Anyone here have experience with Foxconn mobos?

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

I'm currently looking at motherboards for an A64-based build I'm planning. I've narrowed my list down to 3 or 4 boards, and one is a Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS.

I don't read or see much about Foxconn motherboards, so I was wondering if any of you guys have had any experience with them (within the last 2-3 years). Any feedback, positive or negative, about their boards and/or the company in general (e.g., cust. service) would be appreciated.

TIA

PS: I'm gonna be away from the computer for much of the next several days, so if anyone asks a question, I may not respond right away. I just wanted to get this post up & start getting some feedback.

 

[boomerang]

I've built a number of systems around their boards. I have had no real problems with them.

However, I did have some BIOS related issues with them all.

They have some unusual BIOS settings. Ones I've never heard of or are familiar with. I've been putting systems together for nearly ten years and have never encountered some of the settings I've seen on their boards. The defaults will usually work unless you are trying to boot off SATA. Takes a little head scratching.

Some of their BIOS settings are by default, opposite of what other boards are. A system I built for a friend would boot when his wife booted her computer. Both systems on the same network at home. I had to change his to disable WOL. It was enabled by default. And really, in my experience, it shouldn't have booted anyway.

Kinda weird.

 

[Parsnip1973]

Hi Ken

Let me first say I don't have Boomerang's greater experience having only attempted one build so far, but the Foxconn 6150 that I have now ended up with is soooooo much better than the Asus A8n-VM CSM pile of trash I first had. Boomer's experience with the BIOS was interesting to me because it was BIOS problems that had me RMA'ing the asus (from a customer service pov, I don't think I've ever come across a worse company than Asus before - I will never buy any of that company's products ever again), and the thing I really like about the Foxconn is that it seems to have a very stable BIOS! Of course, that could just be a factor of my very limited expereince...

Anyway, good luck with the build!

Richard

 

[Emulex]

i have an older foxconn board. it's wierd every say month or so the pc will go into "retard" mode. I can reboot it 1 or 100 times in a period of about 30-120 minutes and it will not work right, unstable, then after banging my head for a while, it will just boot up and run for the rest of the month.

i really hate that. I would not buy this mobo again. I have experienced NFORCE and have to say NFORCE ownz the chipset realm.

My a64 is old 3000+ i run it overclocked FSB to about 3200+ rates (i dont care about speed, i care about stability).

 

[Zap]

I've built some socket 478 systems using Foxconn boards and they were cheap and stable. However, I wouldn't put one in my own system because I like to be able to overclock and the Foxconn boards aren't "enthusiast" boards, or at least the ones I've used.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks, guys. Really appreciate the feedback.

After further research, as of now I've narrowed the choice down to either a Gigabyte K8N Ultra-9 or an ABIT AN8 Ultra for this build. They're virtually identical in terms of features, but the Gigabyte has FireWire 800 capability , which is unique on a mobo. I might use that a year or two down the road if I get a high-def camcorder and it uses FW800. I like to think ahead (well, plus I don't like to have to buy a new board every year or two ).

Weird thing about the Gigabyte board is that no one here in the U.S. seems to carry it. They list it on both their U.S. and (main corporate) Taiwanese Web sites, and there's no mention of it being "discontinued," yet Google and PriceGrabber searches yield no viable vendors. And the usual suspects (Newegg, ZZF, Monarch, et al.) don't carry it. I wonder what the deal is -- it looks like an amazing board. There appears to be a 'foreign' version of the exact same board, called the GA-K8NF9 Ultra that's available in Australia, Israel and the U.K., so I suppose I could order it there and have it shipped here to the states. Kind of a hassle though, particularly if I got a bad one outta the box and had to RMA it. Think I'll call Gigabyte tomorrow and find out what the deal is.

The ABIT board looks good too, so maybe I'll just go with it. Any of you guys have any experience with Gigabyte or ABIT in terms of customer service or reliability? Or have you owned any of their boards in the last couple of years?

 

[Zap]

I put an Abit KN8 into my wife's computer. It works fine, nothing too special but the overclocking/tweaking is easier than my DFI LANPARTY because, well, ahem, fewer options to screw up. I wrote a review and posted it here, but the post disappeared. I do not have experience with their customer service but in the past (BX chipset days) their warranty was only to resellers. Some motherboard manufacturers are still like that, such as Biostar and ECS, meaning if your board breaks you'd better hope the place you bought it from takes it back for RMA because Biostar and ECS will charge a "handling fee" of around $25 or so to RMA for end user.

BTW, what "features" are you looking for in a motherboard?

 

[Ken90630]

I do not have experience with their customer service but in the past (BX chipset days) their warranty was only to resellers. Some motherboard manufacturers are still like that, such as Biostar and ECS, meaning if your board breaks you'd better hope the place you bought it from takes it back for RMA because Biostar and ECS will charge a "handling fee" of around $25 or so to RMA for end user.

Thanks for telling me about that. I'll definitely scope out my RMA options beforehand if I pull the trigger on a board. I like to know about potential worst-case scenarios and plan accordingly. This is the kinda stuff I wanna know.

And you know, something else just popped into my head yesterday re ABIT. I seem to remember there being some sort of mini 'scandal' of some sort involving them not too long ago. Some corruption thing or ??? with one of their executives or something? I didn't pay a lot of attention to it at the time and my memory is pretty hazy on it. Am I thinking of the right company, or was it someone other than ABIT? (I'm thinkin' this was within the last year.) Maybe I'll Google it and see what comes up. Hopefully I'm wrong and it was some other company.

BTW, what "features" are you looking for in a motherboard?

That it be made by a reputable mfgr with reasonable track record of making good mobos and at least passably decent customer service should I ever need it. And good documentation (user manual) would be a plus.
3-year warranty
ATX form factor
AMD Socket 939 A64 X2 (dual core) compatibility
nVidia NForce 4 Ultra chipset
DDR 400 (a given)
Passively cooled northbridge (a must)
PCI-E (no interest in SLI)
At least 3 'regular' PCI slots (2 will not suffice)
At least 4 USB 2.0 ports on the rear
FireWire 400 port (and FW800 would be a nice bonus -- the Gigabyte board is the only mobo I know of that has it onboard right now)
SATA support for the WD Raptor I bought two years ago and haven't gotten around to using yet
No connectors in weird places requiring extra-long IDE cables
A BIOS that makes sense (like Asus typically has)
A price of no more than $130ish

That's pretty much it, off the top of my head. I don't game or overclock, so "tweakability" options don't matter to me. I'm more concerned with stability and long-term reliability under 'normal' usage.

Here is the Gigabyte board I really like the looks of and here is the Abit AN8 that also looks great [particularly the northbridge heatpipe thingy ]. Except for the ABIT not having FW800 onboard (not an absolute requirement), both meet all the criteria I listed above (except for their customer service, which is an unknown to me right now). Heh heh -- it took a lot of research to narrow things down to two boards. Now I just gotta decide which one to get.

 

[Zap]

Yeah, Abit was involved in some SEC irregularity and got their stock de-listed or something. Don't remember details. Abit claims everything was fine, but was unable to provide proof in time. Anyways, they got bought out by a larger company so nothing to worry about... maybe.

That 3 year warranty and passively cooled really does narrow down your choices quite a bit, eh? :laugh: I haven't used either brand for socket 754/939 products, but from what I've read the Asus would probably overclock better, if that's your cup-o-tea. Gigabyte had some good overclocking boards back in the early socket 478 Northwood/DDR days, but those days are long past. Asus seems more... reliable in their delivery of "decent" overclocking boards. They may not always be the highest, but is counted among them. Gigabyte seems to have hits/misses with overclocking. For non-overclocking either would do.

 

[Ken90630]

Yeah, Abit was involved in some SEC irregularity and got their stock de-listed or something. Don't remember details. Abit claims everything was fine, but was unable to provide proof in time. Anyways, they got bought out by a larger company so nothing to worry about... maybe.

Yeah, I just Googled it and apparently they were in hot water with the Taiwanese Stock Exchange over allegations of shady accounting practices. I just read one article, and it didn't say how it got resolved.

So who bought them out? :Q This is news to me. (Yeah, I've really been outta the mobo scene for awhile. :laugh: )

That 3 year warranty and passively cooled really does narrow down your choices quite a bit, eh?

Yep. Those are the two most "exclusionary" (for lack of a better term) features. Particularly the passively cooled NB -- otherwise, there'd be a dozen or more different boards to choose from. I just really need a whisper quiet machine for this particular application, and I don't wanna deal with a noisy NB fan or a NB fan that starts buzzing or failing 2 years down the road or something. I've read too may stories about that sort of thing. I just want a big heatsink on there that I can forget about.

Re the overclocking considerations, as I mentioned in my last post I don't overclock. So that doesn't matter to me at all. This rig will primarily be used for Photoshop, desktop publishing/graphics, and maybe some light video editing when I get a nice camcorder. Plus the typical MS Office stuff and whatever new thing(s) Vista might bring to the table when the time comes. Based on what I know today, a stock-speed A64 with 2 GB of RAM should do the job just fine.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

 

[furballi]

Abit AX8 is a good board with the VIA chipset. 100% passive. Will not support dual core unless you have the REV A chipset.

 

[buzzly]

Foxconn is a large OEM manufacturer. For the most part, they made motherboard and other components for other companies such as Dell, HP, eVGA, DFI, Abit, ePox, and on and on... Only recently Foxcomm begins to market its own MBs.

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: furballi
Abit AX8 is a good board with the VIA chipset. 100% passive. Will not support dual core unless you have the REV A chipset.

I heard the VIA chipsets have issues with non-RAID SATA drives, so I was trying to shy away from them 'cuz I'm gonna be using a single Raptor in a non-RAID config. I like the nForce Ultra 4 chipset a lot more. Thanks for the comment though.

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: buzzly
Foxconn is a large OEM manufacturer. For the most part, they made motherboard and other components for other companies such as Dell, HP, eVGA, DFI, Abit, ePox, and on and on... Only recently Foxcomm begins to market its own MBs.

Thanks. I didn't know that. That explains why I hadn't seen much talk of Foxconn-branded motherboards until recently.