Review: $26 BIOSTAR M7VIG400 Motherboard - Updated

Posted by jay on May 26, 2006 under General |

*updated - 2006-09-11*
I recently bought a replacment BIOSTAR M7VIG400 Motherboard for $26 at newegg.com. This board normally selles for $46 but I got it for $26 because it was an “Open Box” item. This MB was a replcement for an emachines T2825 that died a few months ago. It was my cousins’ computer so in payment for recoving her files she gave it to me for free. So there I was with a brand new pc case, a 120GB HD, a CD-RW Drive, a DVD Drive, and AMD 2800+ (1.25Ghz) CPU, 512RAM and a dead MB. Great more junk for my office.

*updated - 2006-09-11* I’ve had a few problems with board an certian Linux Distros. So far the only distros to successfuly install and remain stable have been Kanotix 2005-4 and MEPIS 5.x. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Fedora 4 & 5, SuSE 10.x, Slackware 10.x, Slax 5.x and CentOS all failed while booting both LIveCD and Install CDs. I flashed the board, updated the bios and reset the memory pin thingy and still no luch with the other distros. But it has been running Kanotix since May 2005 nd has only been rebooted a few times due to my 2 year old pressing the power button:)

The dead emachine sat in my office for 9 months and my wife turned it into a nice litte shelf next to the door. Then a few months ago after a long winter I got the “I need some mental stimulation” itch. So I decided to checki the status of Linux and what a suprise. Linux is on fire and it works and looks better than it did 3 years ago. So I fired up a really old box I had lying around and started to play. This old box was a PII 600 w/ 392RAM so it was not fas at all. It worked well as a file server for a while but then one day it died. I opened it up, I reset the ram, changed the power supply and reset all of the plugs and it came back to life. But didn’t trust it so I started looking at my options. Options being the 2 other dead pc in my office. One was a PIII 733 and the other was the dead emachine. The emachine has an AMD 2888+ (1.2Ghz) and 512Ram which is not bad but the mb was dead. So I started shopping around on newegg.com, tigerdirect.com amd pricewatch.com for a Socket A MB.
After about 2 weeks of looking at different boards and prices as well as getting some co-workers opnions I worked up the courage to buy one.
I was hesitant about buying a Open Box item especially a motherboard becaues the nature of the hardware. The motherboard IS the computer. It’s not like it’s a CD/DVD drive or a video card. It’s the motherboard and I have never replaced one. Don’t get me wrong I know my way around computers; I just haven’t attempted this task until now. Anyway I figured for $26 if I mess something up I’m only out $26 and not $46. The other thing about an Open Box MB is that you only get the MB and that’s it. You do not get the drivers cd, cables or the manual. But in my case I didn’t need the cables becaues I have a box of spare parts and I didn’t need the dirver cd becaues I was planning on using Linux as the OS and lastly the manual is available as a PDF from biostar.com. So $46 for a bards and a bunch of other stuff or $26 for just the board.
Let me just say that newegg.com rocks. They have tons of products, good prices and super fast shipping. I ordered the MB on a Tuesday and it arrived on Thursday. I figured if I am only paying $26 I might as well go for the 2nd day shipping for and extra $10.
The installion was farily easy but trying to get the HD and Power switch hooked up is a pain. When the board is attached to the chasie it’s difficult to see the labels on the pins and when you reach in the box your hand obstructs your view. So far I’ve got the power button hooked up but not the LED’s. Other than that the installation was very easy. The hardest part was actually removing the CPU from the old dead MB.
Since this was a “returned” item the BIOS was all set up so all I did was go in and change the boot options and removed the Floppy Drive entry. I set it to first boot from the CD and then the HD which is my personal preference. I rebooted using SLAX 5.1.6 Server Live Linux CD and every things worked fine.

The bottom line is for $26 this makes a fine replacment. In fact I am getting another dead emachine this weekend for free and I am going to buy another $26 BIOSTAR MB.