FOXCONN Launches BLACKOPS Intel X48 Enthusiast Motherboard

[Donnie27]

Well, I used my 3870 in both my 16x and 4x slot and I got this:

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...vv/16xvs4x.jpg

So in a crossfire setup, wouldnt the second card also be crippled like this?

Death to 4x PCI-E slots please

There are a few X48's with two slots for around £150, but that is still a bit too much, and the X38's are terrible overclockers.

If I had the cash I would go ahead and buy an X48, but I am still hoping we can get a sub £100 budget version like the 650i / 750i but for crossfire.

No. Even if the number 2 card is crippled, you still get a nice Boost. Like some AMD Fanboy who says he doesn't like Intel's Business Practices, I don't like nVidia's. I don't like their chipsets either. Games are a sideline issue for me and I prefer Intel Chips over nVidia. I'll put up with Slower CF and AMD's open-ness about CrossFire over nVidia's BS any day. I don't really game enough to justify Intel or nVidia expensive boards or high-end Video Card/s.

Unless we're talking Xtreme Overclocking, then most (X38's) are not terrible overclockers. Many of us have 24/7 Air overclocks and never need higher FSB that Extreme Air, LN or chilled water needs I like other people racing the Cars and Computers while I drive both of mine safely.

My Cheap Gigabyte Boards is wayyyyyy better than the Foxconn P35A.

Last but not least, any 3DMarks is useless since it doesn't correspond to any real world Game.

[Mungri]

Last but not least, any 3DMarks is useless since it doesn't correspond to any real world Game.

Oh but I believe it does. A lower score in 3D mark does indeed mean slower performance all round in your games (likewise higher score = better performance).

4x PCI-E lanes are a bottleneck for current graphics cards. While a crossfire setup on a P35 will give you a nice performance boost, it still wont be as good as an X48 and two full 16x lanes. But just buying an X48 for two full 16x lanes isnt worth the cost if that is the only extra feature I am wanting to upgrade to.

Regardless of Nvidias recent practice which I am also not a fan off, they can at least offer boards in the budget range with two 16x slots, I dont see why Intel / AMD cant do this.

Right now with Crossfire, you have to spend £150-£200 if you want full speed crossfire and a decent overclocking board, something that Nvidia can at least do with SLI for £50-60.

[RPGWiZaRD]

I really like the new Foxconn which started evolving into enthusiast market SERIOUSLY since Shamino joined and have had some innovative ideas as far as motherboard market goes. These boards are way out of my budget but at least it's free to admire them.

For around $400 that's a pretty good deal (just look at ASUS...) concidering you get a Sonar sound card and other nifty features. Plus Blackops isn't that bad name either.

[Donnie27]

Oh but I believe it does. A lower score in 3D mark does indeed mean slower performance all round in your games (likewise higher score = better performance).

4x PCI-E lanes are a bottleneck for current graphics cards. While a crossfire setup on a P35 will give you a nice performance boost, it still wont be as good as an X48 and two full 16x lanes. But just buying an X48 for two full 16x lanes isnt worth the cost if that is the only extra feature I am wanting to upgrade to.

Regardless of Nvidias recent practice which I am also not a fan off, they can at least offer boards in the budget range with two 16x slots, I dont see why Intel / AMD cant do this.

Right now with Crossfire, you have to spend £150-£200 if you want full speed crossfire and a decent overclocking board, something that Nvidia can at least do with SLI for £50-60.

In what games? None the game engine demos correspond to any game on the market. Each Game engine favors different GPU's, Different AI favors different processors, some like IMC, some like large Cache, some combination of the above and finally some like all of this. I've rigs win 3DMarks on to be trashed in real world games. It's only Value is in testing like systems to see if they're set up correctly and torture testing for stability. Anything beyond that is a waste=P

nVidia wants to sell a chip to enable SLI and blocks it as best they for everyone else, including ATI boards, not just Intel. This is anti-competition that makes even Creative Labs look like Open Source Linux guys. I refuse to support them and the rest of THIS MARKET should Demand better from them.

It is not a question of slots, two X16 slots are barely faster than two X8 slots. There is a bottleneck for most games running 16X and 4X and I wish I can remember the site that ran two cards and not BS of running one like Toms did.

[Donnie27]

4x PCI-E lanes are a bottleneck for current graphics cards. While a crossfire setup on a P35 will give you a nice performance boost, it still wont be as good as an X48 and two full 16x lanes. But just buying an X48 for two full 16x lanes isnt worth the cost if that is the only extra feature I am wanting to upgrade to.

BTW, where are you getting the X38 info?

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._x38_dq6/3.htm

A closer look at the PCI area shows that the two PCI-Express 16x slots are far enough apart to put two high end cards with coolers into your computer, which is important if you plan on using Crossfire or SLI. You also should have access to at least one PCI-Express 1x and one PCI slot even if you have two huge video cards.

(Go to GIGABYTE's website for the latest CPU support list.) L2 cache varies with CPU 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz FSB

That long maximus thread is hoot as well LOL!

[THRASHER2]

DROOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great job on the MotherBoard

[dread77]

OK, Hipro already taught us a couple of things regarding this board. Though, does anyone know WHEN and from WHERE we can get one or two of these sweeties????

[Mungri]

BTW, where are you getting the X38 info?

I'm getting the X38 info based on the fact that X48's are nothing other then hand picked X38's which overclock better. If there was nothing wrong with the X38's in the first place, then why do we need X48's?

P35's were great from the start. They havnt required replacing in such a short time frame as the X38 did. There were a lot of problems on most X38's and they could barely overclock anywhere above an FSB of 400 Mhz.

I think that the chances of getting a decent clocking X38 were exceptionally slim. Some overclocked yes, but the majority couldnt get anywhere close to what P35's were capable of.

The X48's now are basically the hand picked X38's that were capable of great overclocks. The remaining X38's are just atrocious.

In that review on the gigabyte you posted, I only see them overclocking it to an FSB of 350 mhz lol???? Am I missing something here?

I am talking about 500+ FSB overclocks, not a measly 350 Mhz. My MSI P35 can do up to 530 Mhz on air, find me an X38 that can do that

The X48 is supposedly able to be overclocked to this kind of a level, but I havnt actually seen any results yet to confirm this either, but I am believing that it does, particularly this foxconn board. If it doesnt then ........ wait, let me see results first please!!!

[ZillaPct]

this is the best mainboard on x48

the final version is very good, peter nice work

[Donnie27]

I'm getting the X38 info based on the fact that X48's are nothing other then hand picked X38's which overclock better. If there was nothing wrong with the X38's in the first place, then why do we need X48's?

P35's were great from the start. They havnt required replacing in such a short time frame as the X38 did. There were a lot of problems on most X38's and they could barely overclock anywhere above an FSB of 400 Mhz.

I think that the chances of getting a decent clocking X38 were exceptionally slim. Some overclocked yes, but the majority couldnt get anywhere close to what P35's were capable of.

The X48's now are basically the hand picked X38's that were capable of great overclocks. The remaining X38's are just atrocious.

In that review on the gigabyte you posted, I only see them overclocking it to an FSB of 350 mhz lol???? Am I missing something here?

I am talking about 500+ FSB overclocks, not a measly 350 Mhz. My MSI P35 can do up to 530 Mhz on air, find me an X38 that can do that

The X48 is supposedly able to be overclocked to this kind of a level, but I havnt actually seen any results yet to confirm this either, but I am believing that it does, particularly this foxconn board. If it doesnt then ........ wait, let me see results first please!!!

OK, thanks for the reply. That review wasn't meant for overclocking but for Two Video card info. 400MHz is 1600MHz effective about 3.6GHz some folks are about 450MHz FSB and not the lowly 350 they talked about.

All P38's aren't the same. Some are heavy duty and some are barebones or budget models. Example;

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/15...38-quadgt.html
Core 2 Duo E6750, rather than a 2.66GHz CPU.
Abit IX38 QuadGT

Overclocking was a much more rewarding experience. Slightly increasing the FSB voltage, and increasing the CPU voltage to 1.525V allowed us to push our CPU to its limit of 3.66GHz, with an FSB of 458MHz (1,832 effective). This boosted the GIMP and video encoding scores to a very respectable 1,306 and 1,325 respectively, which is almost equal to the scores of the Asus. However, the multitasking test was again slow, dragging the overall score down to 1,164. The Asus P5K Premium WiFi-AP scores 1,307 overall, as it doesn't make a meal of the multitasking test.

Just like processors, all chipsets are not created Equal and some boards will out do the exact same model. 500MHz FSB? Sure if I drop the multiplier LOL!

[Mungri]

Well I need a 500 FSB to run my Ram at 1000 Mhz along with my CPU at 4.25 Ghz

The multiplier needs dropping yes, but at least both my CPU and ram are able to perform at their best.

Alternatively I can use a 450-475 FSB with a 9x multiplier, but slower ram. But I like it all going as fast as it possibly can, isnt that what overclocking is about? i'll happily take a board that can overclock over 500 FSB then one that costs 2.5 times as much and can barely get to 450 Mhz unless you get a lucky one.

But the fact remained that X38's were worse clockers then the far cheaper P35. A lot of people like me would not pay the extra for an X38 if we can just get a P35 for cheap that overclocks much more.

Also, the Abit IX38 QuadGT had a terrible bios on release, and I'm not sure if it has been improved yet. Very few people were even able to reach 400 Mhz FSB on that board, getting one that could reach 450 Mhz was probably a 1 in 20 chance.

With the P35, you buy a decent one, and it does 500 Mhz FSB out of the box

I havnt yet seen anyone with a Neo 2 unable to reach 500 Mhz FSB as long as their hardware is able to, and that is a £66 or $89 on newegg motherboard

[dread77]

That's what X38 & X48 is about!!! Higher fsb and stable o/c. I have tested three X38 boards (Abit IX38 QuadGT, Maximus Extreme, P5E3 WS Pro) and they all went pretty higher than 500 (520-565).
The one and only negative in those chips is the temperature, which is higher than P35. So if you want a highly overclocked system, you have to add a w/c system to your budget

[Mungri]

That's what X38 & X48 is about!!! Higher fsb and stable o/c. I have tested three X38 boards (Abit IX38 QuadGT, Maximus Extreme, P5E3 WS Pro) and they all went pretty higher than 500 (520-565).
The one and only negative in those chips is the temperature, which is higher than P35. So if you want a highly overclocked system, you have to add a w/c system to your budget

Yes, you see, those X38's that you got that were capable of over 500 Mhz FSB are now the X38 chips that are being picked for X48 boards

The remaining X38's on the market right now recieve chips that arent worthy of going onto an X48, meaning that there must be something wrong with them. Knowing this, I still wouldnt buy an X38, I would rather just spend a little more and buy an X48 knowing that they are recieving the better chips, if I had that much money to spend on a motherboard, or spend less and get a P35. Either way, the X38 isn not an attractive purchase in the current market.

The X38 was a hit or miss for overclocking, and a lot of people with early samples got a miss.

I am eagerly awaiting some overclock reviews for the X48's (and the P45's, but thats another thread :p) to see how they do.

[Lu(ky]

Yes, you see, those X38's that you got that were capable of over 500 Mhz FSB are now the X38 chips that are being picked for X48 boards

The remaining X38's on the market right now recieve chips that arent worthy of going onto an X48, meaning that there must be something wrong with them. Knowing this, I still wouldnt buy an X38, I would rather just spend a little more and buy an X48 knowing that they are recieving the better chips, if I had that much money to spend on a motherboard, or spend less and get a P35. Either way, the X38 isn not an attractive purchase in the current market.

The X38 was a hit or miss for overclocking, and a lot of people with early samples got a miss.

I am eagerly awaiting some overclock reviews for the X48's (and the P45's, but thats another thread :p) to see how they do.

When you say great OCers you mean QX9650 chips or e8400 dual cores or both?

[Donnie27]

Yes, you see, those X38's that you got that were capable of over 500 Mhz FSB are now the X38 chips that are being picked for X48 boards

The remaining X38's on the market right now recieve chips that arent worthy of going onto an X48, meaning that there must be something wrong with them. Knowing this, I still wouldnt buy an X38, I would rather just spend a little more and buy an X48 knowing that they are recieving the better chips, if I had that much money to spend on a motherboard, or spend less and get a P35. Either way, the X38 isn not an attractive purchase in the current market.

The X38 was a hit or miss for overclocking, and a lot of people with early samples got a miss.

I am eagerly awaiting some overclock reviews for the X48's (and the P45's, but thats another thread :p) to see how they do.

But in many cases you defeat the reason for overclocking in the first place. If you spend all that money to get a higher overclock, you could have just bought a more expensive processor and overclocked it a little LOL! j/k

Unless you're working at the Intel Chip Set foundry, I want some proof=P

I chat with at least 5 people using 4 different X38's and all of them are at 4.1GHz or better for 24/7 overclocks. I see many here doing the same. Two of these guys bought them when they were NEW, sfirst shipments and fresh from the factory. One has a suicide shot of 4.6GHz LOL! The last are brand new on Gigabyte and One DFI. Chip set heat and RAM seem to be the biggest hold back and that has nothing to with the rest of the Board. I wished they'd build a Socket mountable chip set mount and cooler

I saw a Newbi overclocker running a 3GHz Wolfie at 3.6GHz and he was happy as a Monkey with a Peanut machine to quote George Clinton. His rig costs him less than half of what he paid for an Athlon X2-4600+ just 2.5 short years ago. He didn't overclock because he didn't know how, he didn't because his WOULDn't overclock more than 66MHz LOL!

Again, there are budget boards not meant to be overclocked and not beefed up like OC-able ones are. AFAIK, there aren't any Dud X38's sold on boards meant for overclockers. I've NOT seen any.

[Donnie27]

That's what X38 & X48 is about!!! Higher fsb and stable o/c. I have tested three X38 boards (Abit IX38 QuadGT, Maximus Extreme, P5E3 WS Pro) and they all went pretty higher than 500 (520-565).
The one and only negative in those chips is the temperature, which is higher than P35. So if you want a highly overclocked system, you have to add a w/c system to your budget

But come on guys isn't this a case of Nit-Picking gone wild? We have folks talking about a 30 to 37% overclock on a Processor that's 3GHz at stock and being what? Hell, at stock it is faster than any Dual Core Processor that shipped last year, out overclocks last years' best on even the cheap boards for what. 200 to 210 dollars? Blackops has for enthusiasts written all over it. The problem is Foxconn (and the rest selling such products) think Enthusiast means Suckers with more money than Brains.

So what are we talking about here 4.4GHz instead of 4.2GHz? At over 4GHz how could we tell if the Processor is 3 or 4 hundred MHz Faster? Sure our wallet can tell the difference LOL! Blackops will cost what again for that extra 200 or 300MHz?

[Lu(ky]

But in many cases you defeat the reason for overclocking in the first place. If you spend all that money to get a higher overclock, you could have just bought a more expensive processor and overclocked it a little LOL!

Not true because I just just bought a New QX9650 when I already had a Q6600 thinking I would be able to OC like mad on my new Asus Striker II Extreme. So far it is easier to OC my Q6600 rather then my QX9650 chip... My QX9650 requires more Vcore to get stable at 4.0GHz... Everything all depends on stepping, cooling etc.

[Mungri]

Ah, heres the review that I based my initial opinions on the X38's on:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi..._quadgt/21.htm

Cons - Hard Wall at 400 FSB (CPU); 500 FSB (Memory)

But reading this more recent review:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3134&p=4

However, from all indications, the X38 boards are starting to mature with the latest BIOS releases. In fact, the number of BIOS releases we have received for the seven boards we have on-hand has left our heads spinning the past few days. We continue to believe this chipset has great potential and only needs further BIOS maturity; certainly, it is the chipset to have for CrossFire performance based on current test results.

Blame it on the Bios XD

But currently I am waiting for MSI to create a P45 based P35 Neo - 2 successor, that will be my next board for sure if they ever make one. I like to buy cheap things and make them run fast :p

[dread77]

So what are we talking about here 4.4GHz instead of 4.2GHz? At over 4GHz how could we tell if the Processor is 3 or 4 hundred MHz Faster? Sure our wallet can tell the difference LOL! Blackops will cost what again for that extra 200 or 300MHz?

You are missing the point man, I don't give a f..k what Foxconn and all other brands out there, think of their customers. O/C is a hobby for me, is a way enjoying my free time when I am not playing with my son.
If blackops can give 0.9Hz more than Maximus Extreme, I will sell my ME and buy blackops and when ME II comes out I wll sell blackops and buy that one. Simple like that.

[Lu(ky]

But in many cases you defeat the reason for overclocking in the first place. If you spend all that money to get a higher overclock, you could have just bought a more expensive processor and overclocked it a little LOL! j/k

Unless you're working at the Intel Chip Set foundry, I want some proof=P

I chat with at least 5 people using 4 different X38's and all of them are at 4.1GHz or better for 24/7 overclocks. I see many here doing the same. Two of these guys bought them when they were NEW, sfirst shipments and fresh from the factory. One has a suicide shot of 4.6GHz LOL! The last are brand new on Gigabyte and One DFI. Chip set heat and RAM seem to be the biggest hold back and that has nothing to with the rest of the Board. I wished they'd build a Socket mountable chip set mount and cooler

I saw a Newbi overclocker running a 3GHz Wolfie at 3.6GHz and he was happy as a Monkey with a Peanut machine to quote George Clinton. His rig costs him less than half of what he paid for an Athlon X2-4600+ just 2.5 short years ago. He didn't overclock because he didn't know how, he didn't because his WOULDn't overclock more than 66MHz LOL!

Again, there are budget boards not meant to be overclocked and not beefed up like OC-able ones are. AFAIK, there aren't any Dud X38's sold on boards meant for overclockers. I've NOT seen any.

But come on guys isn't this a case of Nit-Picking gone wild? We have folks talking about a 30 to 37% overclock on a Processor that's 3GHz at stock and being what? Hell, at stock it is faster than any Dual Core Processor that shipped last year, out overclocks last years' best on even the cheap boards for what. 200 to 210 dollars? Blackops has for enthusiasts written all over it. The problem is Foxconn (and the rest selling such products) think Enthusiast means Suckers with more money than Brains.

So what are we talking about here 4.4GHz instead of 4.2GHz? At over 4GHz how could we tell if the Processor is 3 or 4 hundred MHz Faster? Sure our wallet can tell the difference LOL! Blackops will cost what again for that extra 200 or 300MHz?

I love it when peps complain on how other people spend there money that they do not have

[Donnie27]

I love it when peps complain on how other people spend there money that they do not have

Maybe cause I spend money on more than computer?

[Donnie27]

You are missing the point man, I don't give a f..k what Foxconn and all other brands out there, think of their customers. O/C is a hobby for me, is a way enjoying my free time when I am not playing with my son.
If blackops can give 0.9Hz more than Maximus Extreme, I will sell my ME and buy blackops and when ME II comes out I wll sell blackops and buy that one. Simple like that.

Why so defensive? Did I flame or offend you?

[[XC] Lead Head]

So what? Thats you, people here have money they put aside to spend on their computers. Plus your on the wrong forum if your about getting value per your dollar

[Donnie27]

So what? Thats you, people here have money they put aside to spend on their computers. Plus your on the wrong forum if your about getting value per your dollar

Whatever

[Neuuubeh]

interesting mobo, eager to see first forum reviews .

offtopic, but why do people keep repeating "this is xtremesystems, we dont care about price/noise/power consumption", where is that written in the rules :p