The Biostar M7NCG is a low end micro ATX nforce2 board, with the on-chip geforce 4mx graphics implemented. It sells for around £65, but doesn't seem to be available at many online retailers.

Specification and Features

NForce 2 IGP Northbridge, MCP-T southbridge
Micro ATX format
AGP 8x
Dual DDR 266/333/400 support
Onboard LAN
USB 2.0 X4 Firewire X2
Integrated Geforce 4mx graphics
Onboard 6 channel audio

Layout and aesthetics

The board itself is bright red, the same colour as an MSI board infact. The Dimm and PCI slots are in primary blue, and the AGP and CNR slots are an interesting salmon colour. I think the blue and red look well together, but the salmon isn't so good, neither is the Northbridge sink, which is a plain and black. The CPU socket clearance is the biggest failing of this board, I Couldn't fit an AX7 sink to this board, and had to use an old 60mil alloy sink, which is why there are no 166fsb/1.75gig benchmark results for this board. The ATX connector positioning is very good however, situated on the right hand edge of the board, well away from the CPU area. There are only 2 fan headers, one for the CPU cooler, and one in the lower right hand corner of the board. The headers for Firewire and extra USB 2.0 ports are sensibly located on the bottom edge.

Usability

The manual is in English, Spanish, and German, with only 14 pages of English. I use the word English in the loosest sense, as the grammar will provide plenty of giggles. The content is very sparse, and includes no information on the BIOS at all, some brief descriptions and pinouts for the pin headers, and little else. There is enough info for an experienced system builder, but those inexperienced with motherboard installation, or the English language, could easily get lost. Luckily the BIOS is simple and self explanatory, with a comprehensive feature set considering the boards price range. Physical installation is simple, but marred by a lack of clear markings on the board for front panel switches and LEDs.

Performance and overclocking

The performance of the onboard graphics is, in a word, terrible. It only scores 2376 3dmarks with an XP1600. This roundup has shown that the onboard Geforce4mx doesn't perform anything like as well as a separate card with the same geforce 4mx, and the shared ram is probably responsible for crippling it. This Biostar M7NCG performs perhaps a little worse than the onboard graphics on the Albatron board, to the tune of 146 3dmarks less, which is a little above the 50 points either way margin of error. The BIOS has a very good range of overclocking features, with the MHz by MHz FSB adjustment that seems to be standard on nForce 2 boards, and multiplier options, and voltage settings for the Northbridge, ram, and CPU core. This is spoilt however, by the Northbridge sink, which is only a couple of millimeters high, with a 40mm fan on top, which seems barely adequate at best. CPU socket clearance is very bad, which will dissuade most overclockers. If you want a budget board to overclock with, the Biostar M7NCG may still be in the running, if you select your heatsink carefully.

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