Considering the Biostar GEForce 6100-M7 for a new build. Can I get some
opinions on this board, like easy of assembly, reliability, out of box use,
etc. Also, what AMD cpu has been used with this board with luck.

thanks

What will use your system to do?

never used biostar i only use ASUS, and wouldn't buy anything else.

well id b careful buying a biostar

once i had a socket a biostar board in my file server and it was the worst $75 ive spent
it constantly wont boot. i dont mean just not bootin into windows i mean just dead and often to get it goin i have to unhook all cables from the board and let the caps discharge yet all the other componentd have worked fine with msi and gigabyte boards! i would never by another biostart board !!!!

well thats my 2c

well i did some reading about that board and the same chipset from ASRock, because i am planing on purchasing one of those in a couple days. So your question is timed pretty well. I dont have either one yet, but i can tell you i decided on the asrock mobo, it's litterally $2 more than the biostar mobo, so cost wasnt an issue. Pretty much everything i've read so far on both motherboards is good feedback. Check out what people have to say about em at newegg.com. I went with the asrock because it has a 20pin power supply connector and i dont want to upgrade or use an adapter. Dunno if this helps but anywho, Merry Christmas! and good luck on your purchasing choices

Keep in mind that Newegg edits the "comments" section ...

The 6100/6150 northbridge is fairly new. I've been looking at these boards trying to choose between the Biostar and the Asus A8N-VN CSM which has the "better" 6150/430 chipsets.

I will probably end up buying an NF4 board like the Epox EP-9NPA with a video card because:

1) All 61xx boards are micro ATX and I prefer standard ATX.

2) The Asus board (and probably all others) need a BIOS update right out of the box if you want to run a RevE (venice) CPU OR any X2. Some X2 chips won't work at all without the BIOS flash, so you have to have an older 939 chip around just to update the mobo.

3) I know this sounds strange, but reviews report memory problems with "higher-end" memory sticks. The recommended/required dimms are CL3 Value RAM only.

Otherwise, if you can get past all that, both the Asus and Biostar boards seem to be OK. Avoid the Gigabyte GA-8KN due to odd placement of sockets on the board.

BTW, Anandtech has a review of the Biostar:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2539

Hardwarezone.com has 2 other 61xx board reviews as well as an overview of the 6100 chip.

Whatever you do, do not buy the socket 754 version. Since you are getting a new CPU go with socket 939.

I don't know about that model mobo, but I have an old biostar Socket A mobo that I've used for almost 4 years on a 24/7 basis. Its got a Duron 800 in it and for stock use its just fine. Don't know if you'ld want to OC on it (or if it can do much OC at all), but without changing anything but the FSB it runs that 800 at 848mhz (yah, only 6% but I didn't try - I just turned up the FSB 8) ).

Hmm, guess the short version is that Biostar seems a decent mfg and if you don't need enthusiast features, it works fine.

Mike.

I have not used this particular Biostar board, but my experiences with their boards over the years has been favorable. They have a two year warranty and their website is pretty good. Cannot comment on their support since we have not had to use it; no problems or failures. They usually give a good bang for the buck. I'm sure everyone has bad stories on boards that span all brands, so perhaps checking out some perormance reviews on line would be best. We have not had very good luck with Asus boards, so we more or less stay away from them unless customer specifies. But that doesn't mean their boards are not good, it's just good or bad fortune I suppose.