Biostar M7VIP

[Kazuo]

I went to Newegg.com the other day to buy the ECS K7VTA3 3.1 board, but it looks like they aren't carrying it anymore (?)
So I looked at the other KT333 boards and noticed this one. Anyone ever tried it? Any good? I'd be using a Radeon 9000, Linksys LNE100TX PCI ethernet, an AthlonXP 1600+ and a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP with it.
Is it stable? I know, everyone's like "Are you nuts? It's Biostar! Of course it isn't!" But has anyone actually tried this one out yet?
Couldn't find any English-language reviews anywhere, just a Russian one that I could find translated (a little poorly). It's supposed to be supporting the 333MHz FSB soon according to Biostar in an AMD.com press release.
Any thoughts? I'm a poor college student, so "Why don't you just buy (insert way more expensive board here)?" is not an option

 

[mechBgon]

A person recently remarked that it has no CPU voltage adjustments, which would restrict overclocking.

One thought that crosses my mind: when nForce2 comes out, you could get a board with dual onboard LAN, onboard GF4MX-level video, onboard Dolby-certified high-performance audio, very high memory performance, and it's supposed to be reasonably priced too. What if it were $120-$140 on launch? For the price of your video card you get a whole motherboard, with support for the 333MHz-bus AthlonXP's You would want to pick a pair of matching memory modules so both memory controllers can activate, especially if using the onboard video. And you can still plug in an AGP 8x video card later.

There are supposed to be some nF2 reviews within a couple weeks on AnandTech, so keep your eyes open

 

[Kazuo]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
A person recently remarked that it has no CPU voltage adjustments, which would restrict overclocking.

Not a major issue. I'm most interested in it being able to support a CPU at the stock speeds. I'm a late-adopter, not too serious about OCing. Just interested in something that'll keep me alive for awhile.

One thought that crosses my mind: when nForce2 comes out, you could get a board with dual onboard LAN, onboard GF4MX-level video, onboard Dolby-certified high-performance audio, very high memory performance, and it's supposed to be reasonably priced too. What if it were $120-$140 on launch? For the price of your video card you get a whole motherboard, with support for the 333MHz-bus AthlonXP's You would want to pick a pair of matching memory modules so both memory controllers can activate, especially if using the onboard video. And you can still plug in an AGP 8x video card later.

Onboard GF4 MX will no doubt be rather poor quality compared to my Radeon 9000 with dedicated DDR. And I don't need to buy an extra DIMM to get the dual-channel support. And my video card cost $70 at Newegg.com. And I have it already. And it's got DX8.1 compliance

There are supposed to be some nF2 reviews within a couple weeks on AnandTech, so keep your eyes open

Not to say I'm not interested in the nForce2 chipset, but I'm thinking it's going to be expensive for me to get anything of the sort.
Is the board stable? Will it work with the 333MHz AthlonXPs coming out soon? If so, excellent. I'll pick one up Otherwise, I'll try and hunt down a K7VTA3 3.1 again.

 

[mechBgon]

Here's the straight scoop on CPU support for the M7VIP: http://www.biostar-usa.com/support/faq/cpu/cpusupport.htm They do show it supporting the 2700+, which is the first of the 333MHz-bus CPUs, so that's a good sign

 

[Kazuo]

Hmmm. Nothing else even references 166MHz FSB though. I really wanna know someone's opinion of this board and how well it compares to others. I've heard very little positive response to Biostar products. But it's so nice and cheap! ($63 at Newegg)
Gah. Darn obscure motherboards.

 

[mechBgon]

There's an EPoX 8K3AE for a bit more money, if you want more peace of mind. EPoX's PDF file isn't showing the 2700+ yet, so I can't say for certain that it supports the 333's, but I'd expect it would. nForce2 will support the 333's, and there will be a variant with no onboard video. Hehe, sorry... I just have nForce2 on the brain, don't mind me

 

[Kazuo]

Hmmm... sounds pretty reasonable. I assume that allows a bit more overclocking than the Biostar?
I've been thinking about taking my XP 1600+ to 2000+ (1.67GHz- 166x10) if I did go to a KT333 board that supported a higher FSB, if I ever needed the speed. But that'd involve me unlocking the multiplier, which I'm not sure I'd be able to do. I got some window defogger repair paint, but I guess I didn't realize the pits and jumper connections would have to be so small. When you see them on a monitor they look huge. Maybe when I have enough money sitting around for a new one in case I screw up.
I'm also thinking of waiting for the L7VTA (since it's basically the K7VTA3 3.1 with added features and the KT400). That could be why Newegg has stopped carrying that board... I hope.
Thanks for your input

 

[mechBgon]

I bumped my 1600+ directly to the 166MHz bus at the stock 10.5 multipler. I did give it a little more voltage, although I don't know if it really needed it. Nothing special on the cooling, just a medium-noise Coolermaster aluminum heatsink/fan unit and Arctic Silver 3. I'm using an Asus A7V333-RAID, probably the most expensive KT333 board around, but I'd expect just as good a result on an EPoX 8K3AE.

 

[Kazuo]

Wow. That's pretty ballsy. I've got the same Coolermaster fan on an OCZ Dominator2 right now actually.
I've got a couple Coolermaster heatsinks around, but I figured I'd use the Dominator2 since I had it sitting around, and it's no doubt better in many ways. My board yelled at me for using a fan that didn't attach to it though, so I switched fans around. Pretty pleased with the results, board says about 40C at idle. I figure it'd probably take me up a couple hundred MHz (it was cooling a 1.2GHz Thunderbird before pretty handily, which puts out about as much heat as an XP 1800+, right?) And if not, I'll get one of those heatsinks that takes an 80mm fan

 

[mechBgon]

Actually, it sounds like most recently-bought 1600+'s can do the 166 dance, as long as the RAM can hack it too I'm using PC2100 Crucial and letting the motherboard use SPD timings, and it is performing really well (typically 3hr 20min SETI@Home work units using the command-line SETI program, with some high-angle-range work units coming in below 3 hours... right up there near the fastest Pentium4's).

For a nifty reference of processor heat output, check out www.sandpile.org. Click "K7" for the Athlon-family CPUs.

 

[Kazuo]

Yeah, mine's a week 13 2002 AGOIA core one, I've heard those go up to about 1800MHz pretty easy.
I know I've seen that power usage list somewhere before, I think maybe here at Anandtech even. So, I was thinking, the XP 1800+ uses roughly the same power (a little more) as a 1.2GHz Thunderbird but the Palomino has a bit larger surface area, so those things tend to counter out as far as cooling goes, right? So if my cooler's supposed to be OK for a 1.4GHz T-bird it should be good up to XP 2100+ Palomino too, right?
Gah, I really wish I knew if this Biostar is any good, it uses the 8235 southbridge so it has USB 2.0 and all that fun stuff. I'd get the Epox but it doesn't have that. Still a nice board though, it's a tough decision.
I don't think my PC133 Crucial will go up to 166 too easy

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Does this one support the XP's internal thermistor diode?