Biostar iDEQ 200T Springdale SFF System

Just because Shuttle was the first company to really make small form factor (SFF) PCs popular, that doesn't mean they make the best SFF systems available, does it? When a review of a different brand SFF system comes out, the name Shuttle invariably pops up. I guess that makes sense as Shuttle is the big name in the SFF market and "the guy to beat." But I'll be straight up and say I'm very glad the competition keeps coming for Shuttle because I've found my Shuttle SN41G2 to be somewhat disappointing, but only because of how loud it is. I read several reviews stating that it is pretty quiet. Yeah, right. I've heard quieter servers! I do admit that the SN41G2 has good looks and was pretty easy to work in, but it's my office PC, and I was hoping for less in the noise department.

So where does that take us? The competition can obviously pull the easy checkmate and take what's good about the Shuttle XPCs and then improve them by making their own SFF systems quieter, smaller, a little bigger, better, and so on. This leads us to the Biostar iDEQ 200T. Although not a direct competitor to the SN41G2 since it is an Intel 865 based system while the SN41G2 is an AMD nForce2 solution, the 200T brings me hope of a quieter, more peaceful SFF system that still offers great style and performance. Let's get to the review and see how well the 200T performs.

Just take a quick look at the features and specs, and you can see that small form factor doesn't mean less capable. The iDEQ 200T is a very capable system, ready to compete with similarly spec'd full-size competitors. Add RAM, a hard drive, a processor and an optical drive and this baby's ready to roar.

Features

• Intel 865G + ICH5R chipset
• 800MHz Front Side Bus (FSB)
• Two DDR400 memory slots with dual channel architecture
• 1 AGP + 1 PCI slot
• Intel SATA RAID
• Onboard Intel Extreme Graphics
• 6-channel audio
• Onboard 10/100 LAN
• Front inputs: 2 USB 2.0, 1 S/PDIF, 1 microphone, 1 headphone and 1 IEEE1394 (FireWire)
• Drive cover for when optical drive / floppy drive aren't in use

Front Features	Rear Features
Left Side Features	Right Side Features

Specifications

Package Contents

• 200T Small Form Factor System
• Driver CD
• Studio Fun CD
• User's Manual
• Installation Guide
• Thermal Grease
• Power Cord
• Screws Pack
• Power Cable for SATA Hard Disk Drive
• SATA Cable

Nice Orange and Silver Box with Carrying Handle

Protected Well

Still Protected Well

Out of the Box -- The Entire iDEQ is in an Anti-Static Bag!

The Included Bundle

The iDEQ package has everything you really need for a case and a motherboard. The included manuals are well written and very helpful. I'm impressed by Biostar's effort to make good manuals. StudioFun! is a great extra and allows you to easily convert the iDEQ into a media center PC or home theater PC (HTPC). Here's a brief description about StudioFun!.

"StudioFun! is a media-player based on optimized GNU/Linux distribution to bring a "Room Theater" experience into life. It plays DVD, VCD, MP3, Audio CD and other multimedia. Furthermore, users can take snapshots of video and customize the saved images as screensavers or photo slideshows. Of course, the images can be stored in USB mass storage devices like flash disks and USB floppy disks."