SFF BARE BONES

No, it's not a new kind of naked science fiction - the eight SFF Bare Bones on test this month may be small but they don't compromise on performance

Biostar iDEQ 200P

Manufacturer:	Price:
Biostar	£175 inc VAT
Reviewer:	Review Date:
	Jun 2004

	OVERALL RATING

SCORE

5/6

Verdict: So well designed even your granny could build it and it's the fastest gaming SFF we've seen

It's a pleasure to see a relatively obscure component manufacturer find a new avenue of excellence. Just as Shuttle went from B-grade motherboard maker to famous SFF pioneer, clearly Biostar also has its sights set on glory through things small but beautiful. The iDEQ 200P is only the second Athlon 64 SFF bare bones we've seen, and it's by far the best.

It's an extremely easy SFF to build. Thumbscrews hold the one top and two side panels, which, when removed, give you clear access to all components. The DIMM sockets are located next to the side panel, so insertion and clipping are a cinch. As with most SFFs, the AGP and PCI slots are accessible from the other side, but unlike the Shuttle SN85G4 (see Issue 3, p42), the AGP slot is further in, so there's room for a dual-slot card.

The pretty copper heatsink is secured to the processor socket with a rotating arm. It's easier to access if you remove the hard disk enclosure first, as you can then install the processor without the need for the manual dexterity of a watchmaker. The disk enclosure is secured by a clip and a thumbscrew, and then slides out. There's room for two hard disks too, so the Biostar would be a good choice if you want maximum storage, perhaps for a PVR. The front-accessible 5.25in and 3.5in bays are situated on a removable tray, but you don't need to take this out to fit drives, as the screw holes are in plain view already.

Biostar has also thoughtfully routed all the cables for you in precisely the right place for installing drives, and they're labelled clearly as well. This really helps to cut down on building time, and we were able to put it all together in under ten minutes. Unless you're installing S-ATA drives on the two RAID-enabled ports, you won't need to open the box of extras until it's time to install the Windows drivers.

Like the AOpen SFFs, the Biostar is not a gimmick-oriented SFF, so there's not even a memory card reader installed. However, you could add one of these for £20, and the iDEQ 200P is one of the cheaper SFFs on test, so it's still amazing value for money.

There's a full complement of front connections, from microphone, headphone and S/PDIF to twin USB 2 and FireWire ports. More of the same can be found at the back, in addition to LAN and two serial ports - although we're not sure what you'd want to attach to them these days.

The chassis is sturdy and built of aluminium, and Biostar makes a grand claim that the recesses on the bottom help to dissipate heat from the CPU, Northbridge and Southbridge. However, they're not even remotely close on the iDEQ 200P and we wonder if this chassis was originally designed for one of the other motherboards used in Biostar's SFF range. But we could see a heatpad connecting the CPU socket to a non-recessed section of the chassis, turning the case into a giant heatsink.

Our only other criticism is the slightly flimsy sliding door on the plastic front panel.

As this is an Athlon 64 SFF using the Nvidia nForce3 150 chipset, we were expecting good overall performance from our Athlon 64 3200+ test chip, but limited overclockability. In fact, the Biostar was a moderately pleasant surprise in this respect.

In the Custom PC Media Benchmarks, its score was on par with the Intel SFFs running a 2.6GHz Pentium 4c, but the frame rate in Wolfenstein was well ahead. When overclocked, the AGP bus can be clocked independently of the FSB, so you don't overstress your card unnecessarily.

We found the Biostar overclocked stably by 10 per cent to an FSB of 220MHz, which is better than the measly 210MHz FSB we got out of the Shuttle SN85G4. This overclock gave us 8 per cent more performance in the 2D benchmarks, and 2.77fps more in Wolfenstein, making this the fastest SFF at gaming we've seen.

Although the Media Benchmark results weren't so outstanding, they're still fast for an SFF, and should improve still further with the 64-bit version of Windows XP.

Overall, this is a stunning SFF, ideal for the LAN party addict or anyone else who wants AMD's latest 64-bit powerhouse in a tiny package. It's a doddle to put together, cheap to buy, and with an Athlon 64 at the helm it's a screaming performer, particularly at gaming.

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