NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra: Biostar's Performance Surprise
by Gary Key on February 16, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Biostar TForce4 U 775
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.
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.
| 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.
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.
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Zoomer - Monday, September 18, 2006 - link
I was really interested in buying this board to replace a dead board until I read the part about ALC 850. Urgh.The 10/100 ethernet was also an issue, but I could have lived with that. But no HD Audio? This is 2006, not 1996.
neweggster - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link
I would like to see more articles from Biostar. They seem to have a good idea on what performance is. Any idea if you guys could get a article on the Biostar TForce4U Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra AMD mobo?Gary Key - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link
We are working on it. :)cpeter38 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
How come AT has taken down the RS580 article (at least) twice now??Gary Key - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
The NDA for the RD580 is on 3/2/06. ATI has requested the review sites adhere to this date. However, if you look around the net the article has been saved in a zip file and is available for viewing. ;-)
cpeter38 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
THANK YOU!!!!(for the explanation)
cpeter38 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
ACCCHHH!!********** EDIT *************** EDIT ************
RD580!!!
ronein - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
I second that!
lexmark - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
Very detailed and coherent article! I am in no way in the market for an intel/biostar board (how many are? ;), but the review was a pleasure to read. I found the author's writing style to be very unique and the article overall was outstanding. Keep up the good work AT!bldckstark - Thursday, February 16, 2006 - link
Good job on including the min and max frame rates on the graphs. That is an excellent addition. Now if we can just get the median and mode......... *>}