Brand Name Software

The CD disk that comes with Biostar TPower I55 mainboard contains all necessary drivers, electronic versions of all manuals and additional applications and tools. There you can find DirectX, Adobe Reader a trial version of BullGuard Internet Security, however we are primarily interested in Biostar’s brand name programs. The first utility that we checked out was “Biostar Flash”. WE used it to save the current BIOS version because the built-in BIOS reflashing tool called “BIO-Flasher” doesn’t allow to do it. Biostar Flash can search for updates on its own that is why if you are using Microsoft Windows it is pretty easy to work with.

The next program is called “BIOScreen Utility” and is designed to help you replace the boot-up logo. There is not much we can say about it. It is all very simple. You load the image, the program adjusts its resolution and color depth. After that you save the file and insert a new logo into the BIOS.

As for the “Green Power Utility” program, we didn’t like it that much. It is not as useless as the similar ASRock utility, it allows changing power-saving modes, but look how bad it actually looks! Confusing interface, washed out lettering – very untidy implementation.

When we tried to minimize the program it didn’t disappear but started to show graphs. This is what the minimized version of it looks like:

I didn’t really understand right away that by clicking on a large white square in the upper right corner of the screen I could bring the utility back to its normal size and humongous “X” sign would in fact close the program. Has it been made for users with poor eyesight or for those who are not completely sober to ensure that they will get it on first attempt?

The next program called “T-Power2” brought us even more negative experience.

It combines four utilities. We have already seen one of them – it is called “Biostar Flash” for updating the BIOS. The second utility is called “eHot-Line” and it helps you contact technical support service.

This utility collects system info and then you can add anything else you consider important to it and describe the problem you are having.

The third program is called “OC Tweaker” and it is intended for overclocking from Windows. You know that I am very cautious about utilities like that, but I would never trust my system stability to such a sloppily designed tool.

However, the worst one was “BIO-Watch” monitoring program. As soon as I launched it, the utility started calibrating the CPU cooling fan and left it at 1850 RPM. Trust me, it is too high and too loud and I was absolutely happy with the results of fan calibration I had previously performed from the BIOS. It provided quiet operation in idle mode and sufficient processor cooling during overclocking.

Overall, “T-Power2” set of tools is extremely bulky, inconvenient to work with and sloppily implemented. They do offer alternative program skins that they hardly make things any better.

Besides, skin changing feature also doesn’t work too well: you can notice that some windows retain the old color scheme anyway.

The best utility could probably be “T-Overclocker”, if they finish it off nicely.

As you see, there are no annoying extras, the program doesn’t overload you with useless animation or crazy colors.

They should pay a little more attention to the fonts, use the available window space in a more optimal way. In this case the program will not be just useful but also pleasant to work with.

Of course, ease of use is not the only thing we are interested in. we also care about the credibility of the info and proper operation of the offered functions. For some reason, I have hard time believing that our Intel Core i7-860 processor could in fact work at 30 MHz frequency. In other words, they still have a lot of homework to work on with their “T-Overclocker” tool.

Well, this is the complete list of applications and tools that come with Biostar TPower I55 mainboard, but far not the full list of comments about Biostar software. Why can we only download “Green Power Utility” and “T-Overclocker” from the official company web-site? Where are the other tools and utilities? Where can I find them if I lost or damaged my CD disk? Why don’t the programs ask where to install before installation? What if I would prefer to install them on drive E: or D:? Why don’t they confirm if the utilities should be installed only for the current user or for all computer users? I don’t think I will be happy if my little son will have the opportunity to update the BIOS or change the power-saving modes whenever he wishes. Moreover, after successful installation I couldn’t find a way to launch “BIOScreen Utility”. It was not in the list of installed programs, there was no icon on the desktop, so I had to find where it actually got installed and launch it manually. Overall, I have to admit that at this point Biostar’s brand name software makes it difficult to have a positive experience with Biostar TPower I55 mainboard.