BIOSTAR P4M900M4 478 VIA P4M900 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: None

Cons: Dead outta box, Don't you een think on buying BIostar producr RMA this MB twice and both Dead!

Pros: Very high-quality board. It may take an old 478 processor and put it with upgraded components, put using Prescott P4 or Gallatin P4EE you would notice very little difference whether you were using the 775 or 478 board. After all, 775 was launched with the 775 Prescott.

She overclocks very steadily with a maximum base clock of 265 MHz. The PCIe system uses an asynchronous clock, so no matter how much you change the base clock, your graphics cards should work. Also provides in-depth voltage and timing control of RAM.

Features 4 on-board USB and the front ports and back I/O can be powered by the Stand-by 5V rail by changing jumpers, allowing for resuming or powering on a PC by a USB keyboard or other dervice.

Supports RealTek HD Audio with S/PDIF via Toslink or RCA and booting from USB.

Cons: Warpspeeder software - cannot overclock with it as high as I can by manually going into the BIOS.

PCIe 1.0 Interface - yeah, but PCIe 2.0/2.1 was never fully saturated, no not really a con. Radeon HD 3450 is running @ 9.1 MTs, so not really complaining.

Front Panel - do not allow it to be powered by the 5V Stand-by rail. This will keep any USB storage devices you have plugged in powered up and they will be recognized by the OS, but not the BIOS. Just a tip for those of you who want to boot from USB.

Memory timings - let the system auto adjust. I clocked this thing and for the better part of a year thought that the board was going bad. Turns out, the timings were incorrect for the RAM.

S/PDIF - instead of a 4 pin header, the board has a clip for a block akin to the old audio cables that ran sound from IDE optical drives to the sound cards.... only this one is 3 pin. Make sure you have a spare 3-pin header block if you want to use S/PDIF.

Other Thoughts: Overall, a great board. Currently OC'ing a P4 3.0 GHz Prescott to 3.75 on air cooling.

Build:
Biostar P4M900-M4A v 6.1 socket 478
Pentium 4HT Prescott 3.0E ~ 3.75GHz OC
2GB Corsair Essential Ram 533 MHz - 667 OC
ASUS Radeon EAH3450 OC
Blue Star Gold 680 Watt PSU

WIN 8 Consumer WEI Scores - Base
CPU:..........4.1
RAM:..........4.8
Aero:.........3.3
3D:............5.2
HDD:.........5.3

OC WEI Scores:
CPU:.........4.5
RAM:.........5.5
Aero:........4.1
3D:...........5.5
HDD:.........5.3

Pretty decent for an old system. Thinking about putting in a Gallatin SL7CH 3.4 GHz. Maybe then I can push past my 3.83 GHz OC limit. Been doing this OCing while running dryer duct fastened to an AC grate to the rear fan on my computer. Run the CPU OC'd @ 16 C idle, 43 C full load!

Pros: Great board. definitely speeded up my pc by a lot with my previous processor
ddr2 ram is good.
plenty of upgrade capability

Cons: if you overclock with the supplied warpspeeder program there's less of a chance of crashing. not a major con just dont oc alot. not enough to lose an egg

Other Thoughts: i love this board. best investment since i got my old compaq.

Pros: Uses older socket 478 chip extending it's useful life.
DDR2 memory so no bandwidth issues. 2 IDE headers

Cons: will not allow DDR2 800 memory, 667 max speed.
no dual channel memory
only 2 SATA ports

Other Thoughts: When i first bought this board i knew i'd be transitioning to SATA DVD drives but since i had IDE ones needed the 2 headers in the beginning i was unable to connect my floppy drivewithout the board either freezing or rebooting. after removing my ultra160 scsi controller and soundblaster live 5.1 i have not had any problems with the floppy

Pros: I've had one of these boards for over a year now, and recently purchased another for one of my older computers. The board went bad just 2 weeks out of warranty, and the staff in the RMA department did me an honorable favor by accepting it for a return.

Cons: None! Gets the job done.

Other Thoughts: I'm honestly a fan of these boards. They sure can last a while in warm conditions.

Pros: good board

Cons: chipset runs hot
apparently doesn't like nvidia cards.

Other Thoughts: doesn't have a problem with ati cards, maybe the people getting bsods are having issues with their nvidia gpu's. I use radeon 4850 graphics cards in every system I build, and this board runs very well with a 4850, 3.0/1m/800 cpu, scythe heatpipe cooler, 650wpsu, 2x2gb mushkin ddr2800, wd 500gb sata hdd, and windows 7 ultimate, I can even play halo 2 with everything maxed.
as stated earlier, the chipset runs hot, add a cheap fan though, and you're fine.

have to agree though, the athlon II and a good am3 motherboard is the way to go for a new build. but for rebuilding an old rig, this is an excellent motherboard.

Pros: I purchased a couple of these to repair machines with old 478s and dead mobos. I purchased from another company but well over a year later and both machines are running well without complaints.

Cons: VIA chipset...not the greatest but good enough. Integrated graphics chip is very weak.

Other Thoughts: Both of my customers had very basic needs and even the old netburst p4's were plenty. This motherboard allows for cheap, common DDR2 memory and even pci-e. One machine is being used as a HTPC with a 2.6HT p4, Xonar DX and a low-profile 8400gs. Cheap computer since most of it was leftover components.

If you've got the old 478 parts and maybe had upgraded a computer with DDR2's memory and have some small leftovers around...this makes for a very cheap replacement/update. It's all about what's best for you.

Pros: Reasonable price socket 478 m-atx board. Accepts up to 4GB DDR2 memory. The on-board graphics is really nice for a general purpose machine. With 256 MB shared memory, it can actually handle light gaming. It also has a PCI-E slot for upgrading graphics if your into heavier gaming. It is an easy build, and even comes with a very basic overclocking utility.

Cons: Not really cons because this board offers a lot of features for a 478 board and the reasonable price. I do wish it had a gigabit lan port, but for most users the fast ethernet is all they need. It has SPDIF capabilty, but only on a header on the board, not a port on the back. If you want to use the SPDIF capability you have to install a port on a bracket and connect to the header. This bracket port adapter is not included.

Other Thoughts: This board is not meant to be a serious high end gaming solution, but is a nice step up from most other 478 boards. I used this board to build 2 machines for clients. One has been using his for almost 2 years and the other for several months. Both clients are heavy gamers with tight budgets, and really like this board.

Pros: Works fine when it works. two eggs for DDR2 memory and the use of a socket 478 CPU (Pentum 4 3.0 800mhz CPU)

Cons: With XP sp 3 and Kingston 2GB DDR2 667mhz memory, with a BFG NVIDIA 7600GS card, it works when it wants. too many BSODs and memory dump errors. I have to reset the bios each this happens. I had the same problem with Super Talent sticks and thought it was the memory. Good design concept, bad execution.

Other Thoughts: The only good thing to do with this board is to get another board that is older socket 478 running DDR memory or move up to an AMD Athlon II system. Save yourself the effort and money.

Pros: excellent board
had no problems went right in and every thing works great

Cons: open box so i only got the mobo not the cd,manual.or any cables but it was cheap