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NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra: Biostar's Performance Surprise

 by Gary Key on February 16, 2006 12:05 AM EST
31 Comments | Add A Comment
31 Comments
Basic Features: Biostar TForce4 U 775

Specification Biostar Tforce4 U 775
CPU Interface LGA775-based Pentium 4, Pentium 4 XE, Celeron D, and Pentium D processors
Chipset NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra - SPP (C19, rev. C1)
NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra - MCP (MCP51, rev A20)(nForce 430)
Pentium D Support (Dual-Core) 820D, 830D, 840D, 840EE, 920D, 930D, 940D, 950D, 955EE
Front Side Bus 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz
Front Side Bus Speeds Default, 450MHz ~ 1300MHz in 1MHz increments
Memory Speeds Default, 400MHz ~ 1300MHz in 1MHz increments
PCI Bus Speeds Default
PCI Express Bus Speeds Default, 100MHz ~ 148.4375MHz in various increments
Set Processor Multiplier 12 to 60, (in 1 step increments)
LDT Multipliers 1x, 2x, 3x, 3.5x, 4x, 5x
Core Voltage Default, 1.1000V to 1.8250V (in 0.0125V increments)
DRAM Voltage Default, 2.05V, 2.10V, 2.25V
SPP Chipset Voltage Default, 1.53V, 1.58V, 1.61V
FSB Voltage Default, 1.30V, 1.40V, 1.50V
Memory Slots (4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 667/533/400, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Expansion Slots (1) x PCI-E x16 (operates in 1x16 mode)
(2) x PCI-E x1 (operates in x1 mode)
(4) x PCI 2.2
Onboard SATA NVIDIA nForce 430: (4) x SATA II
Onboard IDE NVIDIA nForce 430: (2) x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33
SATA/IDE RAID NVIDIA nForce 430:
(4) x SATA II
RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5
Onboard USB 2.0 (8) USB2.0 ports
Onboard LAN Realtek 8201CL PCI 10/100Mb/s LAN - PHY
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC-850, 8-channel capable Audio
Power Connectors 24-pin ATX
4-pin ATX 12V
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x Parallel
1 x Serial
1 x Audio I/O Panel
1 x RJ45
4 x USB
Other Features (O.N.E.) - Overclocking Navigator Engine
(C.R.P.) - CMOS Reloading Program
(M.I.T.) - Memory Integration Testing
(I.F.P.) - Integrated Flash Program
(S.R.S.) - Self Recovery System
Hardware Monitor - Windows Based
Overclocking Utility - Windows Based (Limited Functionality)
Smart Fan Function - Windows Based
Live Update - Windows Based BIOS Update Program
BIOS N4UIA126-BST (1/26/06)

The Biostar TForce4 U 775 is a member of the TForce4 Series product family and, as such, is a value-based board targeted towards the enthusiast user who is concerned about price and performance. The board ships with an accessory package that includes the standard assortment of IDE/SATA cables and power connectors. Biostar also includes a driver CD along with several desktop utilities for monitoring and tuning your system.

This is the main BIOS screen and it displays the generic options available on the board.

The Overclock Navigator section allows you to change the majority of the system performance settings. The system features the Auto Overclock System that will automatically adjust most system parameters based upon the components installed. The V6-Tech setting will overclock the system around 10~15%, V8-Tech setting will allow up to a 25% overclock, and the V12-Tech system will allow up to a 30% system overclock.

The balance of the Overclock Navigator section allows you to set individual parameters manually for voltage, multipliers, and chipset settings.

The board fully supports manual memory timing adjustments or allows for a Default setting that will set the memory to the SPD settings.

An additional feature on the board is the CMOS reloading program that allows users to save up to 50 sets of CMOS settings into the BIOS. The user is able to personalize each setting before saving it. The feature worked well in our testing, provided that we were able to reach the BIOS setting.

Overall, the BIOS options are very good for a chipset that NVIDIA has stated is not optimized for overclocking. The board's bios even includes a built in memory tester based upon Memetest86+ version 1.55. We would like to see more memory voltage options included in the BIOS along with the ability to adjust the PCI bus speeds.

Index Biostar Tforce4 U 775: Features
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  • Calin - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link

    What about sorting the graphs based on the min frame rate?
    :) I guess some people are never happy ;)

    Great job, and a nice article!

  • yacoub - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    Once you've owned a passively-cooled motherboard like any of the recent Asus ones, it's hard to even look at one with a fan on it. It also makes shopping for a motherboard a LOT easier because you just cross off all the fan ones right away (unless you're a mod fiend who will actually go through the trouble of buying a chipset cooler or two and rip the fan assembly off the brand new expensive motherboard and hope that cools it well enough).
    I hope more manufacturers take up the passively-cooled trend.

  • Gary Key - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link

    I disabled the fan and only witnessed a 2c increase on the MCP. Biostar could have saved a few cents and put towards a Gigabit Lan solution. ;-)

  • Marlin1975 - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    Sound and ethernet. Why do companies keep using the realtek junk. bad quality (part and drivers) and juts shows a motherboard company does not care when they use realtek.

    Any time I see realtek on a board I think the sound and even ethernet were a after thought like "Oh we forgot sound. Lets just put the cheapest POS on there. OK"


    COME ON. Good chipset but you come so close then put junk on for sound and so forth.

  • Myrandex - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    For me that issue doesn't matter at all. My Sound Blaster Audigy 2 is still doing its job nicely, and getting a nice onboard sound solution still gets disabled all the same. Now for integrated SB Giga-bite ethernet is something that comes into play with my decisions, and I have been real happy with Giga-byte putting ieee1394b controllers on their boards (and am hoping that external HDD 1394B cases fall in price sooner or later). Integrated wireless is a neat feature some boards have as well.

  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    Realtek does have some really cheap audio and LAN chips, but they also have some pretty decent products. In the High Definition area the ALC882 is a really good audio codec with an excellent feature set that produces decent sound and very low noise. If you go through some recent reviews you will see both Gary and I have praised the Realtek ALC882, which is NOT included on this Biostar board :-)

  • Marlin1975 - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    yea but you also go on about bad drivers that are STILL in need fo a update and other issues. So sorry but realtek is still junk in my book. That and with so many other options from VIA's envy, c-media, etc... why use something that has problems and are STILL being addressed today?

  • DigitalFreak - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link

    I agree. Using Realtek for LAN is bad enough, but using a PCI solution? That's unacceptible. Even if you don't care about GbE, the CPU utilization is rediculous!

  • Peter - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link

    The RTL8201 is not a PCI ethernet chip, it's just a PHY companion to the chipset's own engine. This is a research error in the article.

    http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/products1-2.asp...">http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/products1-2.asp...

    The abysmal performance rather more likely stems from transmission errors or poor signal quality - which would point to a damaged or poorly laid out board, or bad cabling.

    PHYsical interface chips have zero influence on throughput, as long as signal integrity is being maintained - and as far as that is concerned, Realtek's solution is definitely up to the job. Question is, is the mainboard's layout?

  • Peter - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link

    ... and of course, we need to keep in mind it's a 10/100 PHY, not a gigabit PHY.
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