mATX mobo - Biostar M7NCG 400 any good?

**Fergal** · 10-24-2004, 04:55 AM

Hi

As nobody replied to my previous post (possibly due to my spelling mistake), I'll try again.

MATX mobo choice between Biostar M7NCG 400 or Asus A7N8X VM/400. Biostar looks good with underclocking and undervolting options. Also has a gameport which could be useful.

Any M7NCG 400 owners out there got anything to say about this mobo? Good or bad? Has anybody successfully got the onboard video to display 800 * 480 in Windows XP? If so, how did you achieve this? Modified BIOS, Powerstrip etc? Any other mobos to consider?

Many thanks

Fergal

**Quattro** · 10-24-2004, 03:43 PM

Why don'y you give the old search button a try. I know both these motherboards have been discussed before on the boards. I personally have the Asus and have had no problems. expect for the fact the board does not recoginze the correct speed of my processor, but that is easily fixed with the wire mod.

**Fergal** · 10-24-2004, 04:18 PM

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried the search button, I've been trawling through these forums for days. I only ever post questions as a last resort. There is so is so much information on here (much of it contradictory) it is difficult to find anything at times.

I know about the Opus PSU issue with the Biostar and the speed issue with the Asus mobo, but I'd like to hear from somebody who actually uses the Biostar and what they think of it.

BTW, as you have the Asus, which has the same graphics chip as the Biostar, have you got it running at 800 * 480?

**blackpacu** · 10-25-2004, 01:05 AM

I have the biostar board, it works pretty damn well, I cant think of anything w/ it off the top of my head any problems that i have had with it, so i would recommend this board

I have never tried to run video at 800x480 on it, Ill look into tommorrow and let you know how it works out,
btw 800x600 scales very well on my lilliput, this is what i run it at usually

**Fergal** · 10-25-2004, 04:54 AM

blackpacu, thanks for the reply, just the kind of thing I was after.

I see you are running a XP1700, have you tried under/overclocking it? Another plus for the Biostar mobo, the Asus doesn't seem to support variable clock speeds/multipliers.

If your running 800 * 600 into the Lilliput does it squash the screen vertically, or can you set it up as a 480 high window on the 600 high screen? This would be preferable for me as running LCD panels in non-native resolution looks terrible IMO.

**MatrixPC** · 10-25-2004, 09:55 AM

I don't have the Biostar board but I have the Asus A7N8X-VM/400. The problem with this board is NO bios/jumper configuration for the CPU overlocking/underlocking. So if you use AMD mobile CPU that is where the problem is, but if you use regular CPU, there is no problem with this board.

The way I look at 2 boards (I did some research before end up buying the Asus) is very much the same. If you are planning running mobile CPU, buy the Biostar (unless you want to do wire mod like I did), otherwise either one will go.

For 800x480, the Asus display on the Lilliput very nice

Asus update utility and MyLogo2 making update BIOS and/or POST logo is a "no brainer" jobs. Just couple clicks and you are done. One problem I also found is the floppy controller doesn't seem to work when I try to update the BIOS/POST Logo the "old way". Well it could be my old floppy drive, but who need it anyways since this board can also boot from USB storage media.

**Quattro** · 10-25-2004, 10:02 AM

Like MatixPC stated, I have also been able to get 800X480 with the onboard graphics as well. I really like the board, but I am also using the mobile athlon and have to use the wire mod to get the correct speed, which I don't think is a big problems, but other don't like the board for this reason.

**Motoko** · 10-25-2004, 01:25 PM

Ive got the Asus too, il be doing the wire mod as well, just gotta search for that thread

**beckkl** · 10-25-2004, 03:56 PM

What timing. I just got this biostar board from newegg last Friday. Dead on arrival. Anyway, I'm sure it is a fluke, or even could be a memory compatibility issue, but I have pretty much narrowed it down to the MB. Just to be sure, I decided to go with a different board for the replacement. I wouldn't be hell bent on the nForce2 boards either. I went with a SiS chipset, as you get voltage control. Just stay away from the VIAs. According to the reviews on newegg, the Biostar is supposed to be a solid board...... so it looks like I just got a lemon.

FYI I went with this:

Newegg.com

**redmage** · 10-28-2004, 03:23 PM

Bought this board with an Mobile Athlon-XP 2400+ (35Watt) and the BIOS recognizes it as a Mobile Athlon-XP 2400+. I changed the FSB and multiplier (because it defaulted to "safe" settings 800Mhz 100/8) to 133/11 at 1.47V core to acheive 1463Mhz underclocked with temps of 26-27C moderate load with a basic $17 heatsync/fan in room at 78F with open case. I overclocked (curious) to 166/12.5 at 1.47V core, after a 10 second post booted directly to the desktop (XP) with temps 27-28C moderate load I think that's pretty nice.

Basically, I love this board and reccomend it. It's got GeForce4 MX integrated GPU and great Nvidia nForce chipset with awesome power/fsb/etc stepping