Introduction

Well, today we have something new and rather exciting, at least for me anyway, from our friends at Computers Geeks (www.geeks.com). I say it is exciting for me because I have never had a Micro ATX motherboard before. I never realized just how small a Micro ATX motherboard is really, they are very small, it's amazing all the features they can pack into such a small package. As we all know the new thing now is socket 939 with an Athlon 64 CPU, but the socket A platform is still alive and kicking, I know lots of people on forums I visit still have Socket A Athlon Xp based systems. I myself have 3 of them, now 4, and I believe there is still a lot of life left in the Athlon XP platforms. I have read comments on forums where people say the socket A platform is dead, I beg to differ, the socket A has been the standard for so long now that it will not be going away anytime soon, at least not without a fight. For overclockers the Athlon Xp Barton core CPUs have been a very popular and very overclockable CPU, especially the mobile Bartons, they use low power and have unlocked multipliers. Well back to that Micro ATX motherboard I was talking about, courtesy of Geeks I have for review the best of both worlds, I have the Biostar M7VIG-400 motherboard/CPU combo. Obviously it is a Micro ATX mobo, but it features a Mobile Athlon XP 2600+ Barton core processor as well. The price from Geeks is $94.99, a VERY nice price.

First Looks

As I have come to expect from Geeks, the shipping was fast and packaged very well. They use those cool 'Air Pillows' to protect the motherboard and CPU from any damage, and my invoice was in there as well. My kids love those Air Pillows, they always try and steal them, if you stomp on them just right they make a very loud bang of when they pop. Try it next time you get some, they are surprisingly loud! Anyway, look at the pictures: