- Oct 13, 1999
- 22,377
- 2
- 81
Zap's Mini Review: Foxconn G45M-S
(Purchased from Newegg for $91.99 plus shipping)
The Foxconn G45M-S is a full-featured yet mid-priced motherboard for socket LGA 775 based on the Intel G45 chipset for all Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors with just about anything anyone will need except for SLI/Crossfire or hardcore overclocking. It is at the low end of G45 chipset motherboard pricing yet has more features than some of the more expensive boards, plus promised at least a modicum of overclocking. When I see a value proposition like that, my interest is piqued. I wanted an overclockable motherboard to replace an Intel branded board in my micro ATX LAN party rig and this looked like a contender based on specifications and layout.
SPECIFICATIONS
Foxconn G45M-S motherboard
Intel G45 chipset with ICH10R
Supports socket LGA 775 Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad
Supports FSB 800/1066/1333/1600(OC)
Four DDR2 slots for dual channel operation, 16GB max
one PCI Express 2.0 x16, one PCI Express x1, two PCI slots
six SATA 3Gb/s and one FDD
Realtek ALC888-GR HD audio with 8 channels
Realtek 8111B-VC-GR gigabit ethernet
Intel GMA X4500HD onboard video with VGA, HDMI and Display Port outputs
IEEE 1394a (AKA Firewire 400)
Micro ATX form factor
All solid capacitors
TEST CONFIGURATION
Foxconn G45M-S motherboard
8GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 1.8v Ver.3.1
Intel Xeon E3110 CPU (same as E8400, 333MHz FSB, 3.0GHz stock)
Thermalright Ultra 90a heatsink
Thermalright socket 775 bolt-thru kit
Thermalright 92mm 4-pin PWM fan
Thermalright HR-05 chipset heatsink
HIS Radeon x1550 video card
Corsair TX650 power supply
BIOS
AMI BIOS version 08.00.15 date 08/16/08
Smart Fan disabled/enabled
Voltages:
Northbridge +50mV - +600mV in 50mV increments
memory +50mV - +600mV in 50mV increments
CPU 0-83
0 = stock voltage
1 = 1.10v
83 = 1.58v
Each number is a 6.25mV step
FSB stock-800MHz
PCIe 100-200MHz
Memory multipliers:
1:0.83
1:1
1:1.66
1:1.25
Auto overclock function
IMPRESSIONS
This is a fairly standard sized micro ATX motherboard, unlike the Flex ATX board I last reviewed. I really liked the layout of this board. Many micro ATX motherboards have SATA ports that are partially blocked if you use a large dual-slot graphics card. This board looks to have all six SATA ports free, or at worst four of them free. It uses an 8-pin +12v EPS plug for extra power to the CPU, plus has four RAM slots. With RAM as cheap as it is these days, I planned to load it up with 8GB. Another thing I liked was that the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot is in the first position, unlike many other micro ATX motherboards. This was important for my Antec NSK3480 chassis because the primary hard drive mounts at the bottom of the case. If the PCIe slot was in the secondary position, the fan of my graphics card (currently a BFG GTX 285) would be almost right against my VelociRaptor hard drive.
This board would probably be a decent choice for an HTPC because it has HDMI output and SPDIF headers.
Something interesting about this motherboard is that it has three fan headers. Well, by itself that fact isn?t very unique. What is different is that all three headers are 4-pin PWM style.
There are no suprises in the layout. The 8-pin +12v is near the edge of the motherboard by the PS/2 ports and the 24-pin power connector is between the RAM slots and the edge of the motherboard. The front audio ports are on the bottom edge of the motherboard along with the USB/Firewire ports and the front panel connectors. Basically no cable has to reach over the motherboard unless you have an ?upside down? style case like the Cooler Master Centurion 541 or Apevia X-QBOII.
While Smart Fan is supported, it is just a basic enable/disable with no finer nor separate controls for the separate fan headers. There also doesn?t seem to be any controls for 3-pin fans. This is a minor disappointment.
One interesting feature in the BIOS is the settings it has for halting on error. Now, many motherboards will halt on keyboard error (if no keyboard is plugged in) but this board will also halt on mouse error. At least it can be disabled.
This board has a number of headers on-board for SPDIF out, chassis intrusion, infra-red receiver and serial port. I just hope ithe chassis intrusion doesn?t get retarded like my Asus P5K-VM, which will occasionally (like every 3rd boot) lock on POST with a ?chassis intrusion detected? error even though I?m not using that feature.
OVERCLOCKING
Overclocking is of interest with micro ATX motherboards because they usually lag a bit behind their full-sized brethren in this field. The Foxconn board was reasonably capable, though not the best.
Some settings seem to not work. Setting the memory to the lowest multiplier of 1:0.83 resulted in a no POST situation. Also, while memory voltage was available up to 2.3v, no matter what I set it to, the hardware monitor reported somewhere around 1.93v so either the monitoring doesn?t work or the voltage setting doesn?t work.
There were also some confusing settings. Memory multipliers were available in two different places. One was under Northbridge settings (along with the memory latencies) giving a plain 667MHz or 800MHz setting. The other was with the overclocking functions and gave it as options for four different ratios (which I reported above). The Northbridge setting seemed to set the ?baseline? memory speed and the memory multiplier seemed to work on top of that. Odd.
The other confusing setting was for CPU voltage. It was a range of steps where what you set was just a number from 0-83. 0 means whatever your CPU defaults to. 1 means 1.1v and 83 means 1.58v. The rest of the numbers in-between are in 6.25mV steps. I had to set it to around 25 or so just to match my stock voltage, and go up from there. The good news is that this allows for some minor undervolting. Nothing near my Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L board which allows as low as 0.50v (and I?m currently running it 0.80v in my server with an underclocked E5200). Still, this gives some opportunity of making a somewhat low power draw and low heat output system.
One somewhat unique BIOS feature is auto overclocking. Now, many boards have profiles for clocking up the system in notches. This Foxconn board one-ups that by stepping up the clock speed until the board locks and reboots. I first saw such a feature in a Soltek socket 478 motherboard many years ago. Interestingly this feature pretty much nailed the maximum overclock that will successfully POST on this board. I don?t yet know if it is stable, but will as soon as I get it installed into my gaming rig and get Windows installed. Now, how this auto overclocking works is that you set the stepping anywhere from 1MHz to 15MHz, then start the process. It will report what the previous working FSB was and what it is trying next, and will keep incrementing (using the stepping you chose) until the board locks. You have to be watching this process because it does not save this information. You have to manually note down the last working FSB.
My result with this Xeon E3110 (functionally the same as a Core 2 Duo E8400) was a FSB of around 415MHz for around 3.73GHz clock speed. Somewhere just above that this board would stop POSTing. I don?t know if it is the memory holding it back since it doesn?t seem to increase memory voltage, but I do know that I was running this CPU at a higher speed (using better memory and higher memory voltage) on my Asus P5K-VM. I?m pretty sure I had the CPU POSTing at over 450MHz FSB on the Asus.
CONCLUSION
This board presented a great value with all the features at a low price, however it did not overclock as well as my Asus P5K-VM. Granted, the Asus board cost more when I bought it and current Asus boards still cost more. Foxconn does give you a lot for your money. The thing is that they were not known for overclocking, and my results do not change that. With that said, the fact that it still can overclock to a reasonable amount means that it is a decent choice for getting a bit more out of your processor. Indeed even if I were to clock my processor up to 4GHz+ I don?t think my planned setup would be able to cool it sufficiently at that high of an overclock.
This is not a final conclusion. Some of the other boards I?ve reviewed have gone into other people?s systems, but this board is going into my primary LAN party rig, so I will be reporting back on how it does in a small and overclocked rig, plus how it does at the next LAN party I attend (6/20/09). Will it be able to keep a 3.6GHz overclock stable? Will it be able to take the heat of being in a room full of powerful computers and sweaty gamers? Will I experience any odd behaviors? Stay tuned!
(Purchased from Newegg for $91.99 plus shipping)
The Foxconn G45M-S is a full-featured yet mid-priced motherboard for socket LGA 775 based on the Intel G45 chipset for all Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors with just about anything anyone will need except for SLI/Crossfire or hardcore overclocking. It is at the low end of G45 chipset motherboard pricing yet has more features than some of the more expensive boards, plus promised at least a modicum of overclocking. When I see a value proposition like that, my interest is piqued. I wanted an overclockable motherboard to replace an Intel branded board in my micro ATX LAN party rig and this looked like a contender based on specifications and layout.
SPECIFICATIONS
Foxconn G45M-S motherboard
Intel G45 chipset with ICH10R
Supports socket LGA 775 Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad
Supports FSB 800/1066/1333/1600(OC)
Four DDR2 slots for dual channel operation, 16GB max
one PCI Express 2.0 x16, one PCI Express x1, two PCI slots
six SATA 3Gb/s and one FDD
Realtek ALC888-GR HD audio with 8 channels
Realtek 8111B-VC-GR gigabit ethernet
Intel GMA X4500HD onboard video with VGA, HDMI and Display Port outputs
IEEE 1394a (AKA Firewire 400)
Micro ATX form factor
All solid capacitors
TEST CONFIGURATION
Foxconn G45M-S motherboard
8GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 1.8v Ver.3.1
Intel Xeon E3110 CPU (same as E8400, 333MHz FSB, 3.0GHz stock)
Thermalright Ultra 90a heatsink
Thermalright socket 775 bolt-thru kit
Thermalright 92mm 4-pin PWM fan
Thermalright HR-05 chipset heatsink
HIS Radeon x1550 video card
Corsair TX650 power supply
BIOS
AMI BIOS version 08.00.15 date 08/16/08
Smart Fan disabled/enabled
Voltages:
Northbridge +50mV - +600mV in 50mV increments
memory +50mV - +600mV in 50mV increments
CPU 0-83
0 = stock voltage
1 = 1.10v
83 = 1.58v
Each number is a 6.25mV step
FSB stock-800MHz
PCIe 100-200MHz
Memory multipliers:
1:0.83
1:1
1:1.66
1:1.25
Auto overclock function
IMPRESSIONS
This is a fairly standard sized micro ATX motherboard, unlike the Flex ATX board I last reviewed. I really liked the layout of this board. Many micro ATX motherboards have SATA ports that are partially blocked if you use a large dual-slot graphics card. This board looks to have all six SATA ports free, or at worst four of them free. It uses an 8-pin +12v EPS plug for extra power to the CPU, plus has four RAM slots. With RAM as cheap as it is these days, I planned to load it up with 8GB. Another thing I liked was that the PCIe 2.0 x16 slot is in the first position, unlike many other micro ATX motherboards. This was important for my Antec NSK3480 chassis because the primary hard drive mounts at the bottom of the case. If the PCIe slot was in the secondary position, the fan of my graphics card (currently a BFG GTX 285) would be almost right against my VelociRaptor hard drive.
This board would probably be a decent choice for an HTPC because it has HDMI output and SPDIF headers.
Something interesting about this motherboard is that it has three fan headers. Well, by itself that fact isn?t very unique. What is different is that all three headers are 4-pin PWM style.
There are no suprises in the layout. The 8-pin +12v is near the edge of the motherboard by the PS/2 ports and the 24-pin power connector is between the RAM slots and the edge of the motherboard. The front audio ports are on the bottom edge of the motherboard along with the USB/Firewire ports and the front panel connectors. Basically no cable has to reach over the motherboard unless you have an ?upside down? style case like the Cooler Master Centurion 541 or Apevia X-QBOII.
While Smart Fan is supported, it is just a basic enable/disable with no finer nor separate controls for the separate fan headers. There also doesn?t seem to be any controls for 3-pin fans. This is a minor disappointment.
One interesting feature in the BIOS is the settings it has for halting on error. Now, many motherboards will halt on keyboard error (if no keyboard is plugged in) but this board will also halt on mouse error. At least it can be disabled.
This board has a number of headers on-board for SPDIF out, chassis intrusion, infra-red receiver and serial port. I just hope ithe chassis intrusion doesn?t get retarded like my Asus P5K-VM, which will occasionally (like every 3rd boot) lock on POST with a ?chassis intrusion detected? error even though I?m not using that feature.
OVERCLOCKING
Overclocking is of interest with micro ATX motherboards because they usually lag a bit behind their full-sized brethren in this field. The Foxconn board was reasonably capable, though not the best.
Some settings seem to not work. Setting the memory to the lowest multiplier of 1:0.83 resulted in a no POST situation. Also, while memory voltage was available up to 2.3v, no matter what I set it to, the hardware monitor reported somewhere around 1.93v so either the monitoring doesn?t work or the voltage setting doesn?t work.
There were also some confusing settings. Memory multipliers were available in two different places. One was under Northbridge settings (along with the memory latencies) giving a plain 667MHz or 800MHz setting. The other was with the overclocking functions and gave it as options for four different ratios (which I reported above). The Northbridge setting seemed to set the ?baseline? memory speed and the memory multiplier seemed to work on top of that. Odd.
The other confusing setting was for CPU voltage. It was a range of steps where what you set was just a number from 0-83. 0 means whatever your CPU defaults to. 1 means 1.1v and 83 means 1.58v. The rest of the numbers in-between are in 6.25mV steps. I had to set it to around 25 or so just to match my stock voltage, and go up from there. The good news is that this allows for some minor undervolting. Nothing near my Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L board which allows as low as 0.50v (and I?m currently running it 0.80v in my server with an underclocked E5200). Still, this gives some opportunity of making a somewhat low power draw and low heat output system.
One somewhat unique BIOS feature is auto overclocking. Now, many boards have profiles for clocking up the system in notches. This Foxconn board one-ups that by stepping up the clock speed until the board locks and reboots. I first saw such a feature in a Soltek socket 478 motherboard many years ago. Interestingly this feature pretty much nailed the maximum overclock that will successfully POST on this board. I don?t yet know if it is stable, but will as soon as I get it installed into my gaming rig and get Windows installed. Now, how this auto overclocking works is that you set the stepping anywhere from 1MHz to 15MHz, then start the process. It will report what the previous working FSB was and what it is trying next, and will keep incrementing (using the stepping you chose) until the board locks. You have to be watching this process because it does not save this information. You have to manually note down the last working FSB.
My result with this Xeon E3110 (functionally the same as a Core 2 Duo E8400) was a FSB of around 415MHz for around 3.73GHz clock speed. Somewhere just above that this board would stop POSTing. I don?t know if it is the memory holding it back since it doesn?t seem to increase memory voltage, but I do know that I was running this CPU at a higher speed (using better memory and higher memory voltage) on my Asus P5K-VM. I?m pretty sure I had the CPU POSTing at over 450MHz FSB on the Asus.
CONCLUSION
This board presented a great value with all the features at a low price, however it did not overclock as well as my Asus P5K-VM. Granted, the Asus board cost more when I bought it and current Asus boards still cost more. Foxconn does give you a lot for your money. The thing is that they were not known for overclocking, and my results do not change that. With that said, the fact that it still can overclock to a reasonable amount means that it is a decent choice for getting a bit more out of your processor. Indeed even if I were to clock my processor up to 4GHz+ I don?t think my planned setup would be able to cool it sufficiently at that high of an overclock.
This is not a final conclusion. Some of the other boards I?ve reviewed have gone into other people?s systems, but this board is going into my primary LAN party rig, so I will be reporting back on how it does in a small and overclocked rig, plus how it does at the next LAN party I attend (6/20/09). Will it be able to keep a 3.6GHz overclock stable? Will it be able to take the heat of being in a room full of powerful computers and sweaty gamers? Will I experience any odd behaviors? Stay tuned!
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