Foxconn 975X7AA: Fox One debuts

The board overclocked well, but we were unable to get any of the DDR2 memory modules running at or above 800MHz in this board.

That's a shame as it seems a decent board. The price however is a little high as you can get the Asus (quality oc mobo) for under £150 notes as you pointed out.

As Tim also pointed out, the 8 pin connector is in an EXTREMELY poor place. Now, either you can route that wire up and over the PWM, or down across and past the Northbridge. Either way, i know more than a few things that would hit the stupid connector in that placement. Secondly, i really hate how manufacturers keep leaving the PWM bare, or in an inaccessable area. Here, the bare chips are all in strange shapes, and if you were to use a waterblock, or even a Big Typhoon (chunky mounting plate), they would recieve no airflow. Why is this an issue for me? On my P5WD2-E Premium, 4 phases of power are sinked, while 4 are not. Throttle the chip up to 4 GHz, and feel just how HOT those mofsets get as they have to feed a thirsty CPU, as well as greedy memory. Not to mention, the ones hidden by the upper flange of the waterblock will get even hotter...

Its not a bad mobo, but in comparison with Asus, DFI or Biostar...welll it dosen't stand a chance for now. Tweakability is low, although the Fox Intelligent Stepping, dosen't look all that bad.

For its first try on the OC enthuzist market it isn't that bad, but Foxconn still needs time and experience to make a real enthusiast mobo.

Good review.

However, I was hoping for more when it came to this board... deeply disappointed. :( It costs more than the Asus 975 board... and has some terrible layout faults (who in their right mind puts the 8-pin ATX connector that close to the CPU socket? No getting a Scythe Ninja on there...). Plus, the Asus is passively cooled and has 3 PCI slots - one of which will be obscured with a dual-slot cooler, admittedly, but that will still allow an X-Fi and a PhysX card at the same time.

Eh, I guess Foxconn are trying not to seem like copycats of either Asus or DFI in their layout - but that, I think, will cost them users because there are so many little flaws.

Overall, a good try, but not enough to pull a potential buyer away from the Asus 975 board...

I've got an ASUS P5WD2-E and I have to say that it isn't without its quirks either (I still don't think I've found the perfect board yet), but the flaws are not quite as bad as some of the problems on this particular Foxconn board.

Mm...

Can't honestly say I'm too surprised - I've yet to find the perfect motherboard, and I can well believe the Asus board has its quirks... all boards do, I think. It just depends how much they affect the individual user. :)

I can't get over the active cooling on the Foxconn, though... that is the biggest no-no for me. ;) The rest I can work around, if I absolutely have to.

Yes, it's so terribly hard to get around active cooling. Heaven forbid you unplug the fan :)

True... :)

Originally Posted by Tulatin
Yes, it's so terribly hard to get around active cooling. Heaven forbid you unplug the fan :)

and wonders why your chipset burns and melts through your mobo Oh no, that fan is just there to look pretty.

Hey, the chipset on my P5WD2-E doesn't melt thru the mobo, and provided you're using aircooling on the board, it should be fine.