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Foxconn X38A Review
[Abstract]
IntroductionAbout a month ago, Foxconn sent us a review sample of their latest flagship motherboard, the Foxconn X38A. As this was before the official launch of the Intel X38 chipset, we could ...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Overclocking
- FSB Settings: 266MHz to 800MHz
- Memory Settings (FSB:MEM Ratio): 1:2, 1:2.4, 1:2.5, 1:3, 1:3.3, 1:4
- PCIe Settings: 100MHz to 200MHz
- PCI Settings: 33.6MHz, 37.3MHz, 42MHz
- CPU Voltage Settings: +12.5mV to +387.5mV (in 12.5mV steps)
- Memory Voltage Settings: +0.032V to +0.892V
- NB Voltage Settings: +0.032V to +0.380V
- SB Voltage Settings: +0.037V to +0.424V
- Multiplier Selection: Yes (unlocked CPUs only)
The Foxconn X38A motherboard performed decently in our overclocking tests, but is not exactly an outstanding overclocker. Foxconn's latest BIOS overclocking module, called the Gladiator BIOS, is responsible for all the overclocking functions. On paper, the Gladiator BIOS does offer up some impressive voltage ranges and stepping modes, but we were unable to really push the board to the speeds that we're familiar with. The maximum stable FSB overclock achievable on our X38A sample was 430MHz, well below the 480-500MHz upper limit we usually see with enthusiast boards based on Intel's Broadwater or Bearlake series of chipsets.
CPU-Z overclocking screenshot. Click for full-sized image. |
Test Setup
The benchmarking segment can get a little confusing, so pay attention here. The Foxconn X38A supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory, which will both be tested to determine the actual implications of memory performance on the new Intel X38 chipset. For comparisons, we will pit the Foxconn X38A against some of the better Intel P35 DDR2 and DDR3 motherboards (MSI P35 Platinum and ASUS P5K3 Deluxe respectively) to find out just how well the X38 performs against the P35. In addition to this, we will also be including the results from the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 as a base performance gauge for the X38 chipset. Seeing that this is still a brand new chipset, what we do not have at the moment are comparable results for X38 DDR3 performance, which we promise will be coming real soon in a future review.
The test bed configuration used for this article is listed below and will be used for all products mentioned unless otherwise stated:-
- Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor (3.00GHz)
- 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 @ 4-4-12 CAS 4.0 (For DDR2 boards)
- 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 @ 7-7-20 CAS 7.0 (For DDR3 boards)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
- MSI GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB - with ForceWare 162.18 drivers
- Intel INF 8.3.1.1013 and AHCI 7.5.0.1017 driver set
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (and DirectX 9.0c)
Benchmarks
The following benchmarks will be run to determine the performance of the Foxconn X38A:-
- BAPco SYSmark 2004
- Futuremark PCMark05
- SPECviewperf 9.0
- AquaMark3
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