Foxconn Blood Rage - If Looks Could Kill (UPDATE)
by Rajinder Gill on January 2, 2009 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
First Impressions
We've only been using this board for a few days and although there are some issues, there's nothing fatally wrong that can't be fixed with some BIOS updates. In fact, this is the only BIOS we've had so far from Foxconn. That might sound bad to you, but compared to what we've seen from everyone else over the past two months it's incredible they've got the board to this point so fast on a couple of beta-grade BIOS releases. Foxconn confirmed to us they are working on a new BIOS that they are testing in-house rather than pushing it out to the users for immediate beta testing.
The big problem for enthusiast type overclockers at this point is that they may have to use the "Force Reset" option to an extent that prevents the board from being suitable for placement inside a closed PC case. If you are not experiencing this issue, please let us know. Out of the three boards we've tested in our labs, we have not found a combination of parts that gets around it.
Other than that, the AEGIS panel needs to work as advertised. We installed everything to the letter and found ourselves at a dead end for making voltage adjustments with it. We're not sure if it's a simple fix, as OS level incompatibilities seem to be too diverse and inconsistent for logic at times. Without these tools working consistently or support from third parties, this board may never realize its full benchmarking pedigree. Pushing processors way out of spec often leads to mandatory operating system level parameter adjustments, so there's no point in having the brawn without the means to use it.
In terms of peripherals, we've had no problems plugging in and using USB devices, SATA HDD/Optical drives, graphics cards, audio cards, or anything else of that nature. Further testing is ongoing and will be discussed in the full review if we find anything problematic.
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We'll sum up by saying that there's no doubt the Blood Rage has some of the finest components we've ever seen used on a motherboard. The specifications for the CPU and memory power supply are so outlandish that you'd expect the board to be able to run dual processors and double the supported amount of memory with relative ease. Some spit and polish to the software side of things is what's needed to justify those component choices though. Don't get us wrong, it's far better to have an over-engineered product that needs a little work than it is to have an under-engineered product needing any kind of work at all.
While we're hopeful fixes will be forthcoming, speed is of the essence. There are competitor boards available at a similar price point with the promise of just as much overclockability for air- and water-cooling users. Not to mention that the masses want out of the box functionality over anything else. Anyone who can find additional headroom or a consistent edge in those departments while simultaneously satisfying the needs of benchmarking fanatics will be a real winner. Recent in lab tests comparing several boards have shown that the final 2-5% of Nehalem overclocking comes down to all important Uncore voltage scaling when using the i7 920 class of processors. If you're looking at teaming Intel's cheapest Nehalem offering with a 2000MHz memory kit, you'll want a board that can provide scaling at the lowest possible Uncore voltages. While there are processors out there with better IMC's than others, we've found that the boards do play a part in unleashing the full potential of a Nehalem CPU. We'll find out this month if this board will be the one to provide headroom that users will expect in this price bracket, although it appears that DFI will have something to say about it.
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strikeback03 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Being "brand centric" is being a fanboi if you don't even consider other competing brands. The motherboard gods did not reach down and bless abit, Asus, Gigabyte, etc, with good reliable motherboards; they are the result of good decisions in design and support from the companies. These companies do produce the occasional problem product, and there is nothing stopping them from deciding to cut costs and ride their reputation for a while while producing substandard merchandise (see: Sony). At the same time ECS, Foxconn, etc could decide to dedicate the resources to produce good boards and support themselves, and in time they would have a good reputation. Every product needs to be judged on its own merits, not just the company reputation.As far as this board goes, the layout should make it obvious that this is not really a general-purpose board, but a benchmarkers delight. So as Raja mentioned, pressing the reset button isn't a huge deal if the board isn't in a case. The data is there to draw conclusions from based on each reader's needs.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - link
Being brand centric might mean you're a 'fanboi' if you're you. I however have larger issues to consider, such as customers to please, and support.The 'motherboard gods' do bless companies who put a bit of effort into their product, although you could also think of that as the company being thorough. Every company does have problem products I will agree with that, but time after time again, and it is time to call a lemon, a lemon. As for judging a product by its own merits, I could not agree more, that said there are companies whom have already been named who do put out quality products time , and time again. All you have to do is ask any professional, and I bet if you did not know already it would not be hard to figure out. *hint* Asus does not enter the picture.
Also, I could care less if this is an "benchmarking board", for $300 usd it had better work right, and maybe even serve me coffee in the morning. People such as myself are tired of paying a premium for "quality" parts, only to become a paying beta tester. Now, if Foxconn had a reputation for giving good support, this whole conversation would be moot. As it stands, I can go to the competition and get a rock solid board with excellent support if needed for half the price.
Maybe it is time someone started doing reviews on the average every day system board/parts most people would use instead of wasting every ones time reviewing a niche product that obviously is not going to sell well. To add insult to injury, we see these same kind of reviews _all_the_frigging_time_ here, it would be nice to have a change.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Thanks StrikeBack..Updated first page btw with a para at the top - Foxconn appear to have fixed the issue. I'll be checking this out for myself. They had to change 3 SMT resistors on their boards to rectify it. It only affects some of the high power supplies over 1000W, which many of the people who buy boards like these seem to have - although not all of the PSU's appear to have the issue.
Sorry for the inconvienience caused btw..
later
Raja
7Enigma - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Thank you as well from me for the update. I was hard on this article earlier in the comments (and still stand by them), but thank you for the update. I can see now why you were not as gung-ho to bash on the mobo (as not everyone was having problems with it), but I still feel the criticism towards the product was warranted.It is a shame that RMA is required and not just a bios fix. I'm hoping they at least pay shipping both ways....
Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - link
That's Ok. You live and learn. It was a mixture of getting something up fast and not having enough feedback that prompted the format. The Bloodrage is quite a niche product so it can take a while to get sufficient feedback from users in the wild before you can really say soemthing is seriously wrong. Even though our PSU's threw curve balls, similar units from users and in labs have not - go figure, (where do you go from there?) Anyway, I'm glad they're on it and have nailed it. My sample board here is a rev. 1.0 btw, I'm not sure if the updated boards have a different rev number yet - I'll ask.WIth the PSU swap it's a completely different board. I'm running through the regular daily testing atm rebooting, overclocking etc and not one problem since making the PSU change.
Again, sorry for the rigmorale folks. Foxconn have been great over the past few days answering everything within minutes mostly. Thank Sascha @ Foxconn support!
regards
Raja
Gasaraki88 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Thanks for the update. =)Rajinder Gill - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
If any one reading this has an afflicted board/PSU combo;http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p...">http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p...
later
Raja
yyrkoon - Sunday, January 4, 2009 - link
It is a shame companies like this still litter the market with junk motherboards, and companies such as ABIT who at least once in a while make a few decent boards go out of the business. To be perfectly honest though, I have been using ABIT since the early to mid 90's, and their boards have ALWAYS served me well.I guess I will be moving to Gigabyte, it sure will not be foxconn.
hooflung - Sunday, January 4, 2009 - link
While I won't lay the blame completely at Anandtech's feet I feel these articles are just reader fodder in the sense that any news is good news. Review after review from this site and others the consensus is X-58 motherboards suck. Despite the quality of the components. Despite the quality of the build. Despite the quality of the spec's and engineering of Intel's chipset and cpu... these boards are just plain quirky.If AMD did this we'd have a complete AMD motherboard review that criticized the company left, right and center and point out how good Intel is. Seriously guys... I'd rather read about how good P45 chips are doing and a review of companies who gave the best amount of bios and mobo support throughout the product cycle than late breaking news on how much potential a motherboard could have with a few tweaks.
Also, Foxconn is crap for supporting their motherboards. I have their 780G mini-atx and the NIC died on me after a Vista Realtek 8111B driver update to the point NO OS would install an official realtec, official foxconn or opensource driver even though the chip is seen by all OSs. Foxconn responded for a week to me via email with broken English requests to try xyz that I already did, and explained to them, and then asked ME to contact Microsoft and Realtek to inquire into what might have happened to the Realtek August 2008 Vista 64 driver updates. I mean... ok. Yeah... one guy with a warrantied board asking these companies... or a multi-million dollar partner. Which one is more likely to get a response?
Screw Foxconn... screw all these bloody half-baked Intel X58 mobo reviews and get down to what many people crave. Real company insight in an unbiased fashion. Get back to the basics and quite this techfodder.
InSearchOf - Saturday, January 3, 2009 - link
i have decided on buying a motherboard based on the P45 chipset since for me it offers the best bang for your buck. the dilemma im having is which manufacturer should i put my money in?ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, DFI etc....
ive also read alot and one should never buy the first versions of mobo and wait for 2nd version after the kinks have been worked out but how long before manuf. put a revised mobo on the market after first release? 3, 6 or 9 months???
what about BIOS updates? how often do these companies update them and how do they treat RMAs and warranties?
can any of you enlighten me with your past experiences and knowledge!
thanks