Mainboards of this company get into our lab quite seldom, that is why
let me give you some information on it: the company was founded in 1986,
in 1990 it was among the first who opened a plant in the continental China,
its products have the ISO9001 international quality certificate. Biostar
deals with mainboards, barebone systems, webpads, Internet consoles
etc. The range of mainboards is not very wide, they are developed mostly
for the mid and low-price market segments.
Accessories:
-
Package of a standard design;
-
Documentation: brief user manual in English and Spanish;
-
Cables: 1 ATA66/100/133 and FDD;
-
Bracket with 2 USB and 1 Game ports;
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Bracket with a serial port;
-
Bracket for the rear computer panel;
-
2 CDs containing:
-
drivers;
-
user manuals for different Biostar's mainboards;
-
system monitoring utility;
-
Adobe Acrobat Reader;
-
Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader;
-
Norton Antivirus 2002;
-
Norton Personal Firewall 2002;
-
Norton Ghost;
-
DirectX 8.
The layout is typical of the mATX format: all connectors are too close to each
other, and you can just dream about convenient handling. However, in
return you get a small board. It can be difficult to reach some jumpers
when the board is already installed. Their functions are shown on the
textolite.
The 2-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 8 capacitors
of 2200 uF and 4 of 1200 uF.
The following controllers are integrated:
-
audio controller based on the C-Media CMI9738 AC'97 codec supporting 4.1
audio systems and with a connector for front audio- ins;
-
network controller based on the Realtek RTL8100B chip and supporting 10BaseT/100BaseTX.
The board comes with a special strengthening plate on the back of the PCB for
installation of massive coolers.
Non-unsoldered connectors: flash card reader interface controller and
its connectors and some audio connectors.
The system monitoring is supported by the Winbond W83627HF-AW chip.
What is controlled:
-
voltage of processor, AGP bus, +3.3, +5 and +/-12 V, VBAT and +5 V Standby;
-
speed of 2 fans;
-
temperature of the processor (a built-in sensor).
There are 2 connectors for adjustable connection of fans.
Brief characteristics of the board: memory slots - 2 DDR SDRAM;
expansion slots - AGP/ 3 PCI /CNR; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 4 USB
2.0 (the chipset supports up to 6 such ports); dimensions - 245x245 mm.
Adjustment can be carried out with:
| jumpers and switches |
Jumper to clear up the CMOS |
|
| Jumper for starting up computer from PS/2 keyboard |
|
| Jumpers for starting up computer from USB keyboard |
|
| Jumpers for setting memory voltage |
2.5, 2.6, 2.75, 2.8 and 2.9 V |
| BIOS based on the AwardBIOS 6.00PG version from
Phoenix |
Setup of memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, Active To Precharge Delay, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS
Precharge |
| Setup of memory frequency |
+ |
Auto, DDR200, DDR266, DDR333 |
| Setup of AGP bus |
+ |
|
| Setup of PCI bus |
- |
|
| Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses |
- |
|
| Manual assignment of interrupts |
- |
|
| Changeable FSB frequency |
+ |
100-160 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier |
+ |
x8-x50 |
| Changeable core voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable memory voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable chipset voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable AGP bus voltage |
- |
|
We used the latest available version of the BIOS - BIOS 0522b.
The board has no distinguishing features, but at the same time its quality
is quite high, it suits well an ordinary office or home system.
