Biostar iDEQ 200T: Great Performance & Brilliant Design
by Wesley Fink on September 29, 2003 10:24 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Biostar iDEQ 200T: BIOS and Overclocking
You buy a Small Form Factor system for the small size and quiet unobtrusive operation. However, as we demonstrated in our review of the Shuttle SB65G2, these systems are becoming capable of anything that the full-size systems can do.
Biostar uses the familiar Phoenix-Award Bios in the iDEQ 200T system. Most will be very comfortable with the familiar menu/submenu arrangement.
Most of the submenus and options are familiar, including a full PC Health submenu with Smart Fan adjustments and a complete readout of fan speeds, temperatures, and power levels.
You might not expect full control of memory timings on a SFF system, but the iDEQ 200T offers a full selection of memory timings to allow you to get the most performance from your memory. Memory Timing options are very good, as good as you will normally find in any 865 system.
You also have a range of vDIMM adjustments from 2.5V to 2.8V.
The Biostar does have the capabilities of overclocking, but the options are a bit more meager than what we normally see on top-line 865 boards. FSB frequency can be set from 200 to 255, and CPU voltage (vCore) is adjustable through a modest range from default to +8.1%. This means with a default voltage of 1.525V, you can select up to 1.65V (+8.1%). We have found that the 800FSB P4 processors do not respond normally to much more than about 1.6V, so this is probably a fine range for overclocking. The vDIMM to 2.8V is also fine. It appears that PCI/AGP lock is implemented with the BIOS option, “Auto Detect PCI Clock”. When this option is “Enabled”, we were able to achieve our highest overclocks with the Biostar system. The Biostar does not offer vAGP, or chipset voltage adjustments, but these are not as critical for good overclocking results. The Biostar should be a decent overclocker with these options, and will likely be limited in the top overclock by the 200-watt power supply.
FSB Overclocking Results
The last system that you normally think about overclocking would be a Small Form Factor. However, since our excellent overclocking results in our Shuttle SFF review seems to prove that you don’t have to give up anything in a SFF system, we decided to take a look at where we could go with the Biostar. The following setup was used on the iDEQ 200T for FSB overclocking:| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Intel 3.0 800FSB Pentium 4 |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default) |
| Cooling: | Biostar Cooling System |
| Memory: | 2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3500 Level II DS |
| Power Supply: | Enhance SFF 200W |
The highest stable FSB overclocking that we could achieve at default voltage was 228 (912FSB) while running an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO and an IDE hard drive. With the on-board Intel Extreme Graphics, highest stable overclock was slightly more limited at 225FSB. This translates into an astounding 3.4+ GHz speed in this little system with a 200-watt power supply. This 3.0 CPU is known to perform as high as 245 on other Intel motherboards, but keep in mind that our Intel testbed has a 470W power supply. The limitation is clearly the 200W power supply, as we would expect, but the fact that we could overclock to 225-228 on this loaded SFF box is an amazing performance on this Biostar iDEQ 200T.
At 3.42GHZ, we ran the machine overnight, stress-tested, ran benchmarks, and still could not get the system to fail or the automatic setup of the fan to kick into high speed. With a loaded Biostar iDEQ 200T — 1 GB of memory, 120GB hard drive, combo DVD/CD burner, and an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO — consider these excellent results the worst overclocking that you are likely to see on this machine. A card drawing less current or a slower CPU will make fewer demands on the system and should allow an even higher overclock. So would a slightly larger power supply.
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Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
A 30dB box is possible, if you're very careful. Use very low-noise fans, be extremely careful with airflow, put passive sinking on everything possible, and maybe put some Dynamat on the side case.Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Great review. I havethe 200T and love it, SFF Tech has a dedicated biostar forum too if you own one of these boxeshttp://forums.sudhian.com/categories.cfm?catid=96&...
Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
I think the dimensions of the box is important for SFF reviews. I can always go find em myself but It'd be nice to reference them from the review. Maybe even a size comparion between the Biostar and the Shuttles. Just a thought :)Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
#8 -You are correct, but the picture was to illustrate how the card slots are used on most SFF machines - not to point out a feature on the Biostar. I have changed the text to make it clear that the slot cage picture is a similar Shuttle SFF.
#10 -
I did test the SPDIF out with a Dolby Digital receiver and it works as it should. I did not check SPDIF in.
hirschma - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Some commentary from an iDEQ 200N owner...* I'd like to see confirmation that the SPDIFs function as listed in the review - in input, one output. The same was claimed for the 200N, and it was simply not true, despite Biostar's and many reviewers assertions to the contrary. Biostar ended up pulling that spec when I bitched about it (and did nothing else). Biostar does not stand behind its product in that regard.
* The box is very quiet, so much so that I use it as an HTPC. I did not do any scientific measurement, but it is simply not audibile from more than 2 feet away.
* The build quality is excellent, best in an SFF that i've seen.
* The stability of the AMD version is flawless.
Biostar is, IMO, building better SFFs than Shuttle, but due to their reluctance to address the SPDIF issue that bit me, I won't be buying any more Biostar product.
jonathan
Netopia - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
The last photo on page 2 is in fact NOT a picture of an iDEQ box, but shows a picture of a the back of a Shuttle box and then describes (in words) the iDEC.Joe
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Benchmarks are only relevant as comparisons. The measured noise level of the Biostar is about the same as a Shuttle, which is considered the standard for quiet in an SFF.Measuring 4" from the center of each side is a carryover from earlier SFF tests done at AnandTech. That is likely the result of using test instruments with a threshold of 50db. Our new instrumetn can measure to 35db.
We will add a sound level measurement to future reviews from the working position - about 0.62 meters or 2 feet from the front of the SFF to the ear.
Shalmanese - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
"We measured noise from the middle of each one of the four sides, 4" from the chassis."I assume most people are not in the habit of placing their computers 4" away from theirs ears. The biostar is about the same loudness as a shuttle which is pretty damn quiet.
Shalmanese - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
It would be a good idea to hook up a good 500W power supply to the SFF to test just HOW limited overclocking is hampered by the 200W PS.Anonymous User - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - link
Furthermore, 50dba is 10x the noise level of 40dba, correct, but your hearing does not work on the same scale. i do not recall the exact numbers but i think its quite lower than 10x