of bitcoin reached almost 1000$+ from a few hundred. And recently, we see another huge spike in the bitcoin price, and this time, it’s the highest the bitcoin has ever gone. Right now, 1 Bitcoin is sitting at about 1800$+ at the date of review.

Moments like these are golden times for motherboard makers to introduce their all new bitcoin mining motherboards. And BIOSTAR saw the opportunity and didn’t stay behind and introduced their all new range of Bitcoin mining motherboards for both Intel and AMD CPUs.

Today, we are going to take a look at the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC. This is an Intel B250 chipset motherboard, supports both 6th and 7th Gen Intel Core I series CPUs, support up to 6x GPUs and up to 32GB of DDR4. BIOSTAR TB250-BTC is one of the most up-to-date mining board available on the market right now, as not only it supports the latest generation of Intel CPUs, it also features m.2 SATA drivers.

Following are some of the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC  features:

AudioArt Capacitors:

PRO series comes with Nichicon high-end audio capacitors. Nichicon Capacitors offer artistic-like sound resolution and Hi-Fi audio amplification effect, making your room a live concert.

DX12:

DirectX 12 introduces the next version of Direct3D, the graphics API at the heart of DirectX. Direct3D is one of the most critical pieces of a game or game engine, and we’ve redesigned it to be faster and more efficient than ever before. Direct3D 12 enables richer scenes, more objects, and full utilization of modern GPU hardware.

PCI-e M.2 32GB/s:

PCI-e M.2 32Gb/s is the latest storage interface; it delivers the highest bandwidth and lower latency. It’s 3 times faster compared with PCI-e M.2 10Gb/s.

PCI-E Gen 3.0:

PCI-E 3.0 is the next evolution of the ubiquitous and general-purpose PCI Express I/O standard. At 8GT/s bit rate, the interconnect performance bandwidth is doubled over PCI-E 2.0, while preserving compatibility with software and mechanical interfaces.

Moistureproof PCB:

The popularity of PC usage and working environment is getting deteriorating and moist(rural, coastal, etc.). The PCB will be oxidizing easily by damp or absorbed moisture, and ionic migration or CAF (Conductive Anodic Filament) will be generated. Moisture-proof PCB meets high density and high-reliability requirements for moisture proof.

Tough Power Enhanced:

To ensure the longevity of motherboard, PRO series with Tough Power Enhanced can endure massive electric current and ensure full energy output without additional energy loss, just like a super man protecting your PC system.

Super Anti-Surge Protection:

BIOSTAR exclusive Anti-Surge design provides the best protection of board and extends the product life. Having the latest model of “Transient Voltage Suppressor” on- board can effectively protect the board circuit, reducing the shocks caused by ESD as well as other damages arising from overvoltage transients to enhance system durability.

OC/OV/OH Protection:

All BIOSTAR special circuit design detects overvoltage conditions and prevents voltage surges from spreading in real time. It also actively cuts off the overvoltage supply to protect your system. Over current protection, avoid motherboard from damage when doing overclock or an unusual current import. Over heat protection, avoid motherboard & CPU from burning when exceeding the temperature limitation.

Intel B250 Chipset:

Give your small business a boost with the Intel® B250 Chipset and the 7th Generation Intel® Core™ processor. The Intel B250 chipset provides you with the power and performance you need for your small business.

[nextpage title=”Unboxing”]

Video Unboxing:

Picture Unboxing:

[nextpage title=”Specification”]

BIOSTAR TB250-BTC Specification:

Chipset	Intel B250
CPU SUPPORT	Intel® Core™ i7 LGA 1151 Processor Intel® Core™ i5 LGA 1151 Processor Intel® Core™ i3 LGA 1151 Processor Intel® Pentium® LGA 1151 Processor Intel® Celeron® LGA 1151 Processor Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 95Watt
MEMORY	Support Dual Channel DDR4 2400/ 2133/ 1866 MHz 2 x DDR4 DIMM Memory Slot Max. Supports up to 32GB Memory * DDR4 2400 for 7th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family
EXPANSION SLOT	1 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot 5 x PCI-E x1 3.0 Slot(using for bitcoin mining, it is suggested to change to PCI-E 1.0 via BIOS)
STORAGE	6 x SATA3 Connector 1 x M.2 Key M 32Gb/s Connector, support M.2 type 2242/ 2260/ 2280 SATA 6Gb/s & PCIe Storage
USB	4 x USB 3.0 Port 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Port(only 5V power, up to 1.5A) 2 x USB 2.0 Header
LAN	Realtek RTL8111H – 10/100/1000 Controller Support Super LAN Surge Protection
INTEGRATED VIDEO	By CPU model Supports DX12 Supports HDCP
CODEC	Realtek ALC887 8-Channel HD Audio Support HD Audio
REAR I/O	1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 4 x USB 3.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Port 2 x USB 2.0 Port(only 5V power, up to 1.5A) 1 x DVI-D Connector, resolution up to 1920 x 1200 @60Hz 1 x RJ-45 Port 3 x Audio Connector
INTERNAL I/O	1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Header 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector 1 x SATA Power Connector(for rear USB power enhancement) 1 x M.2 Key M 32Gb/s Connector, support M.2 type 2242/ 2260/ 2280 SATA 6Gb/s & PCIe Storage 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x CPU Fan Header 2 x System Fan Header 1 x Serial Header 2 x PCI-E 12V 4Pin Connector(Must be installed when using for bitcoin mining.)
H/W MONITORING	CPU / System Temperature Monitoring CPU / System Fan Monitoring Smart / Manual CPU Fan Control System Voltage Monitoring
DIMENSION	ATX Form Factor Dimension: 29.5cm x 21cm ( W x L )
OS SUPPORT	Support Windows 10(x64) for Intel 7th Generation Processor ※Support Windows 7 / 8.1(x64) / 10(x64) for Intel 6th Generation Processor
BUNDLE SOFTWARE	BullGuard Smart Speed LAN(Windows 7/ 8.1 only) Intel Rapid Storage Technology
ACCESSORIES	2 x SATA Cable 1 x I/O Shield 1 x DVD Driver 1 x User Manual
FEATURES	Supports 100% Solid capacitor Supports Charger Booster Supports BIOS Online Update

[nextpage title=”BIOSTAR TB250-BTC Bios”]

BIOSTAR TB250-BTC BIOS:

[nextpage title=”Test System and Methodology”]

Test System Specification:

 

Motherboard: BIOSTAR TB250-BTC
Processor: Intel I5 6600K stock
RAM: Apacer Panther Rage DDR4 16GB 2400MHz (underclocked to 2133MHz)
SSD1: Apacer AS720 240GB
SSD2: PNY Optima 120GB
SSD3: Kingston SSDnow V300 120GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 
GPU: MSI R9 280X 3G
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C14S
PSU: Chieftec Nitro 1200W 85+ bronze
Chassis: Thermaltake Core P3
GPU Driver Version:  17.5.1
Bios Version: B25CF503.BSS

 

Methodology:

Even if the board is aimed towards cryptocurrency miners, it should be able to provide good regular use performance, so we took it through a various test. All the benchmarks were run on the Intel Core i5 at stock speed while the RAM was underclocked to 2133Mhz as the board only supports DDR4 RAM up to 2133Mhz on 6th Gen Intel Core I series processor.

As for comparison, we used the Asus Z170P motherboard with the same CPU at the stock clock while we also underclocked the RAM to 2133Mhz and same clock speed to make the benchmarking results fairer.

As for benchmarking, we used various software to check out the performance of the motherboard in all section.
Software include PCMark 8, FireStrike, WinRAR, Super PI/Mod 1.5 XS, PerformanceTest, CrystalDisk, Aida64 Extreme, MaxxMem, Thief, Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider 2012

[nextpage title=”Performance”]

Benchmark:

System:

In the CPU department, the Asus motherboard took the lead in all the benchmarks.

Memory:

In the memory department also, the Asus board took the lead in almost all the benchmarks except for the Super Pi and the Aida latency whereas in the WinRAR benchmark, we saw no difference in the performance.

Games:

In gaming sector, we once again have the Asus board in lead, but we can see that the average FPS gap isn’t too big in both the boards.

Storage:

In our storage test, the Asus Z170P motherboard took the lead in most situations but the BIOSTAR board once again isn’t that far behind.

[nextpage title=”Mining with BIOSTAR TB250-BTC”]

Mining with BIOSTAR TB250-BTC:

Mining with BIOSTAR TB250-BTC is as easy as mining with any other motherboard, but BIOSTAR recommends that when using the board for mining, enable the mining mode in the bios. For this tutorial, we are going to use the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC and MSI R9 280X to mining dashcoin based on the x11 algorithm.

If you’re thinking why dashcoin and not Bitcoin directly. Well, there are few things you should know before mining altcoins. First, there isn’t just Bitcoin in the market out there; Bitcoin is one of the many crypto-currencies. And second, Bitcoin is based on SHA-256 and has very high difficulty to mine, even multiple high-end GPUs makes it unprofitable to mine, and the performance could easily be beaten by dedicated SHA-256 hardware miners called ASIC. There are few other factors as well that you should consider about when mining, but that’s not the purpose of this review, so we’re just going to go ahead and mine some dashcoin.

So for mining dashcoin, we are going to use the sgminer program, you can download it from >>here<< or customized version of it from various other websites. Once downloaded, extract the files somewhere. Now you will see a .exe extension file for the miner, but if you try to run the miner with that .exe file, it won’t work.

What you’re going to need to do is, create a .bat file. Open up your notepad, input the commands given below and save the file as “all files” and save it as filename.bat (.bat extension is important)

setx GPU_MAX_HEAP_SIZE 100
setx GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS 1
setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100
sgminer.exe -o am -u wallet -p youremail@somesite.com -I 20
pause

Now go ahead and replace the dashcoin server after -o, wallet address with your dashcoin wallet address after -u and email with your email after -p.

There are more tweaks and tricks to get the best out of your GPU, but we’re not going to get into that. Now save the file once more, and you’re ready to go.

Execute the .bat file, and you should be able to see the following screen if you did everything right.

Usually, on other miners, you would see the speed in kh/s, mh/s, etc., but in the dashcoin’s customized miner we have the speed in % with the 100% being the AMD R9 290 GPU. Also, in the miner, you can see how much dashcoin you’re going to make in a day. The output seems very low as there are ASIC miners based on the X11 algorithm as well. But that pretty much covers how you mine dashcoin on BIOSTAR TB250. Other coins have different miners and ways to mine coin and might give you better profitability.

So that’s how you mine almost any altcoin on the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC motherboard. If you are going to mine any other altcoin with the different algorithm, you are going to need a miner which supports the algorithm of the coin. Different miners have different commands and settings so you might want to give Google a search for the settings of the GPU you’re going to use. Other than that, BIOSTAR TB also has 2x auxiliary power ports right onto the motherboard for GPUs, though you won’t need them if you’re going to use powered risers.

[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion:

Well, we’ve seen how the motherboard perforce in regular home and office usage and some games as well. We didn’t saw any ground breaking results from the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC, but the board also didn’t lack too much behind the other board in the test. And the best thing about the board is that, it only sets you back about $84.99 which is almost 30% cheaper than the Asus board. So for 30% less price, you’re just giving up a little bit on the performance but compared to Asus Z170P which only has a total of 4 PCIe slots, you’re also getting a total of 6x PCIe slots! Well in the end the board is targeted towards miners, and if you’re looking for a mining motherboard than BIOSTAR TB250-BTC is a great option to look at since it does not only give you good basic performance so you can also perform your regular tasks on with the board but can also supports up to 6 GPUs for mining purpose.

One of the feature that might skip the eye of regular PC users (almost did mine as well) and which I also didn’t mention in the benchmark was M.2 SATA drive. Well since I didn’t have a M.2 SATA drive, I couldn’t do the benchmark for that performance. Well why was the implementation of the M.2 SATA so important that I’m writing a whole paragraph on it? It’s that with an M.2 SATA drive, you will be saving 1x SATA power cable from your PSU which can be used for the power riser for you GPU. So that’s one great feature that BIOSTAR thought about and implemented in their new mining board. And yes, the strip that I talked about in the unboxing video, isn’t actually a LED strip, or maybe it is, but I couldn’t find any option to enabled it in the bios.

A motherboard can’t be called a mining board unless it has an attractive price, and the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC is just that, a perfect mining motherboard with an MSRP of $84.99 which seems like a great deal with all features it has. You can easily build a basic mining rig (without GPU) with an Intel G3900 Skylake CPU which is about $51.66, 4GB of Ballistix Sport LT 2400MHz RAM for $32.99 and 120GB of Corsair Force MP500 M.2 SATA drive for $84.99. That comes out to a total of $255 which isn’t half bad. From here on out, you can select the GPUs depending on your budget and the PSU according to the power consumption. So if you’re out in the market for a mining motherboard, I would definitely recommend the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC to you. And if you don’t remember, BIOSTAR also have 2 boards with similar features and price point for AMD platforms as well:

So in the end, I would like to rate the BIOSTAR TB250-BTC 5/5 stars and give it our Editor’s Choice award.