Foxconn BlackOps - Review
We have been working on this review for some time, and are quite happy with the results, so we thought this was a way of giving a little something back to XS.
Thx for Pederrs from OCTeamDenmark for this great review :)
Hope you Like it XS:D
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/1.jpg
Introduction
It has finally arrived! People have longed for this motherboard for a long time and the expectations for it has been raised time and time again, and with good reason.
Let us first take a short overview of who Foxconn, the manufacturer, really is. Here in Denmark Foxconn has been standing in the shadow of other manufacturers like Asus, Gigabyte, DFI, Abit etc. Foxconn is nonetheless the worlds largest manufacturer of motherboards. It should be mentioned that Asus has their motherboards fabricated by Foxconn.
Foxconn seriously wants to get into the enthusiast market. Therefore they have called for reinforcements in the form of former DFI bios-engineers, as well as one of the worlds best overclockers Peter Tan, also known as Shamino.
With the BlackOps motherboard Foxconn has attempted to create the ultimate motherboard for overclocking. As we shall later see, this is reflected in how the motherboard is made but also in the things that are included in the box. Besides having allied with Shamino, they have also formed a special beta-testing/development program called ”Quantum Force Scholarship Program”. In this program 23 additional overclockers have been invited. These persons have helped Foxconns R&D department with the beta-testing, and feedback on the BlackOps. This has resulted in helping the BlackOps motherboard to beat several Overclocking-records. Furthermore the motherboard has received an immense amount of attention from the overclocking communities spanning the globe. It should finally be mentioned that the board is based on the Intel high-end Chipset X48
We really have something to look forward to in this review!
Specifications – Contents
Let us take a closer look at how the motherboard presents itself.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/2.jpg
The board is shipped in a nice big box. On the box the boards various features designed to make the board special, is described.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/3.jpg
On the back you can among others, see the different cooling options for the chipset. There is put effort into describing the special power management created for the processor.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/4.jpg
On the side of the box you'll find a list of all the overclockers that participated in the aforementioned Quantum Force Scholarship Program. Upon closer inspection you might notice someone familiar.
Congratulations Peter aka Nosfer@tu!
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/5.jpg
Now let's get the box opened and have a look at the content. As can be seen it has been decided to use a separate soundcard which must be mounted in a special port on the board.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/30.jpg
I have never had a motherboard with so many accessories. Everything is here. When you buy a BlackOps, you don't just buy a motherboard, you buy an entire package so you without much hassle can set it up for a round of crazy benchmarking. The following are included with the board:
- Quantum Force Stickers
- Quantum Force Dogtags
- Quantum Force Tatoos
- Manual + map of the motherboard
- Driver CD
- Disk with raid driver
- IO port
- USB + Firewire port
- 6 x Sata cables
- 6 x 4 pins for sata power
- 2 x IDE cables
- 2 x FDD cables
- Strips
- 120mm fan with a mounting
- Bench table in plexiglas
- Extra fittings for the water cooling head
- Fan for the chipset
- LN2/dry ice pipe for the chipset
- 1 x 20 Kohm variable resistance
- 1 x 50 Kohm variable resistance
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/31.jpg
I was a bit stunned when I saw this. Foxconn has chosen to ship it with 2 variable resistances. You can think a little about what they can be used for... Vmods!
If that isn't enough, Foxconn has also created a pipe that be fastened on top of the chipsets cooling profile allowing you to cool the chipset with LN2 or dry ice.
These things have never been bundled with a motherboard before and by doing this, Foxconn shows us what this motherboard is really envisioned for. Never before has a motherboard been manufactured purely for overclocking. It is cool that Foxconn chooses to take the lead and show the way forward like this.
The motherboards specifications are:
CPU
Intel® CoreTM2 Quad, CoreTM2 Extreme, CoreTM2 Duo, Pentium® Dual-Core E2xxx, Celeron® 4xx processors.
Chipset
Intel X48 + ICH9R
FSB
1600/1333/1066/800 MHz.
Memory
Dual DDR3 1600/1333/1066/800 x 4 DIMMs, Max. 8GB
Storage
6* SATAII, RAID, 2* eSATA, 12* USB 2.0, 2* IEEE1394a, 1* ATA 133
Slot
3* PCIe x16 (2* x16 bandwidth, 1* x4), 3 * PCI
Network
Dual Gigabit LAN
Audio
SONAR Audio Card (7.1 High Definition Audio)
Design
In this section we will take a look at the motherboard itself and all the details Foxconn has chosen to equip it with.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/6.jpg
The board has a nice and solid design. There has been constructed heat pipes between the South bridge, the chipset and the Mosfest cooling profiles. You have the option to choose between three different cooling solutions for the chipset. You can use water cooling, which is mounted from the start. The Water cooling head can be removed and an ordinary air cooler, which is also supplied, can be put in its stead. If you are in need of extreme cooling the LN2/dry ice pipe can be mounted.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/7.jpg
In the bottom of the motherboard is 6 SATA ports. These are controlled by a JMB controller.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/8.jpg
Foxconn has equipped the board with three buttons with the following functions:
- Red = Power on
- Black = Restart
- Yellow = Clear CMOS
Foxconn has also placed a display that state the post codes. That is a really nice feature, especially when you overclock. With the display, you always know what state the motherboard is in. It makes it easy to pinpoint errors when the motherboard for example won't boot.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...BlackOps/9.jpg
Moving a little up we arrive at the two Bios chips. Here Foxconn has done something really smart. The board as has been stated earlier is equipped with two Bios chips, meaning that if one breaks, the board will still work. If one chip breaks, the other simply takes over. You even have the option to choose which of the two Bios chips the motherboard should use. This is done by adjusting the two jumpers visible under the two chips.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/10.jpg
If we move our attention to the other side of the board, we'll see three chips and the battery. The battery is placed just above the port the sound card is supposed to be sitting in. This ensures easy access to removing the battery if the need should arise.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/11.jpg
The first of the three chips, is a TI Firewire controller.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/12.jpg
The next two Broadcom chips, control the two netcards the motherboard is equipped with.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/13.jpg
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/14.jpg
A little further up on the board is the PLL chip. This is the chip we use when we for example use Clockgen or SetFSB. Its name is:
ICS9lPRS919HKL
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/15.jpg
Foxconn has chosen to 'only' put three PCI-E ports on the board. Though this should be enough for most people. The first two ports run x16, while the last one runs x4.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/16.jpg
The South bridge is cooled with a small copper profile, which is cooled via a heat pipe to the chipset.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/17.jpg
Here the water cooling head is mounted on the Chipset cooling profile. Included are two different size fittings. The water cooling head is mounted by screwing in a screw in each corner of the Chipset profile.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/18.jpg
Ontop of the Mosfets is a big copper profile. This profile transfers the heat to a heat pipe that is transferred to the Chipset.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/19.jpg
Let's take a closer look at the area around the CPU socket...
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/20.jpg
There is plenty of space around the socket. Making it allot easier to isolate the motherboard when extreme cooling is to be mounted.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/21.jpg
Since the power management of the CPU is incredibly important when you have to reach a high overclock, Foxconn has spend allot of time on it. They have created a eight phased digital power feed. The digital management utilizes the power better, at the same time as it supplies a lot more stable power output, even though changes occur in the power consumption. The digital power management runs with twice as high a frequency, compared to a normal power management. This means that it can react faster on changes in the power supply. A CPU that runs with a very high frequency (Ghz) and is suddenly exposed to a violent load, will therefore not suffer a drop in the power supply, as would occur in several other motherboards. This ensures a much more stable CPU even under heavy load. If that is not enough, the digital power management can supply up to 200 amps! This means that even a quad core close to 6GHz, would receive the necessary amounts of power.
If we take a closer look at the layout of the eight phased power management. We have the mosfets sitting under the big copper profile. Then we have the eight coils and the 6 solid state condensators In addition to this, two rows of SMD condensators have been placed between the coils and the solid state condensators. This ensures an even cleaner power supply.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/22.jpg
This is the side of the socket where the power management is usually located, but Foxconn has chosen to move it to the placement we looked at before. This means that we have plenty of space to isolate the motherboard, since this particular area is often suffering from Condens/ice.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/23.jpg
There is room for four blocks of DDR3 on the board.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/24.jpg
Here we see the I/O ports. As has been mentioned before the sound card is an external card, which must be mounted on the motherboard.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/25.jpg
There are solid state top quality-condensators everywhere on the motherboard. This only goes to prove that the board is made from the absolute best components.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/26.jpg
This is what the Chipset cooling profile looks like, when one of the three cooling options is not mounted.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/27.jpg
Here is the LN2/Dry ice pipe mounted.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/28.jpg
Here we have mounted the active cooling solution. The fan is made by Delta. Under normal conditions it makes some noise, but not more than it is acceptable. Foxconn has created a pretty cool feature in regards to the fan. When you shut down the board, the fan runs on full power for about ten seconds while the rest of the board is shut down. This ensures that the Chipset is properly cooled down and insures longer life spawn.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/29.jpg
We'll also take a look at the back of the board. Here we can see that Foxconn has chosen to place a small plate under the Mosfet cooling profile. This is a really good idea, since it guarantees that the Mosfet cooler is properly in place. I have several times seen various Asus motherboards, where this cooling profile has simply been mounted with two clips allowing for an easy way to crook it. Likewise Foxconn has screwed the Chipset and the South bridge profile in firmly, instead of using the normal clips. Thus providing a better contact and cooling the components better.
They even placed good cooling paste on it, so you don't have to suffer from cheap solutions to that problem. A thing allot of overclockers have been frustrated about.
Bios and Software
Now we are going to look at the Bios. I have taken pictures of the main menu and all of the submenues.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_1.jpg
This is how the main menu looks. I will be using this as my staging point, as we take a look at the multiple submenues.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_2.jpg
Standard CMOS Features.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_3.jpg
Advanced BIOS Features.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_4.jpg
Advanced Chipset Features.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_5.jpg
Integrated Peripherals.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_6.jpg
Power Management Setup.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_7.jpg
PnP/PCI Configurations.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_8.jpg
PC Health Status.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/bios_9.jpg
PC Health Status - Continued.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_10.jpg
We'll skip the Quantum Bios menu and go straight to the Board information.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_11.jpg
Quantum Bios – This is where the exciting things are located. Therefore we go straight into the submenues, to show off the range of overclocking-settings this motherboard can offer.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_12.jpg
CPU Feature.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_13.jpg
Memory Timing Config - Here are all the timing-setting you could ever want.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_14.jpg
Memory Timing Config - continued.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_15.jpg
All Voltage Control - Here as the name implies are all the volt settings. Below we have listed, which intervals you can set the various settings to:
CPU Voltage Multiplier: x 1.000 - x 1.525 Increase: 0.075
CPU Voltage Setting: 0.8250V - 1.6000V Increase: 0.0125V
CPU PLL Voltage Setting: 1.395696V - 2.446852V Increase: ~ 0.037722V
CPU VTT Voltage Setting: 1.200V - 1.725V Increase: 0.075V
NB Voltage Setting: 1.156V - 2.395V Increase: ~ 0.031V
SB Voltage Setting: 1.388V - 1.950V Increase: ~ 0.037V
DRAM Voltage Setting: 1.418V - 2.873V Increase: ~ 0.038V
As you can see the CPU Voltage can only be set to 1,6V, you are probably thinking that that isn't allot. No it isn't, but it is important to note that you can also set a CPU Voltage Multiplier. This actually means that you have the option to give the CPU 1,6V x 1,525 = 2,44V!
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/bios_16.jpg
OC Gear - Here you can save your Bios settings in different profiles.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/33.jpg
In this section we'll also have a look at two interesting programs, located on the driver CD.
The first program is Foxconns own answer to a program that can update the Bios directly from Windows. Under the first tab you can get various information about the Bios. Under the next tab, Backup Bios, you can as the name implies make a backup of the existing Bios. The last tab, Update Bios, opens a menu from which you can choose the Bios file the motherboard should be updated with, this does require that you've downloaded the Bios file from Foxconns homepage. (The tab, Online Update, opens a browser with a link to the newest Bios file.) When the Bios has been selced the program first takes a backup of the existing Bios, after which it updates the Bios with the chosen Bios file. It takes some time to update the Bios compared to for example Asus own program, but Foxconns program works solidly and without error, which is very important. It should be said that I did several Bios updates with the program without any problems.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/34.jpg
The next program we'll take a look at is Foxconns AEGIS Panel. This program can show us information such as fan speeds, temperatures, voltage settings and clock frequencies. The most interesting though is that you can overclock the motherboard directly from Windows and if that isn't enough, you can also adjust the various voltages directly.
It is a really cool feature that opens up for a lot of possibilities. It isn't uncommon to see programs of this sort that doesn't live up to their task, but this one runs just perfectly. The very moment you set a voltage setting it changes, there is no ”apply button”. A second after the setting has been changed, it is visible on the voltage information to the right. The clock settings is changed in the pretty much the same way. Though here they have chosen to add an apply button. The clock settings change immediately as well.
Test – Overclocking
We've decided to do a slightly different test of this motherboard. Since Foxconn has put an incredible amount of weight on overclocking during the development of this board, we thought it was worth testing it out. We've therefore chosen to do three test configurations. Two of the configurations are overclocked while the third will run at standard speed. Judging from these we want to see how well the motherboard will help you gain a massive overclock if you just have the cooling for it. The configurations are as follows:
3GHz Configuration
Intel QX9650 @ 3GHz (9 x 333MHz)
Asus GTX 280 @ 602/1107/1296
2GB Cell Shock PC14400 @ 667MHz 8-6-5-18
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
CPU cooling: Standard box cooling - CPU temperature ca. 38°C
4GHz Configuration
Intel QX9650 @ 4GHz (9,5 x 421,5MHz)
Asus GTX 280 @ 602/1107/1296
2GB Cell Shock PC14400 @ 843MHz 7-6-6-20
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
CPU cooling: 2 x SC18CLX Cascade - CPU temperature ca. -98°C
5GHz Configuration
Intel QX9650 @ 5GHz (11,5 x 435MHz)
Asus GTX 280 @ 602/1107/1296
2GB Cell Shock PC14400 @ 870MHz 7-6-6-20
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
CPU cooling: 2 x SC18CLX Cascade - CPU temperature ca. -96°C
As you can see air cooling just doesn't quite cut it if the processors are to run at 5GHz, we have to turn to stronger measures...
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/35.jpg
First the box cooler is removed so we can isolate the motherboard as to prevent condense.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/36.jpg
Once the motherboard is isolated we can mount our cascade (A dual compressor cooler providing -100 C°).
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/37.jpg
Cascade mounted... Ready to take off!
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/38.jpg
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/39.jpg
The BlackOps deserves to be fitted with a proper graphics card, therefore we chose to mount the top of the pop, Asus GTX 280.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/40.jpg
The entire loveliness, ready to give some good results.
Let's look at some results, so we start out with Crysis.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...Ops/Crysis.png
The game test was run with all settings set to very high and AA to 16xQ. The graphics card is being pushed to the limit. I wanted to see if the graphics card was in fact limited by the CPU. The tests however show that this is far from the case. As such it doesn't help to overclock the CPU, when you use these settings in Crysis. But that is only the case in Crysis. Other games or test programs will see a much better increasment in fps.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...s/3DMark06.png
In 3DMark06 the motherboard scales really well. It is clearly seen that the graphics card is CPU limited to the 3GHz, since we get a serious boost when we go from 3GHz to 4GHz.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...s/PCMark05.png
Since PCMark05 is very CPU dependant, the system scales really well when we raise the CPU frequency. The motherboard is in this test put under a great deal of strain when the CPU runs at 5GHz. The test loads all four cores, meaning that the CPU is drawing allot of watt from the boards power management.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo.../Cinebench.png
This is the hardest test we've run. Here all four cores are set to render an image, which loads the CPU over an extended period. This means that the motherboard has to keep the CPU stable over an extended period of time. The board does handle this without any trouble, which is quite good since one of the tests has been run at 5GHz. Cinebench also tests the graphics card in OpenGL, while a single core is also set to render the image.
In the two CPU tests we get a fine yield from raising the frequency while the graphics card test isn't sorely affected.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...ps/SuperPi.png
SuperPi is very dependent of the CPU frequency, but the RAM speed also plays an important role. SuperPi as most is likely aware, utilizes only one core. The 1M test doesn't take very long, therefore it is rather limited how much the motherboard is pressured. We do get a fine scaling when the CPU frequency is raised and that is all an overclocker/gamer wants from a motherboard. More power.
So fare ee have pushed the BlackOps board a great deal, but let's see what the board really can once we press it to the very limit.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/ccpuz.php?id=380042
First I've tested the FSB speed. The motherboard with X48 Chipset is actually not known to be able to run at a very high FSB with quad core processors. BlackOps does though reach an FSB of 467Mhz, which must be said is quite nice - online dualcore results up to 600 fsb has been spotted.
When you raise the FSB speed it can often be difficult to figure out the many voltage you can change to get the FSB speed as high as possible. I've therefore made a small table, showing my settings at the miscellaneous FSB speeds:
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo.../FSB_tabel.jpg
In the next test we will try to find the highest frequency for the QX9650 processor.
http://valid.x86-secret.com/ccpuz.php?id=379984
In this test both the motherboard and CPU shows their true colour. 5744MHz on a quad core processor is quite impressive. Here it should be taken into consideration that we ”only” ran the test with cascade cooling and not LN2. The result is actually so good that is is in the top 30 in the world compared to other QX9650.
You will not be cheated for the chance to see this setup live and in full function. I have therefore made a small video of the motherboard, in which you can see among others the impressive result off 5,7GHz:
XS does not allow Video posting so you will have to download it from the link below or go to our site and watch it.
Here you can download the film in high quality:
Foxconn BlackOps - OC video
OR view it here on YouTube :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd6zh...ead.php?t=2209
Conclusion
Foxconn has gone out of their way to create the ultimate motherboard for overclockers and personally I think they have succeeded. BlackOps does have some children's diseases. When I started overclocking the motherboard, I had quite some trouble saving my settings in the Bios and getting the motherboard to start up afterwards. It was actually pretty much impossible, but after advice from Shamino and others, I learned that this motherboard is very sensitive towards which power supply you plug in. I even used a 720W quality power supply from Enermax, but the motherboard apparently didn't like it. I was therefore forced to switch power supply before the problem disappeared.
Another thing I experienced was a relatively large vdroop, when the CPU came under heavy load. In the Bios you can actually turn ”Vdroop Compensation” on, but this doesn't help. I tried to measure the vcore with a multimetre and I found out that there actually where now vdroop at all, it was just the AEGIS software which showed wrong.
Even thoughthe board has a few problems it isn't enough to overshadow the many good features the board has been outfitted with. Among these can be mentioned the layout, and the Bios, which is equipped with allot of setting options. One should not forget the big bundle where absolutely nothing is missing. Last but not least, the motherboard is outfitted with really good overclocking options and we have seen in our tests that the board performs fine, especially at high speeds.
BlackOps is priced relatively high here in Denmark. The board costs about 2500 DKK ~ 335 € which I think is far too much for a motherboard. In Germany the motherboard can be bought for 2100 DKK ~ 280€ which is still expensive but is more justifiable, especially if you consider the bundle that comes with the board.
To round off I think that Foxconn should have praise for the way the motherboard is developed. As mentioned in the beginning the motherboard is developed purely for overclocking. To try an please such a specific group (Overclockers) has never been done this well before. It has never been seen before either, that you simply take in overclockers to help test and develop the product. So you can say that Foxconn has turned up and down on the old ways of developing and manufacturing motherboards.
http://www.gotweak.dk/Filer/OCTDK/Fo...lackOps/32.jpg
Translated by: Kristian Bøg
English Review with Cascade and Video
Danish Review...
