Biostar Launches Nvidia Based Motherboads for Intel

Just as Nvidia announced the official launch of the MCP73 mainboard chipset that integrates a graphics processing unit and which is aimed at the Intel hardware platform, a number of motherboard manufacturing companies like Inno3D and Biostar immediately jumped and presented their own products that put the new chipset to good use.

While the integrated graphics chips that are found in the newest Nvidia Intel compatible chipsets are no match for the discrete graphics cards made by either ATI or Nvidia, there is a huge market for the low cost solutions that are offering just enough performance to the casual gamer or for a medium multimedia experience. As the MCP73 integrating mainboards are coming with both HDMI and DVI connections, they are well suited for computer systems that will be used as home theater centers or for office use.

Biostar is among the first mainboard manufacturing companies to start shipping these new products and it is offering a large selection that includes the following models: TF715U-M7, TF7050-M7 and GF7050V-M7. All three motherboards from Biostar are coming packed in a small form factor, the micro-ATX format and they all use two random access memory slots that are compatible with DDR2 memory modules running at a maximum frequency of 800MHz.

Apart from this features, the new Biostar made mainboards are offering four Serial ATA II ports as well as a single legacy Parallel connector, while the number of high speed USB 2.0 ports is stuck at four unfortunately as users will have to use USB hubs in order to connect more external devices.

On the connecting side, the Biostar mainboards are coming equipped with DVI connection, VGA connection and an HDMI connection, thanks to the integrated graphics solution, that in the case of the top-end TF715U-M7 will use the GeForce 7150 and nForce 630i chipset combination, that is able to handle central processing units running at 1333MHz frontside bus, while the lower end motherboards will have to make do with a lower frontside bus frequency.

The TF7050-M7 uses the combination of GeForce 7050 integrated display adapter and nForce 620i chipset, while the entry level Biostar mainboard is based on the GeForce 7050 and nForce 610i combo that only supports a 1066MHz frontside bus that could be overclockable to 1333MHz, provided that a decent cooling solution is used.