Biostar iDEQ 200T Review

[Turkeh]

Quote
Originally posted by: 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

i get that exact same issue! i solved it with all windows update, chipset updates, usb 2 driver updates and also audio drive update

[Chimaera]

hi all

I'm thinking of adding a 200T to my stable of machines here but have a couple of questions:

First up - SATA support - Does the 200T have an 'enhanced' mode that lets the BIOS handle SATA drives directly so theres no faffing around with driver floppies with OS installation?

Secondly - Does anyone run linux on theres? I'm thinking this will probably be a dual boot XP and Gentoo linux machine...

Cheers

Dave  

[DarkStar]

You only need the driver floppy if you intend to use SATA-RAID. I've recently loaded Windows XP straight from the installation CD to a single 200GB SATA Hard Disk with no problem.  Linux is the same.


As it happens, I'm experimenting with Linux on it at the moment, in a dual boot with XP Pro. So far I've tried it with Mandrake 10 & Red Hat Fedora (Core 2 rc1). I have the Gentoo 2004 disk as well, but haven't got round to installing it yet.

Both Mandrake & Fedora have issues with the 6-in-1 card reader supplied with the 200T. Mandrake sits there for 10 minutes during the installation (and every time it boots) until the hardware detection times out. It then boots up fine & runs great. Everything I have tried, despite a lot of research, will still not get it to recognise the card reader. I know it's not faulty as Win XP runs it fine.

Fedora also sits there forever during the installation process because of the card reader. I gave up in the end and unplugged it internally, just so I could see what Fedora was like. Sure enough it installed just fine. Unlike Mandrake it hasn't detected the onboard sound properly, so I'll have another go later.

[Chimaera]

Thats excellent - thanks a lot

Roll on payday!

[DarkStar]

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[nickdank]

I've had my 200T for a few months now, and the audio driver update fixed it right up. I'm thoroughly pleased with mine as a gaming rig. Hams, you listed a 9600pro. Mine is a non-pro, but it works just fine with my gig of memory. UT2004, MaxPayne2, GTA:ViceCity...they all play smooth as a baby's butt. I just hate to see people waste money: when the new cards come out, prices will drop.
Has anybody dropped 256Mbx2 (512) pc3200 corsair xms cas2 into their 200T? I have this in my Abit nf7-s, but chose the gig for the IDEQ.