Geeks.com - Biostar M7VIG 400 Socket A mATX MB w/AMD Geode NX 1750 CPU - $94.75 + ship

TestGuyCT

Senior member
Aug 14, 2003
258
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I've never heard of the Geode line of CPUs from AMD, but here's the Product page

Biostar combo

Features/Specifications:
Biostar M7VIG 400 Socket A mATX Motherboard w/Geode NX 1750 CPU

General Features:
Socket A AMD Geode NX 1750 CPU INCLUDED
VIA KM266 Pro+ VT8235 chipset
Socket A
microATX form factor
200/266/333 MHz system interface speed
Supports up to 2.0 GB DDR266/333/400 SDRAM
S3 UniChrome Pro 2D/3D Graphics
64 MB Shared Memory
C-Media CMI9761A 6-Channel AC'97 CODEC
VIA VT6103 ethernet controller

Expansion Slots:
One (1) 4x AGP slot
Three (3) PCI slots
One (1) CNR slot
Two (2) 184-pin DIMM slots

I/O Ports:
Two (2) PS/2 ports
One (1) 9-pin Serial port
One (1) Parallel port
One (1) 15-pin VGA port
Two (2) USB ports
Mic in, Line in, Line out
One (1) RJ-45 ethernet jack

Hardware Monitor Function:
CPU/System Fan Speed
System Voltage
CPU/System Temperature

Overall Dimensions:
7.64 inches x 9.61 inches (W x L)

Supported Processors:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (166 MHz)
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (133 MHz)
AMD Sempron 2800+ (166 MHz)
AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz (133 MHz)
AMD Duron 1.8 GHz (133 MHz)
AMD Duron 1.3 GHz (100 MHz)
Note: This version motherboard also supports AMD Geode NX 1250 / 1500 / 1750

Regulatory Approvals:
CE
FCC

CPU Information:
AMD Geode NX 1750 Processor
1.4 GHz Frequency
128Kbyte L1 cache
256Kbyte L2 cache with hardware data prefetch
266MHz AMD processor system bus with 133MHz Front Side Bus (FSB)
Integrated support for 3DNow! technology, MMX and SSE instruction sets
Advanced 0.13µm fabrication process for higher frequency scaling and lower power consumption
14 Watts Average Power Consumption
25 Watts Maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP)

Package Includes:
Biostar M7VIG 400 Socket A mATX Motherboard
AMD Geode NX 1750 Socket A CPU w/Heatsink and Fan
Drivers and Utilities CD
Application Pack CD
User's Manual
One (1) 40-pin, 80-wire IDE cable
One (1) floppy disk cable
I/O shield

Additional Information:


Notes:
Motherboard P/N: M7VIG 400
CPU P/N: ANXS1750FXC3M


Product Requirements:
microATX (mATX) case
microATX (mATX) power supply
Supported RAM
Rest of system

 

Odeen

Diamond Member
Aug 4, 2000
4,892
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76
Seems like the Geode is an ultra-low power Athlon XP T-bred. Runs as fast as a garden-variety AXP 1600+, but probably OC'able as sin. And, at the low initial FSB, you'll run out of motherboard before you'll run out of cpu potential.
 

Odeen

Diamond Member
Aug 4, 2000
4,892
0
76
Seems like the Geode is an ultra-low power Athlon XP T-bred. Runs as fast as a garden-variety AXP 1600+, but probably OC'able as sin. And, at the low initial FSB, you'll run out of motherboard before you'll run out of cpu potential.
 

Sensai

Senior member
Nov 30, 2002
932
0
76
i thought geodes were for handhelds and more appliance like computers... maybe even that $100 laptop thing
 

cirthix

Diamond Member
Aug 28, 2004
3,616
1
76
10.5 isnt a bad multi to deal with either. 10.5*250(nice modded nforce2 fsb) is 2625 mhz, with an xp-m that's acheivable with around 1.85vcore. these look like cheery picked cpus, so it might be doable on good air with 1.8v or so. you'l need to mod the mobo and use an agp vid card though, and some good ram. axps dont take well to dividers.

looks like a nice deal :), but the platform is a little outdated.
 

unclebud

Diamond Member
Jun 13, 2000
5,518
0
0
it can. i have a 9700 pro in one i bought a year and a half ago from newegg
there are some things i don't like about it, but agp support/working slot isn't one of them
 

Hiruko

Member
Mar 27, 2005
67
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0
There was or is a deal at Outpost for a Sempron 3100+ and a motherboard. Why would someone go for this instead?
 

yuchai

Senior member
Aug 24, 2004
980
2
76
Originally posted by: Hiruko
There was or is a deal at Outpost for a Sempron 3100+ and a motherboard. Why would someone go for this instead?

Apples and oranges IMO. This combo is for an ultra low power system that may appeal to people who are trying to run a silent pc, at the expense of performance. I believe it's possible to passively cool this thing if you do some further underclocking/undervolting. The mobo is also a mATX one with onboard graphics while the sempron's bundled mobo seems to include a full ATX mobo.
 

TripleDouble

Junior Member
Mar 13, 2006
3
0
0
I just bought this combo, and it has a strange quirk to it. Basically, the motherboard detects that CPU as a desktop chip, and is sending the CPU 1.4v, whereas it should really be 1.25v. I was actually hoping to underclock rather than overclock, but it seems the Biostar M7VIG 400 board does not allow for CPU voltage tuning.

Anybody know of any good sites where I could download a customized bios that would allow for this?
 

AkumaX

Lifer
Apr 20, 2000
12,643
3
81
Why does the 667mhz version require 1.1v and the 1ghz version require 1.0v?

O/cing? haha.. good 'ol AT ;)

This would make a great carputer, or a super ultra tiny pc using a 2.5" hdd, a so-dimm, and a laptop optical drive
 

TripleDouble

Junior Member
Mar 13, 2006
3
0
0
The 1 ghz version is a premium part and also hard to find; it's actually more expensive than the 1.4 ghz version.

But if anyone gets this, make sure to get a mboard that actually allow manual vcore adjustment, otherwise it's just running hot and wasting power.
 

igowerf

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2000
7,697
1
76
Originally posted by: TripleDouble
The 1 ghz version is a premium part and also hard to find; it's actually more expensive than the 1.4 ghz version.

But if anyone gets this, make sure to get a mboard that actually allow manual vcore adjustment, otherwise it's just running hot and wasting power.

Maybe there's a BIOS update to get the motherboard to properly detect the CPU.
 

TestGuyCT

Senior member
Aug 14, 2003
258
0
0
TripleDouble,

I don't have this combo myself, but here's a link to the motherboard manual & software/drivers: Link

Biostar has some overclocking software called WarpSpeeder, available here.
However, I've never used it, and I'm not sure if it allows undervolting.

Here's the BIOS page. Have you tried the latest version yet ?

Good Luck.



Originally posted by: TripleDouble
I just bought this combo, and it has a strange quirk to it. Basically, the motherboard detects that CPU as a desktop chip, and is sending the CPU 1.4v, whereas it should really be 1.25v. I was actually hoping to underclock rather than overclock, but it seems the Biostar M7VIG 400 board does not allow for CPU voltage tuning.

Anybody know of any good sites where I could download a customized bios that would allow for this?

 

dew042

Platinum Member
Nov 2, 2000
2,934
0
76
Originally posted by: TripleDouble
I just bought this combo, and it has a strange quirk to it. Basically, the motherboard detects that CPU as a desktop chip, and is sending the CPU 1.4v, whereas it should really be 1.25v. I was actually hoping to underclock rather than overclock, but it seems the Biostar M7VIG 400 board does not allow for CPU voltage tuning.

Anybody know of any good sites where I could download a customized bios that would allow for this?



Not likely to happen -- The board may not even be able to provide that voltage. More likely it is not an overclocker's MB and will not allow you access to voltages.

This was a big probelm for me when I got and use one of first mobile athlon XPs -- many of the desktop boards I tried would not let me get the voltage low enough.

dew.
 

TripleDouble

Junior Member
Mar 13, 2006
3
0
0
I guess it was my mistake, I should have checked before buying. Unfortunately, it seems the Geodes are only available packaged w/ certain boards. I did try the latest bios, but no luck. Too bad, as the the CPU itself is rather promising for the $.

Warpspeeder is semi-promising...but I'm not running windows.

Dew, what did you end up doing?
 

TestGuyCT

Senior member
Aug 14, 2003
258
0
0
TripleDouble,

Here is a link to some info about the Geode 1750NX

It is translated from Japanese I believe.

If you are interested, there is some experimental Linux software for tweaking the AMD Athlon XP-M CPU voltages here: Link
The download link is here.

There is also some software for Windows

I have never tried either version myself.

Please let us know how it works out if you decide to try it.

Good Luck !