Biostar M7NCG-400 motherboard questions

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 15:26:48 GMT, "George"
<staylor9 RemoveThis @twcny.rr.com> wrote:

 >Hi,
 >I had someone recommend the Biostar M7NCG-400 motherboard and he seems to
 >like it. I want to build a low cost, not high performance system. Can I get
 >others that have this board or have built systems with it, to give me some
 >opinions on it, good and bad?
 >
 >thanks,
 >Geo
 >


I have one, it seems good for a low-cost nForce2 board. It
has an odd bios quirk where it's more stable with memory set
to CAS 2.5 than CAS 3, or rather, it just isn't stable @ CAS
3 regardless of the modules tried... which is the opposite
of what one would expect. I tried a few modules and ended
up putting 2 x 512MB of these in it,
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-211-119" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-211-119</a>
(though that was several months ago, I can only speculate
that they're the same modules still so far as chips and
capable timings), running them at 2.5,3,3,11, 2.6V, (might
go higher but CPU was the limitor, it was an o'c Barton
Mobile chip.

Otherwise, it seems to work fine, though I'm not running the
integrated video anymore, never planned to. The first and
last revisions of that board have more manual bios
adjustments (overclocking/reclocking) features than the
middle revision (don't recall the exact revision numbers at
the moment). I was a bit dissapointed that it doesn't have
the holes around the socket for larger heatsinks, but then
generally those heatsinks are more expensive, less likely to
be paired with low-cost board unless you're reusing one you
already had.

Compared to many modern boards it seems a bit bare to not
have SATA or firewire though, and being mATX you're somewhat
limited in how much it can be upgraded. After putting a
video card in that takes up two slots and a Gigabit NIC, I
"might" be able to squeeze in another card but that'd reduce
the video card cooling, which would be undesirable for me
since this is one of my gaming boxes. I knew that going in
though, was willing to give up the extra slots to build a
smaller mATX system.

The board uses 5V for CPU power, so while you don't need an
ATX2.03 power supply with 12V 4-pin connector, if you're
running a video card too you need a fairly decent power
supply, I suggest one with at least 200W 3V + 5V combined
capacity, or even more for higher-end video card. Without
adding a video card it should be ok with any decent 250-300W
PSU unless you're pushing it, overclocking.

It seems more compatible with some flash thumbdrives I have
than many other boards, will boot from at least two
different ones. It is one of the few boards out there that
are "semi" modern but still has the older traditional style
of rear-port arrangement making it more compatible with old
OEM cards having the stamped-in case-wall port holes instead
of a removable rear I/O cover. Speaking of the cover, IIRC
the board doesn't come with one, but since it uses a
standard cover most standard cases will have one you can
use. IIRC, it doesn't come with any accessories at all,
maybe an IDE cable and driver CD (use newer nForce driver
from nVidia.com instead), but NOT the TV-out dongle, you'll
have to buy that separately if you want one and I'd advise
you to do it now if you would want it, since the longer you
wait the harder and more expensive it might be to acquire
one. I've not tried the TV-Out on mine, keep meaning to as
I'd planned it as a HTPC platform eventually.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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