The Biostar M7VIG is a very popular inexpensive motherboard that has onboard video, sound and LAN, plus an AGP slot and 3 PCI slots. It has two slots for DDR memory and two for SDRAM (don't try and use them at the same time). It is VIA KM266 (& VT8233A Southbridge, same as the KT333) chipset. I personally think it is a much better low-end mobo than the ubiquitous ECS K7S5A, being more tolerant of marginal power supplies and RAM, & there seem to be fewer reports of funky or DOA boards. Newegg users give the M7VIG 5 stars vs. 4 stars for the K7S5A.
Anyway, Newegg is now offering the M7VIG PRO version for $60 with free Fedex shipping. The Pro version has USB 2.0 instead of the 1.1 of the older model and the K7S5A, with 2 rear USB ports and 4 front USB ports, as well as a front audio port. It also has much improved C-Media CMI9739A 6-Channel onboard sound, as well as S3 ProSavage 8 Video. The board is now red, instead of the green PCB of the older M7VIG (big whoop). The old M7VIG had few overclocking features, but the Pro version seems to come with the Warpspeeder utility, which appears to allow adjustments to voltage and frequency from within Windows. It also comes with the 9th Touch utility, which allows the user to hit F9 while booting up and choose which device to boot up without having to enter the BIOS. The board can handle up to at least an Athlon? XP 2600+ CPU. The Pro version has been available at FTIComputer.com for a couple of weeks for $56 with $7 shipping, but is now in stock at the well regarded Newegg, prudently located in California, so that no one of consequence will have to pay sales tax.
Price drop reflected in thread title- Praxis
Edit: 03/03- I finally got around to ordering one of these boards from TCWO for $59, sparing myself the sales tax. I haven't had a chance to set it up, but a couple of notes. The board doesn't come with front USB ports or audio ports, only the motherboard headers, which I guess is what I should have assumed, since the ports are likely to be specific to the case. Anyway, many ATX cases these days come with front USB ports, so its nice to have the header. Two installation CDs come with the board, one with Norton AntiVirus, Ghost and Personal Firewall (2002 version), and one with the drivers for all the Biostar boards. The Biostar CD has a 79 page pdf manual for the M7VIG (the paper manual is pretty rudimentary, if you've never set up a computer before). The CD also has the drivers and DirectX 8.1, as well as Acrobat 5.05. There is a driver directory with a vigpro.exe program that presumably installs the proper drivers. There is also a vigp.exe PDF that briefly goes over installing the proper software. The WarpSpeeder utility comes on the CD & is mentioned on vigp.exe.
Anyway, Newegg is now offering the M7VIG PRO version for $60 with free Fedex shipping. The Pro version has USB 2.0 instead of the 1.1 of the older model and the K7S5A, with 2 rear USB ports and 4 front USB ports, as well as a front audio port. It also has much improved C-Media CMI9739A 6-Channel onboard sound, as well as S3 ProSavage 8 Video. The board is now red, instead of the green PCB of the older M7VIG (big whoop). The old M7VIG had few overclocking features, but the Pro version seems to come with the Warpspeeder utility, which appears to allow adjustments to voltage and frequency from within Windows. It also comes with the 9th Touch utility, which allows the user to hit F9 while booting up and choose which device to boot up without having to enter the BIOS. The board can handle up to at least an Athlon? XP 2600+ CPU. The Pro version has been available at FTIComputer.com for a couple of weeks for $56 with $7 shipping, but is now in stock at the well regarded Newegg, prudently located in California, so that no one of consequence will have to pay sales tax.
Price drop reflected in thread title- Praxis
Edit: 03/03- I finally got around to ordering one of these boards from TCWO for $59, sparing myself the sales tax. I haven't had a chance to set it up, but a couple of notes. The board doesn't come with front USB ports or audio ports, only the motherboard headers, which I guess is what I should have assumed, since the ports are likely to be specific to the case. Anyway, many ATX cases these days come with front USB ports, so its nice to have the header. Two installation CDs come with the board, one with Norton AntiVirus, Ghost and Personal Firewall (2002 version), and one with the drivers for all the Biostar boards. The Biostar CD has a 79 page pdf manual for the M7VIG (the paper manual is pretty rudimentary, if you've never set up a computer before). The CD also has the drivers and DirectX 8.1, as well as Acrobat 5.05. There is a driver directory with a vigpro.exe program that presumably installs the proper drivers. There is also a vigp.exe PDF that briefly goes over installing the proper software. The WarpSpeeder utility comes on the CD & is mentioned on vigp.exe.
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