BIOSTAR TB250-BTC+ Review – 8 GPU Mining Motherboard
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Some months ago I have reviewed the Biostar TB250-BTC board, which back in the day was a decent replacement to AsRock’s H81 Pro BTC. The TB250-BTC supports up to 6 GPUs and is a great choice for a medium-size rig.
A couple of months passed by and Biostar released a newer model of the board, the TB250-BTC+ (not to be confused with the TB250-BTC without the plus). The BTC+ supports 8 GPUs, which is a good number considering that Windows does not work with more than 8 GPUs at a time anyway, one of the best mining motherboard 🙂 (according to me).
In my opinion, Biostar made a mistake by giving this newer board such a similar name to the older one. Search Engines have a hard time differentiating between the two and when you search for the BTC+, you often get results about the BTC as well. This might lead to confusions. Having that out of the way, let’s get to the specs of the board.
BIOSTAR TB250-BTC+ Specs
Chipset | Intel B250 |
CPU SUPPORT | 7th & 6th Gen Intel Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium and Celeron LGA 1151 Processors Maximum CPU TDP (Thermal Design Power) : 95Watt |
MEMORY | Dual Channel DDR4 2400/ 2133/ 1866 MHz 2 x DDR4 DIMM Memory Slot. Up to 32GB Memory DDR4 2400 for 7th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor Family |
EXPANSION SLOT | 1 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot 7 x PCI-E x1 3.0 Slot |
STORAGE | 6 x SATA3 Connector |
USB | 4 x USB 3.0 Port 4 x USB 2.0 Port |
INTERNAL I/O | 6 x SATA3 6Gb/s Connector 1 x SATA Power Connector (for rear USB power enhancement) 2 x PCI-E 12V 4Pin Connectors (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 ) |
The package includes (besides the motherboard):
- 2 x SATA Cable
- 1 x I/O Shield
- 1 x DVD Driver
- 1 x User Manual
BIOSTAR TB250-BTC+ Pricing
The motherboard looks rather promising. Again, the BTC+ is a great pick for those of you who mine on Windows.
Its predecessor, the TB250-BTC received a lot of great reviews from miners. The motherboard works stable and safely. This makes me think that the TB250-BTC+ is more likely worth our trust too.
Biostar is also quite attentive to user feedback. For instance, when there was an issue with the TB250-BTC not working with certain GPUs as intended, they have created a step-by-step guide on how to make the GPUs run on the Mobo. Apparently they do read comments, feedback and they do their best to solve any emerging issues.
Price-wise, due to current market situation, the BTC+ is priced less than the BTC. On Amazon, you can find the BTC+ at only about $140 USD, while the BTC starts from $155 USD.
Where to Buy!
In Conclusion
BIOSTAR TB250-BTC+ is a solid piece of equipment that can become a solid backbone for any medium-sized mining rig. In fact, after trying to assemble 12+ GPU rigs, I’ve come to the conclusion that 8 GPU rigs are the best. Mostly because those are big enough to hash great, while at the same time they are small enough to be easy to work with. It takes way too long to make a 12+ GPU rig hash as intended, plus any bugs lead to expensive downtime.