No More Penny-Pinching: Seven Mini-PCs On The Catwalk

Biostar IDEQ 200A, Continued

Biostar offers its bare-bones-systems in various colors, which makes the models from the Mini-Studio PC series (iDEQ) very attractive from a design point of view. The manufacturer sent two systems - the iDEQ 200A for the P4 platform and the iDEQ 200P for the Athlon 64 platform - for testing. The iDEQ 200P model, in its black case, is based on the new ATI IGP9100 chipset, which represents the best integrated graphics today. Biostar uses a P4ABS mainboard it developed specifically for the bare-bones. The drives at the front of the case are behind a panel that can be pushed down to access it. When the panel is shut, it could happen that a DVD-/CD-ROM drive is prevented from opening despite an "eject" command from the software. This could lead to hardware damage to the drives in such a case.

The drives are concealed behind a cover ...

... which might prevent the CD drawer from coming out

Convenient mounting of the hard disk using the sub-frame