Foxconn P35A Review

Foxconn P35A - Box and Motherboard Shots

Ok, got my new Foxconn P35A today. Learnt a very valuable lesson in backing up files on my pc incases of viruses. But doesn't matter because I have the board here :)

Anyway here are the pictures, camera ran out of battery before I could take shots of the cables and such. However I can say that the P35A may have SLi support, the SLi bridge is a dead give away. Also says it on the spec sheet I have been given. If its true then thats very impressive and already earns a big :thumbup: to Foxconn.

Anyway pictures

Front of Box

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0491.jpg

Back of Box

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0492.jpg

Non Flash Shot of Motherboard

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0493.jpg

Flash Shot

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0495.jpg

CPU Area (Lots of room)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0496.jpg

PCI/PCI-e Slots - Very Nice.... even the budget board pulls out 2x PCI-e 16x Slots

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0497.jpg

SATA/USB

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...S/RIMG0499.jpg

Foxconn P35A Features

Yes I have a sheet of features this board posses which are selling points :p I actually found this interesting, so you may as well.

Foxconn P35A supports ATI's Crossfire and Nvidia's Multi Graphics card technology.

The P35A uses the Intel P35 Northbridge and is paired with the ICH9 southbridge which supports NCQ command system. IDE support is given with the JMB 361 chipset, it also provides an e-sata port.

P35A uses solid capacitors to improve system stability and extend the lifecycle of the board.

The front connector pannel is colour coded, so you can easily figure out which connector goes where.

This board has a power and reset switch :) No need for a button ripped out of a case when you have it on a bench. I've already found this useful.

Huge clearence around the cpu socket which is great for mounting those huge coolers, my scythe infinity has no trouble fitting in.


Whats In The Box?

2x SATA Cables
2x Molex to SATA Power Cables
1x Backplate
1x IDE Cable
1x Floppy Cable (good old floppy :lol: )
1x USB Bracket (support for four usb devices on that)
1x Quick Installation Guide
1x Foxconn User's Manual
And lucky last and my favourite inclusion
1x SLi Bridge

Yes you heard right, this board comes with its very own SLi bridge :D

(will add more to this post eventually)

Foxconn P35A BIOS Shots

Front Page - Side 1
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-01.jpg

Front Page Side 2
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-02.jpg

Standard BIOS - System Overview
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-03.jpg

FOX Central Control Unit
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-04.jpg

Fox Intellegent Steppings Menu (Pre-Overclocked Settings)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-05.jpg

Overclocking Options
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-06.jpg

FSB:RAM Ratios (At DDR667)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-07.jpg

Current RAM Speed Options (DDR1066 will be there soon)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-08.jpg

FSB:RAM Ratios (At DDR800)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-09.jpg

CAS Latency Options 3-6
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-10.jpg

RAS - CAS Delay
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-11.jpg

RAS Precharge
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-12.jpg

RAS Activate to Prec
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-13.jpg

More in next post :)

Foxconn P35A BIOS Shots - Continued

Voltage Options
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-14.jpg

CPU Voltage (Yes thats how its done)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-15.jpg

Default Ram Voltage Selection
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-16.jpg

1.13x Ram Voltage Selection
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-17.jpg

1.28x Ram Voltage Selection
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-18.jpg

NB Voltage Selection
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-19.jpg

PCI-e Voltage Selection
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-20.jpg

Advanced CPU Settings
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-21.jpg

Hardware Health Configuration 1
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-22.jpg

Hardware Health Configuration 2
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...35ABIOS-23.jpg

Ok a quick benchmark. I have a while to go before understanding the cpu voltage system. Need to get my brain back into mathematics before its completly understandable.

However here is an untweaked SuperPI run.

FSB: 485mhz @ 1.5368v
CPU: 3349mhz @ 1.55v
RAM: 485mhz @ 2.406v (1:1) 5-5-5-15 2T
VGA: 6200TC

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...485FSB1MPI.png

And here is a comparison from my P5N-e at the same FSB/CPU clock, however highly tweaked ram
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...07/3394-17.jpg

So P35 is a decent bit faster then 650i at the same CPU clock and even the P5N-e has an advantage with much tighter timings.

Got some new ram from Dinos :p And now we can see just how far this board will push ram.

My first shot, DDR1200 5-6-6-15 2.4v

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...DR12002-4v.png

Then I had another go with DDR1260 5-6-6-15 2.4v

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...DR12602-4v.png

I then tried getting it to boot at DDR1280 5-6-6-15. I always got boot, however windows basically just rebooted the pc.

The one time I did get into Windows I opened a cpu-z window, and as taking the screenshot reboot :upset:

Also tightest timings which can be set with the foxconn board are

3-3-3-9

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...-3-9DDR667.png

Currently in this bios ram settings are DDR667/800 with ram voltage going all the way up to 2.995v.

Either way this board proves itself just with its ram overclocking abilities. However the P35 is good for such a thing.

I'm hoping they release a DDR3 version of this board, as I would like to see how much futher Foxconn can push ram :D

Anyway off again to see what I can get my next overclock settings at. :eek:

Anyway back for some good fsb clocking.

I was told by Foxconn that the board was tested up to 505FSB, and it was able to enter the OS.

I haven't been able to tweak this enough to enter the OS at 505FSB, but I have gotten it 505FSB from inside windows.

Firstly 500FSB

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...CIDE500FSB.png

Now for my 505FSB

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...CIDE505FSB.png

And I had 510FSB, however locked up near instantly. Still got the camera out and took a picture anyway. Might be able to make this stable yet :)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d6...CIDE510FSB.jpg

BIOS shots uploaded finally. Will post them in a minute.

reserving this post :)

Comments, Questions and anything you want me to test.... don't hesitate to ask :p:

those slots for other P35 boards is 16x/4x being the 2nd slot is electrically 4x, but what about this board?

the way CF works it isn't greatly hindered with 16x/4x config, but SLI needs both slots to be the same speed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LuckyNV

those slots for other P35 boards is 16x/4x being the 2nd slot is electrically 4x, but what about this board?

the way CF works it isn't greatly hindered with 16x/4x config, but SLI needs both slots to be the same speed.

---

From looking at the pci-e links attached to the slots there are 16x and 4x for the two slots.

So yes won't make the best SLi machine, but crossfire will be good :)

Nice cheap mobo
Any more result ? :D

It's a good low-end mobo, however there are just 4 memory timings that can be set in the bios - this is truly pathetic. I've found this mobo set my RAM's alpha timings too tight, which resulted in some major instability at a higher FSB. Moreover, the bios itself seems quite weird - at the very beginning it is not intuitive at all - setting a correct memory ratio is a real pain.

nice going skoot

i see the stick of RAM is doing well too :up:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by yotomeczek

Nice cheap mobo
Any more result ? :D

---

Yea

We ( Ryba, Sector, Matiz, Janio, Marta, me ) benching at this mobo on Chorzow and this is good Foxconn mobo with lot of options for V :D

Probably with some freez FSB 550MHz ( 550 x 10 ;) ) without problem :up:


Martin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DEVIL K-ce

Yea

We ( Ryba, Sector, Matiz, Janio, Marta, me ) benching at this mobo on Chorzow and this is good Foxconn mobo with lot of options for V :D

Probably with some freez FSB 550MHz ( 550 x 10 ;) ) without problem :up:


Martin

---

I think I should buy one ...

foxconn puts out a good mobo ...... but dont support bios upgrades .........
but still thinking about this board as my upgrade

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HDCHOPPER

foxconn puts out a good mobo ...... but dont support bios upgrades .........
but still thinking about this board as my upgrade

---

Huh? I bought this board about 4 weeks ago for my son's system and if you actually look on the Foxconn website, you will find several bios updates for this board. Bios P23 came out just a few days ago in fact.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/downloads.aspx

Search here is to get to the download page for this board. You really shouldn't post miss-info like that, at least do some sort of search first!

Shawn

price?

believe it or not, i thought abit board had the best layout but after looking at this board, the layout beats my abit hands down, probably one of the best layouts i have ever seen, they are suppose to have a really super highend p35 board coming out with mars bios or something, there was a preview on vr-zone.com

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NKD

believe it or not, i thought abit board had the best layout but after looking at this board, the layout beats my abit hands down, probably one of the best layouts i have ever seen, they are suppose to have a really super highend p35 board coming out with mars bios or something, there was a preview on vr-zone.com

---

Yeah that one had one of the best layouts I had ever seen....

And yes, supposedly at end of this month, their enthusiast Mars board is coming out with active cooling on the northbridge and a pretty impressive BIOS from the preview I saw

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shawn1998

Huh? I bought this board about 4 weeks ago for my son's system and if you actually look on the Foxconn website, you will find several bios updates for this board. Bios P23 came out just a few days ago in fact.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/downloads.aspx

Search here is to get to the download page for this board. You really shouldn't post miss-info like that, at least do some sort of search first!

Shawn

---

wellllllll it's nice to know thay finally support "a" board

:)
:)
:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zerazax

Yeah that one had one of the best layouts I had ever seen....

And yes, supposedly at end of this month, their enthusiast Mars board is coming out with active cooling on the northbridge and a pretty impressive BIOS from the preview I saw

---

yes very impressive vr-zone showthread

i really think foxconn is stepping up to the plate latly, their board desings are nothing but superb, and they are latly really supporting their baords with bios updates and stuff, well they make so many boards for others, no wonder they are layout experts. well another enthusiast brand is more than welcome.

wow, i just realized i am xtreme member, time to party, LOL.

I'm just amazed there's a board where having video cards of 2900XT/GTX size dont *gasp* cover a SATA slot...

And where RAM can be taken out without removing the video card...

What's the difference between the P35A and P35A-S?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zerazax

I'm just amazed there's a board where having video cards of 2900XT/GTX size dont *gasp* cover a SATA slot...

And where RAM can be taken out without removing the video card...

---

agree totally, i had an ultra and tried out the p5k-delux and with the stock ultra cooler it blocked four of the serial ata ports, i mean 4 ports i could not use. i guess asus didnt think anyone would use 8800 ultra with the board lol. or even if they did they assumed that one would swap out the cooler.

I was about to buy a P5K-E myself and having an Ultra would be a big no since it looks like its the same layout...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dogsx2

What's the difference between the P35A and P35A-S?

---

One has the ICH9R (P35A-S) and the other has the ICH9 chipset. Btw, new bios out, file name 6B3F1P24 dated 8-20. Follow the link and do a search.

http://www.foxconnchannel.com/support/downloads.aspx

Shawn

Any working clockgen for this mobo ?

any sli benches ot compare to a mid-low 650 chipset

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RaKLeZ

The company has big potential for sure, good they have entered the enthusiasts market...
But their software engineers should really pay more attention to what they do with bioses...
Let me show you what I mean by bios history for P35A/-S mb...

version
P19 - fixed multiplier issue, ok thx for that...
P30 - annoying post message added "Do you want to boot with overclocking settings press Y/N"
P32 - annoying message removed but multplier change feature broken again lol...
P33- fixed multiplier issue... CPU TM Function disappeared...
P34 - fixed CPU TM Function, but mb now doesn`t boot after unpluging power cord from electricity and pluging it again... only reset CMOS jumper helps...
P35 - Fixed Foxconn LOGO doesn't show when power on issue - oh what an important fix! :rofl: but mb still doesn`t boot, wake up foxconn...

I am just tired writing to their tech support which won`t answer me anyway... I don`t believe they are able to make one good bios for that mb...
I know many people related with foxconn are watching this thread, so could you mention them about this bios circus?

Funny thing is that a guy from polish forum flashed P35A-s budget mb with MARS bios and it works with all the gladiator features... lol... but you need a hardware programmer for that because from what I know there is no software which allows to flash Award bios on AMI. Or am I wrong, do you know any?:)

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by YogiCK

Foxconn P35A/P35A-S are not bad mainboards, but problems with its BIOSes are very strange.

---

Can someone help us with it??

Funny thing is that a guy from polish forum flashed P35A-s budget mb with MARS bios and it works with all the gladiator features... lol... but you need a hardware programmer for that because from what I know there is no software which allows to flash Award bios on AMI. Or am I wrong, do you know any?

this would be great ! eye finally got a MARS love ut ! my bro got the p35a & his hasent had any issues yet .... but if he could flash to mars bios he would

gotta admit bios updates/upgrade's from foxconn has improved greatly on this gen boards esp.. MARS !


ps: foxconn makes intel boards

The only problem with MARS BIOS on P35A is that you must have a hardware programer to flash it, the LPT connector doesn't working and the readings of voltages are bad.

But I still think that guys from Foxconn should make good BIOS for P35A. I don't like combine with BIOSes. It's not funny.

I'm an user from this forum where someone has flashed MARS BIOS. And I'm an author of FAQ about P35A on this forum (link in signature).

New bios D38 for P35a/-s - HERE!

Probably everything is ok. Motherboard does boot after o/c. I'm going to try it.

Check how is with o/c.