IntegratedCPU by stefan @ 2013-11-20
The BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U board features an improved CPU, Ivy Bridge Celeron 1037, which is powerful enough to perform many tasks. In order to boost the 3D capabilities even further, we can install a dedicated video card into the available PCI-Express x16 port so we would be even able to game with low to mainstream graphics levels.
At first we would like to thank BIOSTAR for offering their NM70I-1037U motherboard with integrated CPU for testing and reviewing.
“In 1980, the IT industry was growing at a phenomenal rate. With wide experience in buying and selling electronic parts as well as researching on future demands for mainboards and add-on cards , the founder of BIOSTAR GROUP, established BIOSTAR MICROTECH INTERNATIONAL CORP in 1986.
In the early years, BIOSTAR concentrated on the manufacture of mainboards built for XT form factor. To maintain steady business growth, BIOSTAR managed to keep a large portion of its capital and manpower invested on the design and development of new products, which at the same time has enabled it to stay competitive in the rapid evolution of the computer industry.
BIOSTAR has enriched its competence in the design and manufacture of products such as add-on cards, multi-media and system products to develop the market and meet the demands of customers for more integrated solutions. In order to expand its capacity to meet customer demand globally, BIOSTAR was the first to establish a manufacturing facility in China in 1990. In 1998, its sales revenues exceeded US$130 million and it ranked 227th among the top 1000 enterprises in Taiwan. Furthermore, BIOSTAR obtained an ISO 9001 certification in 1999 and became a publicly listed company in the same year. BIOSTAR’s future has limitless possibilities.”
Integrated HDMI with HDCP
Onboard HDMI connector allows full video & audio support via standard DVI output. It has industry-leading high definition video quality.
PCI Express 2.0 Support
PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture offers a future-proofing bridge to tomorrow’s most bandwidth-driven games and 3D applications by maximizing 5 GT/s of bandwidth. PCI Express 2.0 motherboards are fully backwards compatible with existing PCI Express products for broad support of PC peripherals.
SATA 6Gb/s
High Efficiency of Data transfer rate
SATAIII 6Gbps provides a higher bandwidth to retrieve and transfer HD media. With this super speed data transfer, SATAIII allows an incredible data boost which is 2x faster than the SATA 3G.
Charger Booster
Charger booster is the best and efficient charger solution for apple devices such as iPad, iPhone. Basically, Charger booster Technology is able to boost the charging time to be more efficiency and faster once any apple goods connecting to our Motherboard. With charger booster technology, you are able to charge your apple devices up to 42 % faster.
X.D.C (eXtreme Durable Capacitors)
Biostar adopts low ESR and high ripple conductive solid state caps that provide sufficient, stable power supply to the CPU. The life span can also be more than 6.25 x of ordinary liquid caps.
BIO-Remote 2
BIO-Remote2 Technology is featuring users a better Home Theater environment. Users who own either Android mobile or Apple goods are able to access and control your PC remotely; At this moment, you’re smart device became an intelligent and functional remote controller; more than that, BIO-Remote2 also includes both function of mouse pad and power point presentation mode.
In this review we will concentrate upon an interesting motherboard with CPU included from BIOSTAR, featuring the Dual Core 1.8GHz Ivy Bridge processor from Intel, Celeron 1037U; the packaging is similar to the one we have seen on the NM70I-847 model, which was reviewed in the past:
On the back side of the box we will find some icons representing the supported technologies, but also awards from different publications which have been won by BIOSTAR:
The enclosure features multiple compartments in which the motherboard along with its bundle is stored:
We do not get a lot of items with this specific product: two SATA cables, the I/O shield, one Quick Installation Guide, but also an installation disk with drivers and applications:
The motherboard is fully wrapped inside an anti-static bag:
The NM70I-1037U mobo comes with a clean layout and in the center we get to see the included processor, which is cooled with a small heatsink combined with a fan. Thanks to the two DIMM slots, we can install a total of 16GB of DDR3 on it:
Near the VRM and the CPU 4-pin power connector we get to see the Intersil ISL6363 Multiphase PWM regulator:
The LAN interface is provided by the Realtek RTL8111F Gigabit Ethernet controller:
In the back of the I/O connectors we have the Front Panel Audio header:
Nearby we have the Realtek ALC662 High Definition Audio Controller:
The motherboard comes with a very welcome PCI-Express x16 slot where we can either connect a high performance sound card, a TV tuner, a video card, storage expansion cards and more. Really close to it we can observe one SPDIF_OUT header, the BIOS chip, one 3-pin fan header, but also two USB 2.0 headers, for four extra ports:
The SATA ports are color coded because SATA1 port supports SATA3 while the rest are SATA2; the board also comes with LPT and Serial headers, interfaces which are quite legacy and can be eliminated to save even more PCB space. Near the LPT header we also have the Front Panel header:
The chipset is covered with a small aluminum heatsink which can get pretty toasty if we do not put the setup inside a case with decent ventilation (even in an open case environment, however, we did not encounter any lockups at all):
Next we can find the ATX 24-pin power connector, the CMOS battery, one populated fan header, but also the ITE IT8728F SuperIO chip:
On the I/O we can find one PS/2 Mouse connector, a secondary PS/2 connector for the keyboard, the HDMI port which supports a maximum resolution of 1920x1200 (some monitors will only support running at Full HD on this interface), one VGA port for a max resolution of 2048x1536, four USB 2.0 ports, one LAN port but also the audio jacks:
BIOSTAR has not yet updated the small boards to the easier-to-navigate UEFI interface, but has kept the regular BIOS look (Aptio Setup Utility). The Main BIOS menu comes with information regarding the product code name, BIOS version, build date, total memory and here we can also adjust the date and time:
The Advanced section comes with several sub-menus like PCI Subsystem Settings, ACPI Settings and more:
The PCI Subsystem Settings menu allows us to modify several miscellaneous options like PCI ROM Priority, PCI Latency Timer, Maximum Payload, Maximum Read Request and so on:
The ACPI Settings menu permits the modification of the usual power management related options:
The CPU Configuration section shows the tech specs of the currently installed CPU and here we will be also able or disable specific instructions or power states:
The SATA Configuration sub-menu allows us to work with the controller settings, but will also list the currently connected drives:
The USB Configuration menu comes with options regarding the interfaces:
Intel Rapid Start Technology feature has a separate menu of its own:
SMART Fan Control menu allows us to customize the profile settings:
SuperIO Configuration menu is in charge of the COM/LPT interfaces:
Inside the PC health status menu we will be able to see the live temperatures, fan speeds and voltages:
Next we have the Chipset menu, also with several sub-sections:
The PCH-IO Configuration menu handles USB Configuration (EHCI), the audio interface (Azalia), EuP function, but also SLP_SP4 minimum assertion width:
Next we can configure the LAN interface and in the same menu we will be shown the hardware MAC address:
System Agent Configuration menu contains options for Graphics, NB and Memory configuration:
Graphics Configuration menu allows selection of primary graphics device (auto/iGFX/PEG), but also some custom settings regarding the integrated graphics interface:
NB PCIe Configuration menu allows us to set the PCI-Express slot speed and also contains many other miscellaneous options:
Memory Configuration menu allows setting Max TOLUD, MRC Fast Boot and Memory Remap function:
The Boot menu allows us to modify certain startup settings along with the boot device sequence:
The Security section allows setting an Administrator and User password:
From the Performance tab we can adjust the CPU multiplier (only down, unfortunately), along with CPU core maximum current, but also the DRAM timings:
Finally, the Save and Exit menu allows us to apply the settings we have just modified or load the factory defaults:
In order to start testing the board, we equipped it with one GeIL Black Dragon 4GB DDR2133 (@1333) memory module, but also a Hitachi Travelstar 5K250 250GB HDD. We installed the latest Windows 7 x64 from scratch and got the tests going. Here is some information that we could obtain on the internal hardware, thanks to the specialized programs:
CPU-Z CPU Information Tab
CPU-Z CPU Caches Tab
CPU-Z Mainboard Tab
CPU-Z Memory Tab
GPU-Z Graphics Card Info Tab
AIDA64 gives us even some more details regarding the computer components:
CPU Information
Motherboard Information
IMC
NM70 PCH
The integrated graphics solution is simply named Intel HD Graphics 2500 and is an upgraded version over the one we have found with the Celeron 847:
To test the computer thermals, we have first left the computer in IDLE for about 30 minutes and then we fired up 3DMark2003 in loop mode, for an additional 30 minutes. The minimum and maximum temperatures of all internal components were recorded by the latest HWINFO utility. During the time of testing, the ambient temperature was 21.2 degrees Celsius:
System Full Load measurement was recorded while running the AIDA64 System Stability Test and checking on Stress CPU, Stress FPU, Stress Cache, Stress System Memory, Stress GPUs.
In IDLE, we have recorded a value of 19.17W, while in Full Load about 44.86W.
The BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U board featuring the Ivy Bridge Celeron 1037 CPU is a powerful little monster and the general user experience is very much improved over the 1.1GHz variant (Celeron 847) which sported a Sandy Bridge core. This is not all: improvements have been made with the iGPU controller too, with the Intel Graphics 2500 name with a maximum clock speed of 1000MHz. This all has been kept in a package which has a TDP the same as its predecessor, 17W.
What can we say about the board itself? Well, the layout is very much the same as on the NM70I-847 variant, featuring 4 SATA ports (one which is SATA 3, the rest SATA 2), four USB 2.0 ports on the I/O and two headers on the motherboard for an extra four ports (there is no USB 3.0 interface present though); both Audio and LAN interfaces are provided by Realtek controllers. The CPU is covered by a thin aluminum heatsink, which is cooled by a small 40mm fan; we have seen implementations from other manufacturers like Gigabyte which have used a larger radiator and did not use any active cooling.
The graphics performance of the whole setup can be boosted by installing a dedicated video card inside the provided PCI-Express x16 slot (x8 electrical), but can also use it to install more expansion cards (in case we are building a home NAS), TV tuner, sound card and so on.
The only negative points we could enumerate would be the existence of legacy interfaces like VGA, LPT, Serial, which not a lot of people use these days. The VGA output could have been easily replaced with a DVI.
The BIOSTAR NM70I-1037U board can be found online for an affordable sum of 65 Euros.
We would like to thank again to BIOSTAR for making this review possible!