Biostar iDEQ 200T & iDEQ 200V barebones systems

With the popularity of the SFF (small form factor) PC increasing we review Biostar's barebones iDEQ in both AMD and Intel versions.

Price: £189.99

Manufacturer: Biostar

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Verdict

Overall:

Both these systems have the potential to be made into powerful compact PCs, or would make the ideal base for a Home Theatre PC.

PC Magazine Team, PC Magazine 06 Feb 2004

iDEQ 200T

The 200T is the Intel-based system, attractively finished in brushed aluminium with a silver plastic front bezel that contrasts with the rest of the chassis. The front bezel has a slide down panel to hide the 5.25in and 3.5in externally accessed drive bays.

Unlike other cubes, the iDEQ's case panels are split into three, all of which are tool-free, useful if you only want to access the AGP and PCI slots.

At the heart of the system is one of Biostar's own motherboards, based on the Intel 865G/ICH5R chipset combination, so you get 800FSB processor support, dual channel memory, integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 and Serial ATA RAID 0/1 support.

If you're not impressed with the integrated graphics then the motherboard provides an AGP 8X slot and there's also a single PCI slot.

With integrated LAN, 6-channel audio, two USB 2.0 ports and a FireWire port, it's hard to think what else you would want to add apart from perhaps a modem.

With a fan in the power supply, a case fan and a CPU fan, this isn't the quietest SFF system but it's not unacceptably noisy.

When you open the case for the first time you get a pleasant surprise. All the data cables are already attached to the motherboard and tucked neatly out of the way, so all you need to do is install your drives.

The 200T comes with two well written and illustrated manuals, all screws needed to fix the drives and Serial ATA and power cables.

iDEQ 200V

Externally identical to the 200T, the AMD-based 200V has at its heart a Biostar M7VBA motherboard. Using a VIA KM400 Northbridge it provides support for AMD Socket A processors with 200MHz, 266MHz or 333MHz FSB speeds up to an Athlon XP 3000+.

Also provided by the KM400 are the VIA UniChrome integrated graphics but, as with the 200T, there's an AGP 8X slot.

Two DIMM slots provide support for up to 2GB of PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 RAM but only in single channel mode. There's also integrated LAN, six-channel audio and a front-mounted FireWire port.

VIA's VT8237 Southbridge provides support for up to eight USB 2.0 ports and the two Serial ATA ports. Serial ATA RAID levels 0 and 1 are supported.

There's room for two hard drives if you don't want to use the 3.5in externally-accessible drive bay for a floppy drive or multi-format card reader.

Like the 200T, it comes with illustrated manuals and all the fittings you need to get started.

Contact: Dabs.com
www.dabs.com

Price:
iDEQ 200T - £189.99 (inc. VAT)
iDEQ 200V - £144.99 (inc. VAT)

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