Biostar iDEQ 200T Review

[Sudhian Staff]

When we mention the name Biostar, many people wouldn’t recognize the name right away.  Regardless, the company has been around a long time and traditionally has made motherboards for the lower-cost/OEM market, but has recently made its way into the SFF market and has been making a name for itself there.  The company is growing and is definitely worth keeping your eye on.  The first SFF we reviewed from them – the 200N, received excellent marks and was well met by the community.  Today we will be looking at the iDEQ  200T.  The 200T is very much like the 200N though it is for the Pentium 4 side of things.  So let’s take a look at the specifications and get inside the iDEQ.

Specifications:

• Biostar P4TBA Motherboard
  
• Intel 865G Northbridge/ICH5
  
• 400/533/800MHz FSB Support
  
• 2 DIMM Slots – Up to 2GB DDR
  
• 1 AGP Slot
  
• 1 PCI Slot
  
• Onboard Realtek LAN
  
• 2 USB 2.0 Rear/2 USB 2.0 Front
  
• 1 Firewire Front/1 Firewire Rear
  
• SPDIF Input on Front/SPDIF Output on Rear
  
• Front Mic/Headphone Jacks
  
• 1 Serial
  
• 1 VGA
  
• Internal Serial/Parallel/Gameport headers
  
• Optional Wireless LAN
  
• 2x ATA/100 Ports
  
• 2 Serial ATA Ports (RAID 0/1)
  
• CMedia 9739A 6-Channel AC'97 Audio
  
• 200W Power Supply

 
Biostar iDEQ 200T

The specifications of the 200T are pretty much what we would expect from a modern SFF.  Just about everything you could want.  I can imagine some wanting a parallel port on the back, but there is a slot where one can be installed and a connector for one on the board.  In the picture above you can see that the external drive bays are covered.  The top portion of the panel slides down to access drives.  The only problem is that when down, it covers the power and reset buttons.  It isn’t really an issue, but I can be a bit lazy and not want to move the cover up and down.  It would be cool if they could design a button on the cover that could push either one when in the down position, but it isn’t too big of a deal.  Besides, the cover gives the iDEQ a very clean, finished look and I would rather have that than some off-white CD-ROM showing.



Accessories:

 

 

Accessories

The accessories might seem to be missing something, but we’ll get to that.  You can see the installation guide/manual, driver CD, power cord, SATA data and power cable, a pack of screws, some thermal grease, and bay covers for each of the external bays.  While it looks like we are missing IDE cables and a floppy cable, Biostar has already installed these inside the case for you, routing them just where they need to go.  Including the SATA power cable is a nice touch since even motherboards with onboard SATA usually don’t have them.

Continue Reading...

[Sudhian Staff]

Biostar iDEQ 200T Review

[hkoverclocker]

Didn't read the whole thing, but from what I read, I liked =P

I really hope other SFFs grab more sales, seeing shuttles that generally don't improve much over time (apart from chipset updating) grab so much market share is irritating me =P

[GrendelPrime]

I like what I'm seeing, and anticipate Shuttle being spurred into action by some REAL competition.
This is the frontrunner for my dollar when I build my next SFF.

[Paul Howland]

Nice review Andrew & I'm relieved you came to broadly the same conclusions that I did when I reviewed the iDEQ 200N!  One point of interest to me is that they seem to have modified the heatsink design slightly since releasing the 200N.  The 200N I reviewed had a composite heatsink made of aluminum with a copper base and heatpipe.  It seems for the 200T they have upgraded this to solid copper, I guess improving the cooling by a degree or two.  Other than that, the basic design appears to remain the same.  I've had the iDEQ 200N running ever since the review, and it has remained completely reliable.  As others said, it's good to see there's some healthy competition emerging in the SFF market, as that's what breeds innovation and value.

[hkoverclocker]

Shuttle really ought to learn something from its competitors.... back then they always complained how others were copying them with in most cases inferior products. However, nowdays, new SFFs seem to have better airflow, a neater design and a cheaper price than the shuttle competition.... (GOD shuttle, stop using those whiny PSUs!) =P Still I hope to see shuttle picking up the pace later with its A64 SFFs, maybe it'll have learnt a lesson or two by then ^^

[darrell2399]

Despite what the documentation says the IDEQ 200T does not come with an Optional Wireless Lan.  I just got one of these machines and the connector doesn't exist on the motherboard.  The wireless chip is mounted but not the connector.  

I called biostar tech support and was told that the optional wireless lan was not an option for this model.  Maybe in the future.

I also purchased a Shuttle SB61G2.  It should be here on Friday.  The SB61G2 does come with an internal Wireless option.  It connects to one of the internal USB ports and its antenna connects to the outside of the case.  My bet is that I can use the shuttle's wireless option inside the biostar unit, but there isn't an existing mount for the antenna on the biostar's case.

[Andrew S.]

Hmmm, I quoted that from their manual.  I will have to update that.

[graphicsguy]

Good to see more competition in this market. Just read Anand's review of the SB65G2 Shuttle as well. Think the 200T stacks up nicely to shuttle's latest P4 box. Competition is a good thing; now I'm waiting to see what Shuttle will do with their new products (Athlon 64, especially).

[SharkGill]

I am waiting to see Biostar's Athlon 64 VS XPC.  

[ozziegn]

I've had my 200T now for about a week and a half and so far I'm really happy with it.







of course my first choice when I was looking at the SFF cases was one of the Shuttles but there were two things that detered (sp?) me away from them:

1. everybody and their stinkin' brother has one and I always have to be different. even if its only for a little while but I have to be different.

2. the fact that the Shuttles couldnt have hidden their drive bays still boggles my mind. why in the heck havent they invented some sort of door like what my 200T has?

yeah, I could do the whole stealth drive thing to the optical drive but it'd be very hard to do with my floppy that I still use here and there. at least with my 200T I can use either drive and when I'm done. up goes the door and they're both gone.

 

[SharkGill]

ozziegn, nice system!!!

[sethk]

Do you think a top mounted fan (blowhole, as it's sometimes called) is a feasible mod? I assume those two side mounted fans are your own additions. Nicely done. Care to post temps / speeds  whether you tried to overclock or not?

[Rekonn]

I'm guessing (just by looking at the pictures) that a top blowhole would not be possible due to the position of the power supply.  

[ozziegn]

Quote
Originally posted by: sethk
Do you think a top mounted fan (blowhole, as it's sometimes called) is a feasible mod? I assume those two side mounted fans are your own additions. Nicely done. Care to post temps / speeds  whether you tried to overclock or not?

Yes, I put the two 80mm fans on the side. why in the world these SFF makers do not design some sort of case ventillation is beyond me. I think that most people have no idea just how hot the insides of these SFF cases are getting. sure, the CPU cooler is doing a great job of keep the CPU cool but what about everything else?

As for the top mounted blowhole goes, probably not due to the system's power supply being very near to the back end of the CD-RW drive. however, I am thinking about putting two small fans on the other side of the case to pull some hot air out. as it stands now, the only way hot air is getting out is through the shark fins on the sides of the case. oh well, at least there is infact some air movement unlike before.

The CPU idles at something like 32C and it pegs at 44C when being stressed. I have my 2.4C running at 2.7Ghz at the time being. these mobos arent the best O/Cers I've played with.

[EricTheRed]

I have been running the 200T for a few weeks now.  This is the first SFF computer for me.  I also am building (waiting for the vid card) a E-cube EG-65.  They both will have the same video card (nvidia 5600, 256mb) and the same maxtor sata drive with matching corsair Twinx 512-4000 pairs of DDR ram.  I will be interested in my (non-professional) testing results.  Here is another review of the 200T http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.html?i=1889

(first post)
-Eric

[DjPiLL]

Well... I do not have a 200T... but I do have a 200N... and I am VERY pleased with my 200N.  I had some initial issues with my 200N with some Corsair TwinX-LL memory.  I ended up sticking some cheap PC2100 in there and my PC has been solid since.  Has yet to crash on me.  

I might even buy another one for my media room down the road.  These are great PCs.  They look sexy too... on my plasma stand.  

[hams]

i was thinking of using this for a gaming rig and had a couple of questions.

the proposed setup:
ideq 200T
2.8 p4
(1) ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
(2) 512MB DDR400
(2) HDD 10000rpm SATA - RAID 0
(1) CD/DVD-ROM

1. Will the enclosure be able to disapate the heat produced by this setup?
2. Will the power supply (200W) have enough power for this setup?

thanks

[treaclepumpkin]

Quote
Originally posted by: hams
i was thinking of using this for a gaming rig and had a couple of questions.


1. Will the enclosure be able to disapate the heat produced by this setup?
Seems fine for me, I mostly play Halo & MOHAA. The CPU temperature runs between 40 & 55, I have the system control utility set to "fuzzy" mostly.

2. Will the power supply (200W) have enough power for this setup?
I would guess so, although I don't know about the drive you're proposing.



thanks

[Turkeh]

im getting random reboots with my 200T, then this message when windows reloads

[GlenBA]

Don't know about the XP error message, but some people have found updating the Audio
drivers cures the random rebooting on the 200T.

[Turkeh]

well in the error it says product: 256_1 wonder if thats my 256mb stick of ram thats busted =/

will take a look for the audio drivers and try that, cheers

[Turkeh]

weird downloaded the audio drivers off the biostar site, when i click setup.exe, nothin happens =/

[Noge]

Hey...

How much did it affect the noise level with those 2 fans ?? I mean - they must take somre stress of the psu, but isnt the sound from the harddrive much louder now ??

[YoNzZu]

Hi

Could you guys help me.. I'm having some problems with my Ideq 200T.. I bought it almost a week ago and it worked well until the day before yesterday. It's fans suddenly started to keep noise and now I can't get them to be quiet. I updated the BIOS and System Control Utility but it didn't help. But with this new System Control Utility it says that the minimum rounds for System fan is 11%. CPU fan is now turned off but it still spins 4560rpm. =/

I overclocked my memory to 2.7V and 2-2-2-6 and this problem started after this.. Not immediately but still.. Could my power supply be broken and gave too much power to motherboard? Or something. I have tried speedfan program to control those fans but it didn't help either.

I hope someone can help me because now my computer keeps awful noise and I can't keep it running 24/7.. It's so annoying.. I hope I don't have to return it to where I bought it because that place is in Germany and I live in Finland.


Specifications:
Biostar Ideq 200T
Intel Pentium IV 2.8Ghz Northwood 800fsb
Kingston 512mb pc-3000 x2
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
120Gb Maxtor 7200rpm
Liteon dvd+rw
Windows Xp Pro  

EDIT: And I think the sound comes from those fans not my power supply. I just can't turn them off.