Foxconn X38A LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: It looks way better when you get it then in the pictures, really! Very large heatsinks, and comes with a North Bridge fan. To learn how to install the fan read "Other Thoughts" below. Installation was simple. I slotted in Geil 2GB 4-4-4-12 memory, and it defaulted to I think 7-7-7-18, now some people think that's bad, but think of it this way, if you got higher latency RAM, you have a better chance of getting your POST. It's very simple to go in to the BIOS and set the latency's to the correct value. I put in a Core 2 Quad 6600 also, everything booted perfectly first try. This is the best motherboad I have owned in my whole life. Also this thing, of course, has PCI-E 2.0, as it is an X38 chipset.

Cons: The colors aren't exactly beautiful on the motherboard, but hey, who cares I don't stare at the inside of my case all day long I prefer to stare at the monitor! RAM didn't default to correct timings, but who cares?

Overall Review: Please don't give this product a low rating when you haven't even tested it and claim that the capacitors will blow up on you, it's just not fair. Here's how to install the North Bridge fan, as I think some people are a little baffled as to how to do it: set the motherboard on your bench or a flat clean surface that you think can support it, now face it like you would when you're putting in an expansion card, the I/O ports to the right of you and at the top. Now look at the North Bridge heatsink, the one that has "Foxconn" on it, get out your fan and put it on the right side of the heatsink, not the top or bottom of it, but the RIGHT SIDE. Also make sure you have it aligned correctly, there should be a clip at the very top of the fan. Now gently slide the fan onto the heatsink. You should hear a lot of clicking noises and after that push gently or inspect it to make sure all the clips have been pushed in. Now connect the fan to the 3-pin fan connector on the motherboard. That's it

Pros: Great motherboard. Very stable. A Solid performer. This new eye candy is a real treat for over-clocking and hardcore gamers. The Foxconn X38A motherboard offers everything you could want out of an Intel X38 Express chipset based board. After you get past all the standard X38 features such as dual Lan, HD 7.1 audio, PCIe-Gen 2.0, the board goes the extra mile of adding in dual ram compatibility. Foxconn also includes an optional fan for the Northbridge heatsink to help cool the heatpipes. However, the included fan becomes almost necessary to use if you have a case with low airflow, or water-cooling. That little included fan runs at 5330 rpm. POST on first try. System runs at a balmy 32C.

Cons: The BIOS was made by AMI and has no shortage of options. However, one minor complaint exists in the BIOS area. Most of the menus tile down into submenu after submenu. This is not a bad thing, but if you choose to take the route to OC, you will have to sift through an endless task of submenus to try to configure anything. In the manual, the LED Debug codes don't offer a clue as to what they actually mean. I didn't need to use them but it would be nice to know their purpose. The Quick Install image poster may cause a problem for the novice builder, as it doesn't supply enough photos for hardware placement on the motherboard.

Overall Review: Foxconn went that extra mile when designing this motherboard. It has tons of features and the added piece of mind of future upgradeability. A real winner in my book. This mobo should last me a long, long time. I'll have the option for an upgrade to 45nm processor, And when prices come down on the DDR3, I'll have that option to go for the faster memory. I Built this new with a C2D E6850; 8GB A-Data DDR2 800; Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W PSU; 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB HDD's; XFXforce AlphaDog GF 8800GT, Windows Vista 64 Ultimate. No hangups... No hiccups.

Pros: The board is extremely well laid out. I was able to manage all cables in my XaserVI case with minimal effort for a super clean build.

Cons: Cons are numerous. It is the worst manual I have encountered. Explanations are minimal or non existent along with poor English translations. (so what's new?) Bios are difficult to navigate. I had high hopes for a monster OC with this board after reading several reviews. DDR2 ram proved to be the better of the two options but anything over 400-430 FSB with QX9650 was not stable. I used the same chip and ram in a Gigabyte x38 and had far better results. I spent hours researching and tweaking all values in voltage and timing options and could not obtain satisfactory results. DDR3 with this board was a total bust. Foxconn manufactures boards for lots of companies and I have had generally good results with those. Of course all boards are different and I accept that this board may not be representative of the others in circulation. I would not recommend this board simply because there are much better platforms out that are easier to work with.

Overall Review: I'm replacing this with an Asus or Evga 790i. Maybe Foxconn tried to cover too much ground with DDR2 and 3 compatability.

Pros: The board post on a first try. Without overclocking it runs very stable. Easy to restore BIOS settings to default (while overclocking, board may not post if you go too far). PCI-E v2, DDR2 & DDR3 support. If correctly overclocked will run stable under correct overclock.

Cons: The BIOS manual is a joke, but who cares (if you want to tweak a BIOS you should know what are you doing.:) The only real con that I can see: No codes for debug LED (didn't try to find them, no need for me, but fore some one it may be really a big con.)

Overall Review: If you overclocking make sure to get a latest BIOS, and change PCI clock to 33 (Default is auto and it may lead you to have a very unstable system.) I have Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz -easy OC it to 3.4GHz, can go up to 3.9Ghz (I try and it works very stable under full load.) but I think it may kill my CPU and/or RAM/board in a short time: 3-18month so I step back to 3.4.)

Pros: Solidly built, lots of sata ports and there is a rest button directly on the mb so when tweaking you don't have to just power down and back on manually.

Cons: BIOS that came on it was not compatible with Quad Core processors. Good thing I had an extra that I could yank out of another computer so that I could update the BIOS and then put the Quad back in.

Overall Review: Agreed with other reviews, the board does not have a good "curb appeal". Ugly, but seems to perform well.

Pros: As stated on 3/8/2008 5:56:36 AM, and also - the new 4/2/08 BIOS (P09) is a much needed improvement - the issue of BIOS settings getting wiped seems to happen much less often

Cons: The BIOS is probably still only 95% where it needs to be. My list of recommendations for Foxconn are: 1) make the memory timing settings be individually set to "Auto". Since TWR, TRFC, TWTR, TRRD, and TRTP can all calculated for optimal settings, you should be able to manually tweak TCL, TRCD, TRP, and TRAS and leave the others on an "auto" setting. 2) spend the time to put out a decent manual 3) change the color scheme and make it consistent 4) publish a buglist and bugfix readme for new BIOS releases.

Overall Review: The memory issue I spoke of before was not the board but the memory I was using - had a bad stick that has since been RMA'd. Memory is now maxed out manually on the EPP settings (4-4-4-12 @ 400). Board is completely stable. Using E6750, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (which is tight fit with memory in slot 1 - if the memory was taller with an exotic heat shield the AC7Pro wouldn't fit w/o modding), PCP&C Silencer 750 PSU, Foxconn 8800GTS 640M ONOC. In case anyone is interested my full stable memory timings are 4-4-4-12-6-42-3-3-3 for TCL, TRCD, TRP, TRAS, TWR, TRFC, TWTR, TRRD, and TRTP.

Pros: Everything this board promises to provide. By rights, it should be a smoking unit!

Cons: It's a smoking unit! Bios has issues - forgets settings. Could only oc my Q6600 to 2.6ghz from 2.4 stock. Then . . . it started hanging on post multiple times (after I set it back to defaults) and finally on the 5th day of owning it, it refused to pass post at all (wouldn't even get up the logo splash). Beeped erratically out of the onboard speaker. Manual is poor.

Pros: - X38 Chipset - ICH9R South Bridge supports Intel Matrix RAID - Supports both DDR2 and DDR3 - Crossfire support at 2x16 - Ferrite chokes and solid state capacitors - great board layout - 45nm Wolfdale support - fast and stable... as long as you're not overclocking

Cons: - immature BIOS (as of F05) - can't overclock DDR2 memory at all (in my case) - weak SB/NB/Mosfet cooling, even though it's a heatpipe

Overall Review: The worst thing about this board by far is the BIOS. Don't get me wrong though - as long as you're not in there trying to tweak it and just want a fast, feature rich X38 board, this thing's awesome. For me though, the memory section of the BIOS is very weak and won't allow me to get my Corsair 2x1G 6400C4 set past the 400 JDEC setting... at all. Also, the memory voltage steps up in odd increments instead of letting you bump it up one tick at a time. It lets me jack up and run my E6750 up in the 400*8 range no problem, but touch the memory and it hangs. Overall I'm very happy with it. Not being able to OC the memory isn't such a big deal since my plan was to buy cheap DDR2 now and upgrade to faster DDR3 once prices stabilize. There's a LOT of upgrade potential in this board, so if you're moving up from an X2 or older, this is a great buy. You can go cheap on memory and CPU and still be much faster than your current system.