Abit AN-M2HD or Biostar TF7050-M2

Burette · Post by **Burette** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:42 pm

My last post was about wich chipset between 975, P35 or X38. I was about to buy the Abit IP35 Pro with 8500GT when I realized: "hey! I am still with PIII with integrated video and I survived. Why buy such a huge system?"

So I changed my mind again and decided that I would go for and integrated MB. That should suffice my needs for a while.

What I got already
Antec SOLO
Corsair VX-450
Ninja rev. B
Nexus RealSilent 92mm and Scythe Minebea 120mm

I think I will go with
AMD Be-2350 45W
2x1Go PC2-6400

What I can't make up yet

Abit AN-M2HD or Biostar TF7050-M2 [/b]

One guy here at SPCR has posted this review: viewtopic.php?t=41682&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

and I also found that on the web: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm? ... 111&page=1

The only difference I see are:

Biostar: Strange layout, has to BIOS update through FLOPPY , no firewire, has some solid caps but not 100% of them

Abit: more regular layout, has firewire

I don't have a video camera so what use could I have for firewire.

Any inputs to finalize my decision would be much appreciated

=================

On the other hand. On such a system, would PC2-6400 make a difference over PC2-5300?

Thanks to all

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 5:17 am

I'd take abit. Even you don't have camera, firewire is considerably faster for external HDD than USB 2.0. Abit is also very good brand making solid motherboards.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:24 am

The Abit has four fan headers, one PWM and 3ea 3-pin. In addition to the controllable PWM in bios, one of the 3-pin headers is also controllable in bios. Each of the controllable headers has a selectable heat sensor associated, so you can use either the PWM header or the 3-pin for controlling the fan on the HSF, for instance.

RedAE102 · Post by **RedAE102** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:33 pm

First of all, I have to mention that I've used Winflash to update the BIOS on my Biostar TF7025-M2 and TF7050-M2... no floppy involved.

I'd recommend the Biostar to anyone. It's a good board. That said, if I had it to do over again, I'd probably go with the Abit. I may not need FireWire now, but I probably will eventually. And having to route my 24-pin ATX cable out and around my Ninja because of Biostar's illogical placement of the 23-pin connector is a bit annoying at times.

RedAE102 · Post by **RedAE102** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:49 pm

Forgot to answer the memory question... for basic use, where you're using CnQ, RMClock, or CrystalCPUID to adjust clock speeds, you won't notice much difference between DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) and DDR2 800 (PC2 6400). But when you're doing anything memory intensive (video/audio encoding, for example), you'll notice the difference. Personally, I think the price gap is so narrow that it's definitely worth going for the DDR2 800. Also, because of the K8 architecture's integrated memory controller, it is still very sensitive to memory latency. I'd recommend spending the extra money on 4-4-4-12 or 4-4-4-15 memory. I see that you're in Canada, and NCIX has some great deals on memory. I used to use a lot of Corsair, but seeing as how all 5 out of 5 of the kits that my friends have bought in the last year have contained at least one bad DIMM, I avoid Corsair like the plague now. Crucial, on the other hand, has been very good to my friends and me. It hardly explains why my everyday rig uses Kingston Value RAM, but for performance per dollar, Crucial is among the best out there. To steal a page from the Duracell commercials, "When it just has to work," I use Kingston.

I just realised how long winded I've gotten... I'll shut up now.

Burette · Post by **Burette** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:27 pm

Because NewEgg (from wich I can't order because they don't ship to Canada) shows 107 4/5 reviews for the Biostar compared to only 21 4/5 reviews for the Abit

Because of the Lawrence Lee full review, because RedAE102 seems happy with it even with the illogical mains connector placement

Because I don't own any firewire device yet and because honestly, 400MB for 400 MB, an external HD would probably won't go faster with USB or IE1394 (haven't look reviews on that though)

Because there is some solid caps on the Biostar

Because I have spent at least 15 hours looking for info to make my decision and I am getting nuts about that and if I continue losing my time like that, they'll market new boards and I'll have to start all over

Because all of that,

I ordered from NCIX the following maybe 5 minutes before RedAE102 last reply:

Biostar TF7050-M2
OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-15
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Brisbane 2.1GHZ 2X512KB 65NM 65W

I asked for a price matched because some parts where cheaper in another shop

Hope I made no mistake.

Burette · Post by **Burette** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:34 pm

RedAE102 wrote:First of all, I have to mention that I've used Winflash to update the BIOS on my Biostar TF7025-M2 and TF7050-M2... no floppy involved.

Are you talking about Winflash from Shuttle? If not, where did you get it?

Thanks

RedAE102 · Post by **RedAE102** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:34 am

Burette wrote: Are you talking about Winflash from Shuttle? If not, where did you get it?

Thanks

I Googled it and I think it was from DFI's site... You can find it at the bottom of this page:

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/ ... =A&SITE=US

firefox90 · Post by **firefox90** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:40 am

I just ordered the Abit motherboard from Newegg on Friday along with an AMD X2 4000+ Brisbane and 2x1gb of G.Skill RAM. Even though the Biostar as more reviews, I wanted to go with what I thought was a more reputable brand. I will let you know what I think sometime next week hopefully. Good luck!

Burette · Post by **Burette** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:03 pm

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/0 ... f7050-m2/1

That's a complete review including stability

Burette · Post by **Burette** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:26 pm

Gee!

I found this board: the Gigabyte MA69G-S3H

It has everything and a damn good review on NewEgg

Could this be THE board?

truckman · Post by **truckman** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:28 pm

I picked the Abit AN-M2HD for my MythTV box. The deciding factors in my case were the firewire port, for possible future video capture from my cable box, the rear panel optical S/PDIF port, and ECC RAM support. I've had this board for several months and I've been happy with this purchase. I'm driving my TV from the HDMI port and driving my sound system with the optical S/PDIF port.

The tiny northbridge heatsink makes me nervous, and I don't have a way of monitoring the northbridge temperature, but I haven't had any stability problems so far.

I also wish this board had more PCI slots to accomodate additional TV tuners or possible storage expansion, but I haven't found any other recent Nvidia IGP boards with more than two PCI slots.

I was happy enough with this board to buy a second one to upgrade my primary desktop machine, which runs FreeBSD, from a 1.1 GHz P III to something with a bit more pep.

Abit AN-M2HD or Biostar TF7050-M2

Abit AN-M2HD or Biostar TF7050-M2

Maybe this would convice some

Gigabyte MA69G-S3H