Athlon KX133 Motherboard Roundup - A Nail-Biting Affair

Biostar M7MKE

Useful partitioning of space on the Biostar M7MKE: Nevertheless, the labels for the connectors and slots are much too small. The circuit stage looks solid.

The Biostar M7MKE is one of the wallflowers of the test field. It hardly has any outstanding features that outshine the other candidates. Exemplary is the included handbook that contains extensive information about the installation of the board and the settings for the FSB and memory clock. A negative aspect are the tiny labels on the slots and connectors. Biostar did not include a heat sink for the north bridge, so the chip temperature increases significantly during operation. Room for improvement: Unfortunately, the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) cannot be switched off, with the result that you must permanently live with the energy saving modes under Windows 2000.