My Biostar TF7025-M2 Review: Biostar Raises the Bar

All about them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Lawrence Lee
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 1115
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:07 pm
Location: Vancouver

My Biostar TF7025-M2 Review: Biostar Raises the Bar

Post by Lawrence Lee » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:29 pm

THE BOARD: Biostar TF7025-M2
Features:
-Form: mATX, 9.6" x 9.6", 24-pin ATX power
-CPU: Socket AM2, Athlon 64/X2/FX, 1000Mhz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)
-Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Northbridge, NVIDIA nForce 630a Southbridge
-Memory: 4 x DDR2, dual channel, up to 8GB DDR2-800
-Expansion slots: 1 x PCI-E 16x, 1x PCI-E 1x, 2 x PCI
-Storage: 1 x IDE channel (2 devices), 4 x SATA2 (3Gb/s), SATA RAID 0/1/0+1/5 Matrix RAID
-Video: NVIDIA GeForce 7025
-Other onboard features: Realtek ALC888 8 channel audio, Realtek RTL8110SC 10/100/1000 LAN, 3 x USB 2.0 internal headers for 6 extra ports
-Rear panel connectors: 2 x PS/2, 4 x USB 2.0, 6 x audio, S-Video, VGA (D-Sub), DVI, RJ-45

Retail Box Contents:
-Driver disc
-User manual
-Rear I/O shield
-80-wire IDE cable
-Floppy cable
-SATA data cable
-SATA power adapter cable


TEST SETUP
AMD X2 3600+ Brisbane (AM2, 1.9Ghz, 65W, 1.300V)
Arctic Freezer 64 Pro PWM
Biostar TF7025-M2, Shipping BIOS: 430
1GB Corsair Value Select DDR2-667 (128MB allocated to video memory)
Hitachi 250GB 8MB SATA2 HD
LG 16x DVD-ROM IDE
Allied AL-D320EXP 320W PSU
No case, open testing environment, ambient temperature: 24C
Windows XP Pro SP2


PICTURES
ImageImageImageImage


FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The board came in rather unnecessarily large box - there was not a lot inside. The accessories included were lacking, especially when it came to cables. They were however nicely tucked into a complimentary nylon bag. The board itself has bad layout. Most troubling is the 24-pin ATX connector to the left of the CPU socket, obstructing airflow. Secondly, the SATA ports are aligned in a horizontal row for some reason, making for awkward cabling. There was plenty of room around the CPU socket though, so most third party heatsinks should be compatible. Strangely, the CPU fan header is located to the left of the socket so I had to turn the fan on the Arctic Freezer upside-down to get the connector to reach. There are 1 x 4-pin and 3 x 3-pin fan headers. The chipset heatsink is larger than the one on the TA690G, which is a good thing, but still somewhat inadequate. It got very hot during testing, even when idle, so an undervolted fan hanging over it should definitely be considered. That said, it did not cause any stability issues. There are power and reset buttons right on the board on the bottom right corner. It's a nice touch - I'd like to this on all motherboards one day.


BIOS
Good overclocking menu. Almost limitless range of CPU voltages (but no underclocking available) and CPU frequencies to choose from. Full set of memory tweaks available and memory voltage starts at 1.95V (probably to reduce compatibility issues) and goes up to 2.50V. The CMOS Reloaded Menu allows you to save an extraordinary 100 presets. What impressed me most: if you enter settings that make the system unstable, upon reboot it will temporarily assign default values and stop at POST with an error message. I never had to reset the CMOS and presumably, one would never have to.

The BIOS has some elementary fan control: you can specify at what temperatures the CPU fan starts up and kicks into full gear. Unfortunately the CPU temperature it reports is way off. It had a reading of 40C at bootup and 60C during load even though the heatsink was barely warm.

BIOS flashing on the board is supported via floppy only, though it does not have to be bootable. If you are so inclined, the latest BIOS' are available at Biostar's Chinese site: http://www.biostar.cn/supports/BIOS.asp ... &Value=561


OVERCLOCKING
Simply amazing for a mATX board. Highest HTT/FSB obtained (with all voltages set to stock) was 320Mhz (dropped multiplier to 4 and reduced HT multiplier to 3 as well to keep it under 1000Mhz). The CPU hit a wall at around 295Mhz x 9.5, but a little extra voltage got it stable enough to run SuperPI. Bottom line, most likely no matter what CPU you use, the board will not limit your overclock. I settled for 2.7Ghz (285Mhz x 9.5 with all stock volts) for an impressive 42% increase.


SPCR-SPECIFIC TOPICS OF INTEREST
Undervolting/Power Consumption:
Unfortunately you cannot undervolt in the BIOS. That leaves a lot of Linux users in the cold. For Windows users, CrystalCPUID works. The lowest multiplier I could use was 4.5 (from 9.5). 4 would cause the system to crash (though you can use 4 in the BIOS) I used multipliers of 9.5, 7, and 4.5 and systematically found the lowest stable voltages I use with HTT at 285Mhz. I also measured power consumption directly from the wall socket at idle and with Orthos running (small FFT setting).

1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 48W idle, 57W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 53W idle, 72W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 66W idle, 112W during Orthos (Small FFT)

Power consumption would've probably been better if I used a decent power supply. I have no information on the efficiency of the Allied power supply I used. The Enhance 80+ power supply I wanted (ST50EF-PLUS) is still on backorder.

Edit:
With Fortron 400W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 43W idle, 53W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 47W idle, 67W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 57W idle, 102W during Orthos (Small FFT)

With Enhance 500W
1.28Ghz, 0.850V: 34W idle, 41W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.00Ghz, 1.025V: 37W idle, 55W during Orthos (Small FFT)
2.71Ghz, 1.275V: 48W idle, 86W during Orthos (Small FFT)

Off/Standby/Hibernation:
System Off: 9W
Hibernate: 9W
Suspend S3(STR): 11W

Background applications: CrystalCPUID, Speedfan, NOD32, necessary drivers applications
Time to enter hibernate after a fresh boot: 11 seconds
Time to exit hibernation to desktop responsiveness: 15 seconds
Bootup time @ 2.71Ghz: 28 seconds (time from power button pressed to desktop responsiveness)

Fan Control:
The BIOS' SmartFan seems to work adequately. A true SPCRer however, will want full customizable control, so I'm happy to report that two fan headers are fully controllable via Speedfan (vs. the TA690G's none). The 4-pin header controls 3-pin fans without problems.


GEFORCE 7025 INTEGRATED VIDEO PERFORMANCE
High Definition Playback:
WMP11: Windows Media Player 11 (ffdshow rev.1240, Quicktime Alternative 1.81 installed)
VLC: VLC Player 0.8.6b
VLC+CCPUID: VLC Player 0.8.6b with CrystalCPUID running in the background (Multiplier Management DISABLED)

Playback of H.264 encoded MP4s. CPU Usage figures follow:

720P:
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/WMP11: 9-19%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/WMP11: 14-24%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/WMP11: 18-36%
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/VLC: 0-2%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/VLC: 0-13%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/VLC: 16-24%
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 9-18%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 13-21%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 21-32%

1080P:
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/WMP11: 16-32%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/WMP11: 22-50%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/WMP11: 30-52%
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/VLC: 12-25%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/VLC: 13-33%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/VLC: 24-50% (some stuttering)
X2 3600+ @ 2.7Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 18-35%
X2 3600+ @ 2.0Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 18-44%
X2 3600+ @ 1.3Ghz/VLC+CCPUID: 31-58% (lots of stuttering)

Comparisons with other systems:
G7025: Biostar TF7025-M2 with 128MB allocated to video, 1GB DDR2
X1250: Biostar TA690G with 128MB allocated to video, 1GB DDR2
7950G: eVGA 7950GT 256MB, 2GB DDR1

720P:
Opt. 165 @ 2.5Ghz/7950G/VLC+CCPUID: 14-18%
X2 3600+ @ 2.4Ghz/G7025/VLC+CCPUID: 9-24%
X2 3600+ @ 2.4Ghz/X1250/VLC+CCPUID: 25-38%

1080P:
Opt. 165 @ 2.5Ghz/7950G/VLC+CCPUID: 18-31%
X2 3600+ @ 2.4Ghz/G7025/VLC+CCPUID: 19-40%
X2 3600+ @ 2.4Ghz/X1250/VLC+CCPUID: 36-52%

Note: You may be wondering what CrystalCPUID has to do with HD playback. I encountered a strange quirk: when CrystalCPUID was left on running in the background (even with Multiplier Management disabled), VLC had a harder time playing back H.264 content, using up more CPU cycles. I was able to recreate the effect on my Opteron 165/Geforce 7950GT system, but to a lesser degree (few percent at most). It did not affect WMP11 or any other programs as far as I could tell.

3D Performance:
5400 points in 3DMark2001, 1500 points in 3DMark03.


FINAL THOUGHTS
First off let me say it was a completely hassle-free setup/installation (as it should be). There were no strange unexplainable quirks or instabilities; it was rock solid throughout testing. I also had no driver issues whatsoever, unlike what I went through with the TA690G. It's kind of sad that AMD/ATI cannot produce a better chipset for its own platform than nVidia. Feature-wise, the TF7025-M2 is fully loaded, only lacking Firewire and HDMI (HDMI is available on the slightly more expensive TF7050-M2).

After days of testing I can only fault the board on three issues: the lack of undervolting options in the BIOS, the poor layout, and the somewhat inadequate chipset heatsink. In all other areas, it was simply top-notch. Performance was excellence once overclocked - many times during testing when I had to restart the system, I missed the window of opportunity to enter the BIOS because the POST screen was gone before the monitor came out of standby. It's amazing what $185CDN can get you these days ($80 for the motherboard, $70 for the CPU, $35 for the RAM). Kudos to Biostar.
Last edited by Lawrence Lee on Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dvdmonster
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:19 am

Post by dvdmonster » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:54 am

Thanks for a very nice review.

Maybe you could test the integrated video performance with PowerDVD 7.3 and a BluRay/HD-DVD h264 movie? It's pretty much impossible to get around using PowerDVD if you want to use it as HTCP with HD media.

Lawrence Lee
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 1115
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:07 pm
Location: Vancouver

Post by Lawrence Lee » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:37 am

dvdmonster wrote: Maybe you could test the integrated video performance with PowerDVD 7.3 and a BluRay/HD-DVD h264 movie? It's pretty much impossible to get around using PowerDVD if you want to use it as HTCP with HD media.
Unfortunately I don't own any BluRay/HD-DVD hardware or movies. It's even hard for me to download one because my DSL connection is seriously gimped. I'll have the system for another couple of days though, so if you want to link/send me a smallish sample file, I'll be happy to try to examine how well PowerDVD does with it.

angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:43 am

Great review! I found this and your review of Biostar's 690G board to be very complete. After reading them both, I have decided that this is the motherboard for my HTPC in planning. But I still have two questions.

1) I was completely surprised at how well nVidia's integrated chipset played HD video. It tops ATI's 690 boards and yet I have never seen many other reviews of it. :? Anyways, I saw the results, and do you honestly think I could do without a video card for HD decoding? I was planning to get a 8500GT.

2) I was also planning to get this TV card. As you can see, It uses a PCI-E 1x slot. The northbridge HSF seems to interfere with long PCI-E 1x cards. Do you think this card will fit?

Thanks! :)

Lawrence Lee
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 1115
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:07 pm
Location: Vancouver

Post by Lawrence Lee » Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:52 pm

angelkiller wrote:Great review! I found this and your review of Biostar's 690G board to be very complete. After reading them both, I have decided that this is the motherboard for my HTPC in planning. But I still have two questions.

1) I was completely surprised at how well nVidia's integrated chipset played HD video. It tops ATI's 690 boards and yet I have never seen many other reviews of it. :? Anyways, I saw the results, and do you honestly think I could do without a video card for HD decoding? I was planning to get a 8500GT.

2) I was also planning to get this TV card. As you can see, It uses a PCI-E 1x slot. The northbridge HSF seems to interfere with long PCI-E 1x cards. Do you think this card will fit?
If the TV you want to use it with has HDMI, get the TF7050-M2 to take advantage of that.

1. Yup, it plays HD incredibly well. As long as you pair it up with a X2 you won't have any problems with playback. Save yourself some money and just use integrated.

2. Yeah it appears the heatsink interferes with the 1x slot. You could just use the tuner in the 16x slot. You can use any PCI-E device (1x to 16x)in the 16x slot.

angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:09 pm

Ok, thanks! Good to know. I'll skip the GPU, and use the TV card in the PCI-16x slot. I've also opted for the HDMI version of the Biostar board and will pair it with an OC'ed X2 4000.

Thanks again! Looking forward to more of your reviews!

vg30et
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:14 am

Post by vg30et » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:47 pm

Amourek - thanks for the excellent review. I am very impressed by the 34W idle power consumption figures. The best I can manage with my Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard + A64 3200+ and laptop brick is 40W.

Lawrence Lee
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 1115
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:07 pm
Location: Vancouver

Post by Lawrence Lee » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:13 pm

vg30et wrote:Amourek - thanks for the excellent review. I am very impressed by the 34W idle power consumption figures. The best I can manage with my Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard + A64 3200+ and laptop brick is 40W.
I credit the Enhance PSU. It's the OEM version the of Silverstone Element, so it's 80+. Efficiency definitely matters!

loimlo
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 3:58 am
Location: Formosa

Post by loimlo » Sat Jul 07, 2007 1:50 am

Great review. Hard to imagine a highly efficient power would drop AC draw up to 10W! :shock:
A good reason to push me to replace my modified Delta 180W PSU.

dvdmonster
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:19 am

Post by dvdmonster » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:06 am

Biostar thanks you for this review I hope, because I just got my Biostar TF7050-M2 based on you review of the TF7025-M2.

I'm happy to report that I find this board just as nice as you did.

I'm at 39W idle with AMD X2 3600+ Brisbane at default speed, with a 2.5" SATA WD800BEVS and 1GB Kingston PC667, using a shitty No-Name PSU (hopefully a brick for my PicoPSU arrives shortly)

It's a nice touch that they put extra power and reset microswitches directly on the motherboard. Makes you life a little bit easyer when you are playing around with the motherboard without a case.

Just a note to everyone trying to install Vista on this board.
Remember to load the SATA driver on the CD that comes with the motherboard, because the generic Vista one suck with this chipset and and installation will literally take you 2-3 days if you don't use the driver from the CD.

frank2003
Posts: 332
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:35 am

Post by frank2003 » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:38 am

[quote="dvdmonster"]hopefully a brick for my PicoPSU arrives shortly[/quote]

I'm also interested in the picoPSU, but am not sure how to get the 4-pin 12V to my mobo (biostar TA690G) since the picoPSU only has the 20-pin main power connector. I'm curious how you solve this problem.

ryboto
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1439
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:06 pm
Location: New Hampshire, US
Contact:

Post by ryboto » Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:19 am

frank2003 wrote:
dvdmonster wrote:hopefully a brick for my PicoPSU arrives shortly
I'm also interested in the picoPSU, but am not sure how to get the 4-pin 12V to my mobo (biostar TA690G) since the picoPSU only has the 20-pin main power connector. I'm curious how you solve this problem.
just get a 20 to 24 pin adapter. I'm still thinking I might try a PW-200-M or V, and buy a dell 220W power brick. I like my 400W zen, but your power draw numbers worry me, I'm going to have to do some testing with my old enermax, if the Zen really is that inefficient, that's really a shame.

aristide1
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 4284
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Undisclosed but sober in US

Post by aristide1 » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:08 am

This board is an even better and bigger bargain with an X2 combo package but it doesn't seem to support Linux stuff like Ubuntu just yet.

:?

frank2003
Posts: 332
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:35 am

Post by frank2003 » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:14 am

ryboto wrote: just get a 20 to 24 pin adapter.
I was referring to the 4-pin cable that goes to the 12V P4 connector on the mobo.

I'm currently powering my mobo with a generic ATX PSU that has a 24-pin connector. But without also connecting the 4-pin cable (with black+yellow wires) my mobo would not POST since the processor is not being powered.

I had checked out the picoPSU product description. It clears says it lacks the 4-pin 12V output. So I was wondering how one would power a mATX board which requires it.

cloneman
Posts: 448
Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 9:48 am

Post by cloneman » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:21 am

I was pleasantly surprised with my biostar socket 478 (well rebranded MachSpeed). I figured if it wasn't expensive it had to be unstable... to my surprise the thing has been rock solid.

My only biff with it is that board started buzzing... but it's well below my fans and HDs, and might just be a result of interaction with another component.

ryboto
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1439
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:06 pm
Location: New Hampshire, US
Contact:

Post by ryboto » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:42 am

frank2003 wrote:
I was referring to the 4-pin cable that goes to the 12V P4 connector on the mobo.

I'm currently powering my mobo with a generic ATX PSU that has a 24-pin connector. But without also connecting the 4-pin cable (with black+yellow wires) my mobo would not POST since the processor is not being powered.

I had checked out the picoPSU product description. It clears says it lacks the 4-pin 12V output. So I was wondering how one would power a mATX board which requires it.
well, over at short-circuit.com they sell the PW-200-M for a few dollars more than msrp with a soldered 4-pin. Or you can just get adapters that go from a 4-pin molex to 4-pin motherboard connector. That's how I was going to do it, but now the soldered model isn't much more expensive than the standard one. You'll need a lot of molex splitters, but you should be able to power everything with just a few splitters.

RedAE102
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Lost and Found Bin, Cypress, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by RedAE102 » Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:29 pm

I just bought this board about a month ago, and also paired it with a Brisbane X2 3600+.

This is a bit off the topic of this motherboard and more on the ongoing issue of incorrect temps with the Brisbane cores. I agree that the reported CPU temps are too high to be accurate. Mine shows 36°C at idle with a Ninja with the fan on the bench, or fanless in the case. Temperatures are about the same in both scenarios when I borrowed my friend's Freezer64. These are at stock speed, undervolted to 1.025V in CrystalCPUID, as my Kingston ValueRAM does not take to any overclocking whatsoever. On a side note, at this setting, CPU-Z reports 1.008V, dropping to 0.992V under load. The thermal diode in my Brisbane is most definitely broken, as Speedfan reports the K8 core temp at anywhere between -3°C and 1°C depending on load. The DTS temps are definitely too high, since the Freezer64 is able to keep my friend's S754 Venice below 30°C at idle even though his core is locked at 1.100V minimum. Flashing to to the latest BIOS release has worked for other motherboards on this issue, but not so for this one. I've flashed to the one on the english Biostar website below, and to no avail. I didn't use one of the Chinese ones because I'm afraid it won't be in english.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/t-s ... p?S_ID=183

On a side note, popping the metal plate with the Biostar logo off the top of the chipset heatsink was worth a drop of about 2°C in the ACPI temp reported in Speedfan.

One question though: I can't get Speedfan to properly report my fan speeds (shows both at 137500 rpm or some other outrageous number) or adjust the fan speeds at all. I've used the Ninja's fan as a case fan and have it plugged into the CPU fan socket, and a 92mm Zalman fan in front plugged into the JSFAN1 header. Any ideas as to why this might be, or what I might do to fix it?

dvdmonster
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:19 am

Post by dvdmonster » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:54 am

I'm gretting crazy temp readouts as well from about every temp program known to me.

I know everyone says it's a CPU issue, but the wierd thing is that the temp is displayed correctly in the BIOS.

vg30et
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:14 am

Post by vg30et » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:30 pm

Well, I upgraded from my Asus M2NPV-VM to the TF7050 and idle power consumption went from 40w to 34w.

On a side note, I decided to try swap out the 3.5" drive for a 2.5" laptop drive and use just a single DIMM. Idle power dropped to 27W with Integrated LAN connected and 23W with LAN disconnected. The 70xx chipset seems to be quite an energy saver.

aristide1
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 4284
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Undisclosed but sober in US

Post by aristide1 » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:11 pm

Hey, why not use a flash drive as a C:\ drive?

vg30et
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:14 am

Post by vg30et » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:40 pm

aristide1 wrote:Hey, why not use a flash drive as a C:\ drive?
I had a laptop drive lying around... besides at idle I don't think a laptop drive draws more than 1W.

Looks like the travelstar I'm using is around 0.5W idle: http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25 ... &chart=156

aristide1
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 4284
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Undisclosed but sober in US

Post by aristide1 » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:44 pm

Maybe the exhause fan can spin a 2 watt generator.

Some thermalcouples to get electricity from the heat?

soybean84
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:24 pm

Post by soybean84 » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:43 pm

Does anybody know how to change the FSB:DRAM ration for this MB? I am new to the OC scene and am not able to decipher where or if the option to change the ration lies within this MB. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: Nevermind, I did not know that you could just lower the max speed. Thank you
Last edited by soybean84 on Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jmo7
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:55 pm

Post by jmo7 » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:57 pm

I used core temp for my cpu temp:

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/


seems a little more accurate than the 40 C the biostar program said...

dvdmonster
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:19 am

Post by dvdmonster » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:46 am

jmo7 wrote:I used core temp for my cpu temp:

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/


seems a little more accurate than the 40 C the biostar program said...
CoreTemp shows 3 C / 10 C on the two cores on my X2 3600+.. very wierd that i can't get a good reading out of anything.

jmo7
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:55 pm

Post by jmo7 » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:49 am

CoreTemp shows 3 C / 10 C on the two cores on my X2 3600+.. very wierd that i can't get a good reading out of anything.
well, crap...

aristide1
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 4284
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Undisclosed but sober in US

Post by aristide1 » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:51 am

and 23W with LAN disconnected.
So how do you send/receive WUs?

vg30et
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 5:14 am

Post by vg30et » Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:04 am

aristide1 wrote:
and 23W with LAN disconnected.
So how do you send/receive WUs?
It was just to demonstrate that the integrated gigabit lan does use a measurable amount of power (in this case, 10% of total system power). I leave it connected to the LAN all the time.

aristide1
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 4284
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 6:21 pm
Location: Undisclosed but sober in US

Post by aristide1 » Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:34 am

IE its a good candidate to put to sleep. OK.

Visivicous
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:15 am

Problems with the motherboard?

Post by Visivicous » Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:18 am

I posted this on a tech support forum, but thought that I would repost it here to see if anyone has had similar problems with this motherboard:

First here is my hardware:

Motherboard: BIOSTAR TForce TF7025-M2

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane

RAM: Kingston 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400, Dual Channel)

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB SATAII

The case is a Smilodon Raidmax with 500W PSU. I also have a Geforce 8800GTS w/320MB byt PNY, but this problem happens under onboard video as well so I don't think that the video card is important. The DVD-RW came out of my old computer and works just fine. Same with the floppy drive.

Problem: Setup the new computer and everything seemed fine. Passed POST with no problems, then formatted HD and installed Windows XP Pro w/SP2. Installed network driver then went online and downloaded latest from Nvidia, as the board uses the 630a chipset and 7025 for onboard video, and other drivers from BIOSTAR. When I tried to execute the newly downloaded drivers the computer did one of four things:
1. Installed ok (happened only once)
2. Extracted, then gave an error that the files were corrupt
3. Did not extract and said that the file was corrupt
4. Froze Explorer.exe, Explorer.exe would not start back up resulting in a reboot or logoff/login.

The first thing that I thought was that the Hard Drive was bad. Seemed logical. So I downloaded the bootable HD diagnostic from SeaGate, using my spare pc, burned it to CD, and then booted off of it on my new computer. The drive passed the most rigorous test with flying colors. So I erased the drive, using SeaGate's program, reformatted and reinstalled WinXPProSP2. Which resulted in a recurrence of the same problem.

The second thing that I did was try to run chkdsk under Windows. This required a reboot and chkdsk ran before Windows loaded again. This test passed without a single error. (It took a very long time to run)

The third thing that I did was download the trial version of PassMark's Burn In Test Pro 5.3. This took many tries, but eventually I was able to install a uncorrupted version of the install file. I ran the burn-in-test with all tests enabled. The result was that I received a RAM error once every time the RAM test ran, which would sometimes cause a reboot of the computer. To test which stick of ram was bad I turned off the computer, took one out, booted back up, and ran the test again. Both sticks produced this error. To double check I moved both sticks to RAM slots 3 and 4 (from 1 and 2) and ran the test again. This time, there were not errors. I ran the test five more times with the same results.

I thought that I had solved the problem, that RAM slots 1 and/or 2 on the motherboard were bad. So I left the ram in slots 3 and 4, reformatted and reinstalled Windows. And, of course, the above mentioned problem occurred once more.

This has me stumped. Is the RAM bad? Is the HD bad? Is the Motherboard bad? or does the problem lay with the CPU, corrupting certain files as they are processed?

Please help.

Post Reply