- Sep 26, 2000
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856115034
BIOSTAR Eco i2 Barebone with Remote. Supports Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium (LGA1156) Intel H55 Chipset with HDMI Port and Remote Control
I have built about 6 Shuttle SFF's over the last 5 years. None for myself, though.
After recently building the Shuttle SH55 barebones with an i3-540 and using it hooked up to my 52 inch lcd, I decided I wanted my own.
Normally I don't buy cheap. However, this time I decided to see what I could get that would be as inexpensive as possible, yet provide good performance. So I bought the Biostar barebones and put in another i3-540.
Biostar Eco i2 129.00
Intel i3-540 129.00
G-Skill 2GBx2 DDR 1333 40.00
Review:
The case is from Supercase and it really surprised me. It is a decently heavy guage metal, far stiffer and sturdier than the Shuttle. The drives tray is also decently solid, and slides in and out decently. You need to watch out for the cables when you put it back in. The fit and finish are very, very good.
The documentation for the case is limited. You do get a sheet that, if can read it, shows you where and what type of connectors it has. All the connectors come attached to the Biostar mobo already, but in case one comes loose, or you want to replace the mobo you can do it. (its an itx mobo)
It is easier to assemble than a Shuttle. In fact it took about 15 minutes to put in the cpu with the retail fan, two hard drives and a dvd-rw. I needed one extra sata cable and a molex to sata power adapter since only two of each are included.
My o.s. is on an AData 60 gb ssd and my secondary drive is a 500 gb Western Digital.
I turn it on. And its LOUD! It's ok if you are going to put it on a audio rack, or someplace away from you. But, if you are going to sit next to it, no good. So I disconnect the 80 mm case fan, and boom, its whisper quiet. So I ordered the quietest, reasonably priced 80 mm case fan I could from Newegg for about 11 dollars shipped. This one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999602
Based on my experience with this case fan, when installed the Biostar will be very, very slightly noisier than the ungodly quiet Shuttle. All in all, the Biostar is very acceptable noise wise with the replacement fan. And thats less than 2 feet from my head.
btw the default bios settings need to be changed. I chose Quiet mode for the cpu fan and bunch of other settings like S3 instead of the default S1. IDE mode to AHCI mode. Nothing complicated, and if you set something wrong, it seems to still always boot so you can change it.
The Biostar remote is pretty slick looking. The buttons feel good, the red light flickers to show you have pushed a button, and it works from across the room. The little infrared receiver comes already mounted on the mobo.
I used the Intel, Realtek, etc latest drivers instead of the those on the disk.
It runs great. Once I got the firmware updated on the AData ssd, the machine is faster than my main computer which uses the Intel 80 gb SSD with a Core2Duo at 2.66, E8400.
Ok, so using HDMI it plays everything I have tried. According to the reviews I've seen the onboard Clarkdale should even play bluray disks well, which I will eventually use.
The power supply is small, and I wouldn't consider adding a graphics card. The point behind this machine is an HTPC with the Clarkdale video that will do anything you need, except gaming. And it does it very, very, very well.
Note that you can buy the replacement power supply under the Allied/Supercase name from Newegg for 19.99. That's a definite plus.
The case is a convertible. It comes with some stands to use it vertically, but I didn't feel they were reliable enough, so I put it horizontally. If you want to use it vertically you many want to reinforce the stand a bit.
Real world testing was when my friend came over to check it out. Before I put in the SSD, I installed Windows 7 on the Western Digital drive, and that's what he saw. His first impression was how zippy it was, and the second how even movies of 6-8 Gb. in highly compressed HD looked great and could be fast forwarded via the slider without annoying lags.
Conclusions:
All in all, a pretty decent, really inexpensive HTPC. With a remote. It's not for overclocking, nor for use with an expansion video card, imo.
I don't compare it to a Shuttle, but think of it as competing with the Atom based htpc's. It costs a little more, but provides light years more performance. And with Sandy Bridge coming out, a Clarkdale cpu may be on sale soon.
BIOSTAR Eco i2 Barebone with Remote. Supports Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium (LGA1156) Intel H55 Chipset with HDMI Port and Remote Control
I have built about 6 Shuttle SFF's over the last 5 years. None for myself, though.
After recently building the Shuttle SH55 barebones with an i3-540 and using it hooked up to my 52 inch lcd, I decided I wanted my own.
Normally I don't buy cheap. However, this time I decided to see what I could get that would be as inexpensive as possible, yet provide good performance. So I bought the Biostar barebones and put in another i3-540.
Biostar Eco i2 129.00
Intel i3-540 129.00
G-Skill 2GBx2 DDR 1333 40.00
Review:
The case is from Supercase and it really surprised me. It is a decently heavy guage metal, far stiffer and sturdier than the Shuttle. The drives tray is also decently solid, and slides in and out decently. You need to watch out for the cables when you put it back in. The fit and finish are very, very good.
The documentation for the case is limited. You do get a sheet that, if can read it, shows you where and what type of connectors it has. All the connectors come attached to the Biostar mobo already, but in case one comes loose, or you want to replace the mobo you can do it. (its an itx mobo)
It is easier to assemble than a Shuttle. In fact it took about 15 minutes to put in the cpu with the retail fan, two hard drives and a dvd-rw. I needed one extra sata cable and a molex to sata power adapter since only two of each are included.
My o.s. is on an AData 60 gb ssd and my secondary drive is a 500 gb Western Digital.
I turn it on. And its LOUD! It's ok if you are going to put it on a audio rack, or someplace away from you. But, if you are going to sit next to it, no good. So I disconnect the 80 mm case fan, and boom, its whisper quiet. So I ordered the quietest, reasonably priced 80 mm case fan I could from Newegg for about 11 dollars shipped. This one:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811999602
Based on my experience with this case fan, when installed the Biostar will be very, very slightly noisier than the ungodly quiet Shuttle. All in all, the Biostar is very acceptable noise wise with the replacement fan. And thats less than 2 feet from my head.
btw the default bios settings need to be changed. I chose Quiet mode for the cpu fan and bunch of other settings like S3 instead of the default S1. IDE mode to AHCI mode. Nothing complicated, and if you set something wrong, it seems to still always boot so you can change it.
The Biostar remote is pretty slick looking. The buttons feel good, the red light flickers to show you have pushed a button, and it works from across the room. The little infrared receiver comes already mounted on the mobo.
I used the Intel, Realtek, etc latest drivers instead of the those on the disk.
It runs great. Once I got the firmware updated on the AData ssd, the machine is faster than my main computer which uses the Intel 80 gb SSD with a Core2Duo at 2.66, E8400.
Ok, so using HDMI it plays everything I have tried. According to the reviews I've seen the onboard Clarkdale should even play bluray disks well, which I will eventually use.
The power supply is small, and I wouldn't consider adding a graphics card. The point behind this machine is an HTPC with the Clarkdale video that will do anything you need, except gaming. And it does it very, very, very well.
Note that you can buy the replacement power supply under the Allied/Supercase name from Newegg for 19.99. That's a definite plus.
The case is a convertible. It comes with some stands to use it vertically, but I didn't feel they were reliable enough, so I put it horizontally. If you want to use it vertically you many want to reinforce the stand a bit.
Real world testing was when my friend came over to check it out. Before I put in the SSD, I installed Windows 7 on the Western Digital drive, and that's what he saw. His first impression was how zippy it was, and the second how even movies of 6-8 Gb. in highly compressed HD looked great and could be fast forwarded via the slider without annoying lags.
Conclusions:
All in all, a pretty decent, really inexpensive HTPC. With a remote. It's not for overclocking, nor for use with an expansion video card, imo.
I don't compare it to a Shuttle, but think of it as competing with the Atom based htpc's. It costs a little more, but provides light years more performance. And with Sandy Bridge coming out, a Clarkdale cpu may be on sale soon.
Last edited:
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