Biostar pitches Nvidia C51-based barebones

Biostar has begun touting an upcoming iDEQ small form-factor PC barebones system based on Nvidia's as-yet-unannounced C51 integrated chipset.

The iDEQ 330N is aimed at Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 and 64-FX processors. The chipset is Nvidia's two-part C51, Biostar makes clear on the system's specification, which integrates a GeForce 6-class graphics engine.

Nvidia admitted in May, just after announcing its Q1 FY2006 results, that it was sampling its first integrated chipset, but provided no further details. Earlier this month, an allegedly leaked copy of a future version of the company's Forceware drivers, 80.40, contained references to a chipset codenamed 'nForce 4 C51'.

The C51 has been reported as scheduled to ship in volume mid-Q3. Apparently, it supports both Socket 754 and Socket 939 processors and provides 3Gbps Serial ATA, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire and USB 2.0 functionality.

The iDEQ 330N itself supports dual-channel 400MHz DDR memory, in two slots. There's a x16 PCI slot for an extra graphics card, along with a Mini-PCI slot - presumably for the optional 802.11g Wi-Fi card - and an x1 PCI slot. There's a seven-in-one memory card slot too. Audio comes not from the C51's MCP51 component but a Realtek ALC882 8.2-channel controller. The 21.5 x 35.5 x 18.5cm box can take two Serial ATA devices in a RAID configuration, along with a single IDE unit, and it contains a 250W active power supply. ®

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