Concluding thoughts
The very first thing I'd like to say is just how easy it is to build into. Forget everything else, that's my number one criteria these days. Biostar has done an excellent job in routing the necessary cables, wires and extras into the sides of the chassis. The cables are just long enough to fit on to the devices and they carry name tags for the novice user. Installation was a breeze compared to a number of other competing SFF systems, so much so that it was complete within 20 minutes of opening the box. Exactly how it should be.Biostar, with the iDEQ 200T, has taken on the look inspired by Shuttle in its early XPCs. The plastic front smacks of imitation. Biostar, however, has gone a step further and incorporated a useful slider that hides that can hide the exposed drive fronts. You would almost have to have it raised as it blocks the IR receiver and power button when lowered. It's a shame, then, that a similar system is not used for the features' ports and sockets on the lower front section.
The back panel is home to the more usual features found on SFF systems. Biostar has decided to omit a S-Video interface, and we can't quite see why. There's little point in providing on-board graphics, whatever their quality, and then not adding to the cube's value by using S-Video for TV connectivity. The onboard graphics are poor in the 2D and 3D respects.
Cooling is pretty good in most respects, but the PSU can be annoying. It's an Enhance model that has the tendency to click quite loudly when the system is placed under strain, so even if you can get the fans as quiet as can be via the use of the System Control Utility, there's always background noise that invades any attempt at an uber-quiet system. This is an issue that needs to be seriously looked at by Biostar and a glut of other companies who are into producing SFF systems.
Performance was in direct line with other i865G-powered systems, be they SFF or full-size models. All the benefits that are to be had with, say, a 3.2GHz HT CPU and 9800PRO are available in SFF form, courtesy of Biostar. Stability, too, was excellent throughout testing, even if on-board graphics almost made your truly pull his hair out at times. There's a number of extras that can be purchased independently, extras which boost up the features' count in areas that Biostar felt wasn't needed on the 200T design itself. Wireless connectivity being one of the more desirable ones.
The iDEQ 200T is pretty good, especially if this is your first foray into the SFF world. It's by far the easiest to work with. Performance is adequate, even if the overclocking potential and PSU were found a little lacking. There's a number of other iDEQs, based upon differing chipsets. What we'd like to see is an all-aluminium offering with better integrated graphics, Wireless connectivity and a quiet PSU. Biostar is on the right track with the basic design, and we look forward to futre models with renewed optimism.
