 |
IDEQ mini barebones systems |
|---|
| Sun, November 30 2003 | 12:18AM | PermaLink |
Feedback? |
|
SMALL FORM FACTOR systems are the latest buzz and we are just beginning to see the ramifications of the market. A relative newcomer in this particular genre is Biostar with their series of IDEQ mini barebones systems. Optical differentiation is the magic word for brand recognition and Biostar is going the way of Henry Ford, meaning that any color is ok as long as it is black. Color is one distinguishing feature, a more distinctive characteristic is the sliding cover of the front panel inspired by Monsieur Guillot but -- without the sharp edges.
Inside, we have a wealth of features all centered around the Athlon64 and, in this case the nVidia nForce3-150 or Crush K8 chipset. Whatever is missing from the repertoire of features supported directly by the chipset is made up for by 3rd party ICs as, for example, VIA's VT6420 SATA controller and VT6307 IEEE1394 physical layer as well as the Realtek brand AC97 and Gigabit LAN controller ICs.
With this wealth of features and the raw power of a 64-bit processor under the hood, what else could go wrong? Details, you named it, and there are quite a few that need some further attention. We took the power drill and the soldering iron ... and then, we decided not to void the warranty and only give a verbal description of our suggested mods.
|
|
FULL STORY @
Archived from LOSTCIRCUITS
http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/biostar_ideqp/
CURRENT Home Theatre News on PCSTATS
|
|
|
|
|
RSS Newsletter