BIOSTAR X570GTA Motherboard Review

How Much Does it Cost?

Honestly, I haven’t got a clue. I cannot find this motherboard in stock anywhere in the UK or the US. That begs the question, why did they send me a sample, since you can’t buy it. At least, you can’t where I shop. If you find one, let us know! That being said, we know the high-end X570 GT8 is around £194, but this is basically the budget model. I suspect it would be somewhere under the ASUS PRIME X570-P and the ASROCK X570 Gaming 4, which are £140-170. If it’s under £150, it’s a good deal, if it’s over that, it’s OK at best.

Update 17/01/2020: I found stock in the UK at £148. This is just on the mark to remain competitive and about where I expected the price to be.

Overview

BIOSTAR is not the biggest name in the UK or even the US. However, in the Eastern parts of the world, they’re a pretty huge name. Just because they’re not that big here doesn’t mean they aren’t important and can’t put a good motherboard together. Despite its obviously low-budget approach, the BIOSTAR X570GTA is a solid competitor right now, assuming the price is right and I suspect it will be when stock lands.

Build Quality

It has been built to a lower budget, and that’s pretty clear when you see that it doesn’t have armoured DIMM slots, or a built-in rear I/O shield, or built-in RGB lighting on the PCB. Of course, you don’t need those things really, but if you do, expect to pay more for them. For a basic board, it does have a half-decent VRM setup, it does have PCIe 4.0 with active cooling, it does have M.2 with shield, and an armoured PCIe lane. So it’s not exactly bottom of the barrel here, it has just enough to make it a meaningful release.

The VGA port has me scratching my head though, I mean, just how many people are buying this, a Ryzen 3rd Gen and still relying on onboard chipsets for VGA output? I’m seriously asking. I suspect it may be a leftover of a variant of this board that went to the industrial markets, but I could be wrong, but it does have an OEM dressed for the public vibe about it.

Performance

Well, this is the most impressive thing really. It certainly isn’t the slowest X570 board and it certainly isn’t the fastest. However, it took our Ryzen 3800X with pride and even managed to thump throughout overclocking tests with no issues. Sure, you can get faster boards, but they’ll cost you more and even then, there’s not that much in it.

For working, gaming, professional use, or unprofessional use, it’s really pretty average across the board. That may sound like an insult, but it’s really not. The average score is absolutely fine on our performance testing, and the X570GTA didn’t go up against anything this affordable either.

Added Value

There’s not a lot extra here, but there are a few things. The inclusion of both RGB and dRGB headers gives you some flexibility for lighting customisation directly from the motherboard. Ignoring the VGA output, it does also have an HDMI, making it great for the new Ryzen G CPUs on systems that don’t need a dGPU. Plus, with two full-size PCIe slots, and two 1x PCIe slots, all offering PCIe 4.0 speeds, it does have some good expansion options.

Should I Buy One

I’m going to hold off on the award this time. If the price is right, it’ll be a great motherboard for entry-level Ryzen 3rd Gen builds. Until then, I need to see it in stock in well-known stores before I cast final judgement.

If you do find it at a competitive price, however, I have no issues with the performance here, it’s a decent board overall despite lacking the visual thrills we’re used to seeing.

Update 17/01/2020: I found stock in the UK at £148. This is just on the mark to remain competitive and about where I expected the price to be.