FOXCONN BlackOps X48 Motherboard
Test Setup and Overclocking
Published: 17th October 2008 | Source: Foxconn | Price: £255.01 |
To ensure that all reviews on Overclock3D are fair, consistent and unbiased, a standard set of hardware and software is used whenever possible during the comparative testing of two or more products. The configuration used in this review can be seen below:
To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities were used:
Synthetic CPU & Memory Subsystem
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
• Lavalys Everest 4.0
File Compression & Encoding
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark 05
• 3DMark 06
3D Games
• Call of Duty 4
• Quake 4
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
• Lavalys Everest 4.0
File Compression & Encoding
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark 05
• 3DMark 06
3D Games
• Call of Duty 4
• Quake 4
• Unreal Tournament 3
Overclocking
With so many options available, moderate overclocks were easily gained through the AUTO options and Level up configurations. Better overclocks were accomplished tweaking the Vcore/NB/VTT voltages.
You can see from the included CPU-Z screenshots (above) that the Foxconn BlackOps managed to extract a very reasonable overclock of 3.8GHz on my Q6600. This is made even more impressive by the fact that the Foxconn BlackOps managed to attain it with less voltage than required on the ASUS Rampage Extreme. The process of overclocking on the board was a pleasure too, with very little adjustments outside of the usual FSB, Vcore and Memory needing to be made. The BIOS also felt extremely mature and recovered extraordinarily well from failed overclock settings.
Dropping the multiplier to six, we set out to see how far we could push the FSB. I was expecting big things here from the Foxconn BlackOps, but it appears the motherboard doesn't like anything much over 450MHz on Quad-cores. This isn't too bad considering that most Quad's will top out around 470 - 500 FSB, and is no way a bad reflection on the motherboard - it's an overclocking beast. I did manage to get significantly better results from a dual-core.
During the benchmarking phase of the Foxconn BlackOps, our Q6600 'G0' stepping processor will be clocked to 3.6GHz to prevent any bottlenecking.
Let's head over the page to see how the Foxconn BlackOps performed in the benchmarks...
Most Recent Comments
It seems as slick as I thought it might have been. U`d really need to want one, and perhaps be a non-asus-fanboi, to go out and purchase it. The price is very high imo, and they do throw in a very very good package to help ease the wallet-pain.
Bios looks nice. Like the sound of the dual bios thing - now if u happened to completely screw the one bios via an update or something, can u flush it by booting to the other one ? Or flash it from the other one ? - now that`d be something special.
I`m curious about the fan mount on the nb. It blows down into the box... and the air goes where ? Down the pipe ? Out screw holes ?
I dunno tho, if ur hell-bent on the package as a whole and don`t want to pay £146 for a mobo that no1 in the western world has reviewed yet (even tho it`s been out for weeks and every1 is avoiding them like the plague - even out in Australia now
), then sink the extra £110.
Excellent review PV, tis a great package either way.
Bios looks nice. Like the sound of the dual bios thing - now if u happened to completely screw the one bios via an update or something, can u flush it by booting to the other one ? Or flash it from the other one ? - now that`d be something special.
I`m curious about the fan mount on the nb. It blows down into the box... and the air goes where ? Down the pipe ? Out screw holes ?
I dunno tho, if ur hell-bent on the package as a whole and don`t want to pay £146 for a mobo that no1 in the western world has reviewed yet (even tho it`s been out for weeks and every1 is avoiding them like the plague - even out in Australia now
), then sink the extra £110.Excellent review PV, tis a great package either way.
Hi Rast, and thanks for the feedback.
The package as you say is immense, and certainly makes the product as a whole stand out from the rest. I mean who else includes trim-pots ready for voltage modification and and a dry ice attachment for a NB cooling block lol. They (Foxconn) actively encourage users to clock the nuts off the thing.
Pricing is extremely high for both the UK and AUS, but prices are considerably more sedate in the US. So if you really wanted one as part of the ultimate bench rig then you can certainly save some money that way (customs/import duties may apply to UK though).
The fan attachment blows directly onto the cooling channels in the bottom of the block and the warm air escapes the best it can - screw holes or blow-back through the fan itself. The fan doesn't actually cover the whole of the block due to the fan shroud being square and the block being rectangular. Admittedly it's not perfect solution, but it's better than a purely passive approach
Thanks again for the comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the review
The package as you say is immense, and certainly makes the product as a whole stand out from the rest. I mean who else includes trim-pots ready for voltage modification and and a dry ice attachment for a NB cooling block lol. They (Foxconn) actively encourage users to clock the nuts off the thing.
Pricing is extremely high for both the UK and AUS, but prices are considerably more sedate in the US. So if you really wanted one as part of the ultimate bench rig then you can certainly save some money that way (customs/import duties may apply to UK though).
The fan attachment blows directly onto the cooling channels in the bottom of the block and the warm air escapes the best it can - screw holes or blow-back through the fan itself. The fan doesn't actually cover the whole of the block due to the fan shroud being square and the block being rectangular. Admittedly it's not perfect solution, but it's better than a purely passive approach
Thanks again for the comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the review
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Rastalovich'
Bios looks nice. Like the sound of the dual bios thing - now if u happened to completely screw the one bios via an update or something, can u flush it by booting to the other one ? Or flash it from the other one ? - now that`d be something special.
|
Great review as always PV.
Key thing - can u manage the one bios from the other ?
One Bios backs up the other so if one Bios becomes corrupt, you can still use the 2nd Bios which will flash the corrupt Bios.
I'm not sure whether you can utilise the 2nd bios with the foxconn board but with gigabyte and asus, the 2nd Bios was there for bios recovery only.
I'm not sure whether you can utilise the 2nd bios with the foxconn board but with gigabyte and asus, the 2nd Bios was there for bios recovery only.
Nice review pv, some cracking shots in there.
Ive been watching this board over on benchtec, very impressive results!
Ive been watching this board over on benchtec, very impressive results!
Nice review PV, great to see that Q6600 at that fsb... what batch is she? you wouldnt mind posting up the bios setting would you?
Nice review, overpriced, but very nice bundle. Its nice to see foxconn trying to break into the retail area. I've dealt with there business platform and OEM boards for a considerable ammount of years and I must say for stability and reliability its no wonder there the largest manufacturer of motherboards. I think its a bit fool hardy though to go straight for the top end boards, would of been nice to see some middle of the road boards or even a price competitive LGA1366 board may have got there rep up a bit. Nice to see a maybe a nice future motherboard contender thrown into the mix, extra competition is good for our wallets 
... lets hope theres more to come from foxconn
... lets hope theres more to come from foxconnlooks nice, i've always had a thing for foxconns , its good to see them competing with the heavyweights in the OCing world, even if the price is a tad frightening
, its good to see them competing with the heavyweights in the OCing world, even if the price is a tad frightening
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