Biostar M7SXF
Board Revision: 1.0
BIOS Version: 1.14 (17. January 2002)
Biostar equips its SiS645 motherboard with 5 PCI slots, an AC97 sound system, 3 DIMM sockets, 2 fan headers, one ACR and one CNR slot. The latter is quite unusual, since both connectors basically serve the same purpose: to easily upgrade audio and connectivity features at minimum costs. Unfortunately, none of these standards (AMR, CNR, ACR) were able to establish themselves on the market. PCI add-on cards are pretty cheap these days, and besides that, they can be used in practically any computer with an empty PCI slot.
Biostar's motherboard performs at a high level. All necessary CPU settings are automatically made by the BIOS. Only the FSB clock can be increased to a maximum of 112 MHz. Although there is a small amount of room for experimenting, hard-core overclockers will not find this board very attractive.
Biostar offers extensive monitoring options and a total of six USB ports, but because the suitable adapters are lacking, only two of these can be used by default.
The box contains a manual, a set of cables and a driver CD. The M7SXF is optionally available with a 100 MBit network controller, as well. Additionally, Biostar also offers a version with on-board USB 2.0. We received a model that lacked both.
