Foxconn Blood Rage - If Looks Could Kill (UPDATE)
by Rajinder Gill on January 2, 2009 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
We've received confirmation from Foxconn that a certain number of retail boards may be incompatible with some of the higher power PSU's such as the PCP 1200W, Cooler master and Silverstone 1200W units we used for this preview article. Foxconn have identified and rectified the issue with a board modification that has already been rolled out to retail. If your board is having symptoms such as those described at the top of page 3 in our article, please contact Foxconn customer support. They will be happy to replace your board with an updated version.
Things are at a fever pitch in the labs at present because we've got a plethora of products from the proverbial who's who of the motherboard industry all awaiting testing and final review. Some of these "superstars" have already received some airtime in our $300 motherboard roundup. Final report compilation is ongoing, with products from ASUS, Biostar, DFI, MSI, ECS, EVGA, and Gigabyte, each presenting its own set of merits and quirks depending on your needs.
If you read the opening page of the first look round-up article, you'll already know what scintillating fun the past two months of BIOS testing has been for us. We'll sum this up by saying, "You can beat us up, but we're never down for long." Yes, we're still excited when we get something new, and the latest contender from Foxconn has certainly been at the center of enough internet-based ballyhoo to provoke our interests enough to march on into the unknown.
Much of the initial crowd "pop" reaction to Foxconn's Blood Rage is related to pictures of the motherboard that have been on the forum based cha-cha-cha circuit for several months now. We'll be the first to tell you, good looks do not necessarily a great motherboard make. But we have to admit, a passing glance at the Blood Rage is compelling enough to create the desire of at least taking a deeper look into what makes this thing tick.
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Foxconn's last big foray into the enthusiast segment was with the Intel X48-based Black Ops motherboard. It was a market tester with the goal of establishing their brand name whilst simultaneously demanding accelerated learning from their newly employed Quantum Force BIOS programmers, support staff, and engineering team.
We reviewed the Black Ops back in July. Although the board threw us a few curve balls on occasion, it happened to possess enough substance to make it one of our favorites in what would now be cited as a product from Intel's last generation technology -- a technology that we still think is viable for most users. Those that had positive experiences with the Black Ops by using it in the intended manner have been imbibed with plenty of thought provoking fodder to wonder what's coming next from the Quantum Force development team.
Part of the Blood Rage development process was getting Foxconn personnel to work with the inquisitive consumers who frequent their support forum. The forum staff asked Quantum Force team members and support forum goers what they'd like to see on their upcoming boards, ranging from component choices to color schemes. Although this takes place in various forms at other companies, it's not often you get to provide direct feedback to those who are close to the engineers and design teams. Some of this public brainstorming filtered its way into the final rendition of the Blood Rage, possibly making it the birth-child of a thousand collaborative fathers -- and that could be a good thing. Think of it as a throwback to the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny Devito film called "Twins", only this time the outcome is focused solely on releasing the physically superior "Junior" to the public while successfully incinerating Danny Devito's inadequate character before birth. (At least, we think that's the plan Foxconn had in mind.)
Anyway, let's not dwell on those aspects for too long; what matters is whether the Blood Rage really delivers on the promise of its super-charged appearance. Although this first look will concentrate mainly on the overclocking side of things, we'll also be telling you what we like so far and what, if anything, makes us grit our teeth. By the way, the board has performed like any other X58 based product in application and game testing so no worries on that end. Read on if you like to overclock….
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Mr Roboto - Thursday, February 26, 2009 - link
But, but, it looks so coooool. Who really cares how well it works. I just want to show it off to people. I'm sure I can think of an excuse why it's not working if they ask me to fire it up.Everyone will think I'm cool for owning a $300+ motherboard.
kompulsive - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
Epic over hype fail.cactusdog - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
Thanks for highlighting the issues with the motherboard.An issue like this could be terrible for a consumer, especially if it is their main computer.
Consumer buys board,consumer spends several hours/days trying to get board working right. Consumer cant fix it so he researches the net for an answer for another few hours/days. Consumer learns PSU is not compatible and starts RMA process. Consumer now has no computer while he waits weeks for a replacement. Consumer buys another board because he needs a working computer while he waits for RMA.
2 months after original purchase the $300+ board is working. Board is now obsolete because there are newer better boards available.
Consumer is very annoyed.
This is why its very important for reviewers to be upfront and not make excuses for manufacturers. Thanks for doing so in this article.
kompulsive - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - link
Overrated motherboard fail.Kougar - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Thanks for the early look at this book. Frankly it's not the benchmark results that are useful but reviews like these that try to cover issues and functionality. Unless there some deficiency the benchmarks are all going to be nearly the same between other similar chipset boards anyway, I find myself barely glancing at them anymore.Also I wanted to say thanks for the update. That is important info to know and I'm glad that was able to be sorted out. I wonder why so many motherboards are still having issues with very specific power supplies, seems to be several each year, year after year.
Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - link
Hard to say Kougar. I guess standby voltages on a new platform and given that this board is very very power centric. Switch on surge and current draw may be on the brink of some of the earlier units coming out of a rest/cold boot. On a sidenote, PSU's can be equally to blame at times, revisions are sometimes made and not documented to the public until something like this happens and raises question marks.later Raja
fjs - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
To echo the comments of an earlier poster, I would appreciate photographs in the article which demonstrate the available internal and external connectors adequately.I can see 2 SATA ports, and there are supposed to be 6. Where are the others hiding?
strikeback03 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
6 SATA ports are in the angled connectors at the bottom right of the board, below the IDE connector.fjs - Monday, January 5, 2009 - link
Thank you. I can see now there are 8 SATA ports. The two I noticed were the Marvell-driven ones. The ones you refer to are orientated in the plane of the board, which I did not expect.Again, to AnandTech, a plea for more connector photos in future reviews.
yyrkoon - Sunday, January 4, 2009 - link
I personally am not coming down on you, or any Anandtech staff. You guys ( and gals? ) have a hard time making your readers, and supplying companies happy with your reviews.I would suggest however that Anandtech call it like it is, or just plain refuse to to document your findings on the web UNTIL things are corrected. As it stands, Foxconn is one of several name brands I would never touch, and this would be a perfect example why. Being name brand centric is nothing close to being a 'fanboi', it is simple common sense. Buy a $300 motherboard that does not work, or does not work correctly ? Sorry, I am not seeing the logic here. People pay extra for GOOD STUFF, not garbage. Also, like said at least a couple of times already, I am NOT a paying beta tester. I get paid to beta test, not the other way around.
I also am becoming frustrated when reading these reviews. I often go out on my own any more, and research hardware elsewhere. Try explaining that to your advertisers. The above is not a threat, or someway for me to make you at anandtech feel bad; it *is* the truth.
You guys seeing, or saw whats happening over at Toms Hardware ? It is the same thing I see happening here, just not quite as ridiculous yet.