There are lots of users out there that are not looking for the fastest, but at the bottom line. Others that do look at performance still may not care about having the latest and greatest chipset. This is why motherboards from Biostar and ECS thrives. These Sub $50 motherboards have their place, and with integrated video, audio, and LAN, you will save more by not needing to purchase add-in cards.
It is thanks to these kinds of boards that we are able to create sub $500 machines for our clients, ourselves, friends, and family. With processors of 1 GHz and up being enough to run today's software, as well as memory prices on the low down, creating an affordable PC is not a pipedream any more.
Enter the
Biostar M7VKQ. Bought for $47 free shipping at NewEgg.com (
http://www.epinions.com/content_74326969988 ), it is no bank breaker. The chipset used is Via's own
KLE133, which is a bastardized version of the KT133. It comes with a lot of built-in features such as video from a relatively well-known graphics supplier (
Trident 3DBlade). Audio is provided via the chipset with a Realtek PHY, as well (
AC '97 complient). LAN work is done quick and dirty by Realtek's own PHY, which is not a bad thing at all, as Realtek has cornered the low-cost market. The
Realtek 8139 is also a very relaible chipset, with support for different kinds of OSes, no matter how obscure. The M7VKQ supports
FSB of 100 and 133 MHz.
The built-in
ATA100 HD controller is also a great match, as it is now the standard (with ATA133 being the rouge). You will not find SATA here, but that is to be expected.
Only
USB 1.1 is offered in this low-priced mobo. However, it's not the speed, but the amount of ports offered in it's catagory that is amazing. Sporting two in the rear, and two more for the front port is welcomed in a value motherboard. But with USB 2.0 dropping in price, you should be able to pick up a PCI card to pick up the slack.
Then comes the ugly part of expansion. There is
no AGP slots, even though the chipset does in fact support one. The
built-in Trident 3DBlade video is not an AGP device, but rather built into the chipset. Theoretically, this should be the quickest solution, but the shared-memory infrastructure does not allow this to happen. Coupled with the fact that memory supports only the PC133 variety makes matters worse. This is not to be a huge problem for a value board. Also, the video's memory is hard-set to gobble up
8 MB of system RAM for itself - it is not adjustable at all.
Speaking of expansion, it comes with
3 PCI, which isn't too bad if you intend to use all of the built-in devices. In fact, the system I built with this mobo didn't use any slots (keeping the expansion slots on the case untouched). A huge convience for system builders. Even if you decide to add more devices, what else do you really need in a value PC? USB 2.0? Firewire? Modem? Well, that's three right there! If they would give up the
CNR slot for another PCI or a single AGP slot, it would make upgrading even better. That said, the M7VKQ also comes with a rarely-used
ISA slot. I would suggest using an ISA modem if you can find one, just to free up a PCI slot.
The CPU I paired up with this low ball mobo is just as low-ball as the mobo itself - an AMD Athlon 1.1 GHz. This CPU uses an FSB of only 100 MHz, even though the M7VKQ can handle 133 MHz. The best thing about this board? It is overclockable, which is unbelievable at this price range.
The only downside is that the
PCI frequency is not locked, so therefore, you must keep them in mind when overclocking. The BIOS is very helpful in that it also shows the frequency of the PCI bus, as well as the FSB. Spread Spectrum is automatically turned off if you decide to overclock. A nice feature indeed. The highest a FSB100 can go is 112 MHz, with the PCI bus at 38 MHz. This is staggering, but was able to run Windows 98 SE without a problem. Prime95, however, continues to error out, so the FSB of 110 MHz is used, with the PCI bus at 37 MHz. Prime seems fine now. The CPU is running at 1.2 GHz at that point, which is not bad for a $33 CPU.
Installation Installation is a breeze. There is absolutely no manual at all! This would normally knock a lot of points off, but the included quick guide was complete and helpful. Everything that seemed complex such as USB headers, and front panel headers were readily there on the guide. Just as well, jumpers were indicated as well. By default, the board comes set at 100 MHz for the FSB, so keep that in mind if you have an Athlon XP at your disposal unlike yours truely.
The micro-ATX formfactor helps alot in being able to install on all ATX cases without a hitch. The ATA100 connector is also easily found via the blue connector. There is absolutely nothing else to say about installation, except that this mobo was simply designed to be a system integrator's time saver piece.
Benchmarks Performance is as expected. Values come close to SiSoft's Sandra base numbers. Here is what I found:
Biostar M7VKQ /w Athlon 1.1GHz (at 1.2 GHz) SiSoft Sandra 2003 CPU Arithmetic Benchmark Dhrystone ALU
4510 MIPS Whetstone FPU
1820 MFLOPS SiSoft Sandra 2003 Base Numbers SiSoft Sandra 2003 CPU Arithmetic Benchmark Dhrystone ALU
4517 MIPS Whetstone FPU
1835 MFLOPS Biostar M7VKQ /w Athlon 1.1GHz (at 1.2 GHz) SiSoft Sandra 2003 CPU Multi-Media Benchmark Integer aEMMX/aSSE
7128 it/s Floating Point aSSE
7411 it/s SiSoft Sandra 2003 Base Numbers SiSoft Sandra 2003 CPU Multi-Media Benchmark Integer aEMMX/aSSE
7139 it/s Floating Point aSSE
7421 it/s Biostar M7VKQ /w Athlon 1.1GHz (at 1.2 GHz) SiSoft Sandra 2003 Memory Bandwidth Benchmark RAM Int Buffered aEMMX/aSSE Bandwidth
582 MB/sec RAM Float Buffered aEMMX/aSSE Bandwidth
573 MB/sec SiSoft Sandra 2003 Base Numbers SiSoft Sandra 2003 Memory Bandwidth Benchmark RAM Int Buffered aEMMX/aSSE Bandwidth
596 MB/sec RAM Float Buffered aEMMX/aSSE Bandwidth
580 MB/sec As you can see, the numbers are very close to call, but they are alway's around 10 points away from Sisoft's base numbers. Memory was used with 133 MHz CL3 modules, as well as Sisoft's base numbers. Sisoft also have the KLE133 listed.
Upshot Not the best performer by a long shot, but if you are looking for a cheap system for a second PC, a "folder" (or SETI), or even a home-theater piece, let the Biostar M7VKQ be the board to do it with.
But before you buy into it, do some research on other boards in this price range that may fit your needs better (such as if you need an AGP 2x slot, or more PCI slots). Also, if you were looking at this Biostar, you are probably looking at price anyways, so shop around, for there may be lower-priced mobos out there (such as from ECS, Shuttle, and other Biostar models).
Last but not least, I would like to mention that I have also installed an ECS L7VMM2 Via KM266 motherboard, and also loved it. It came with a surprise: a 6-in-1 internal USB card reader! For a few bucks more than the M7VKQ ($54 vs $47), let the extras be the deciding factor. Also, the ECS supports DDR266, as well as PC133 memory. ATA133/100 is also supported. Slot configuration is a toss up, but it comes with an AGP slot! With:1 AGP slot (4X), 2 PCI slots, and 1 CNR slot… you do compromise one PCI slot over the Biostar.
Good luck!
