Foxconn WinFast 760GXK8MB
Introduction
Foxconn, a traditional OEM manufacturer,
has recently entered the retail market with its own motherboard line, using its
own brand. For AMD platform, it is using WinFast
brand, which was licensed from Leadtek.
WinFast 760GXK8MB is a socket 754
motherboard based on the SiS 760GX chipset, aimed to
entry level PCs, since this chipset has on-board video based on Mirage 2
graphics engine from SiS. This engine is DirectX 8.1
and we were very pleased to see how well it performed.
This motherboard is very
simple, as you can see on Figure 1. Besides having on-board video, it also
has one AGP 8x slot, allowing you to disable the on-board video in the future
and install an AGP video card.
Figure 1: Foxconn WinFast 760GXK8MB.
This motherboad
has “everything” on-board: video, audio and LAN, bringing also two Serial ATA
ports. It has two DDR-DIMM sockets, accepting up to 2 GB of up to DDR400/PC3200
memory; its on-board audio is controlled by the SiS
760GX chipset using the Realtek ALC655 codec, providing 6 channels and a signtal-to-noise
ratio of 90 dB, which is very good for this motherboard class; its LAN is also
controlled by its chipset, using the Realtek
RTL8201BL chip to make the interface with the physical layer; eight USB 2.0
ports, four welded directly to the motherboard and four available thru an I/O
bracket, but the board comes with a bracket providing only two ports. You can
use the other two USB ports on your case, if it provides front USB ports.
Figure 2: Two serial
ATA ports and SiS 964 south bridge.
Figure 3: Back
connectors.
We were impressed by the
quality of the electrolytic capacitors used on this motherboard. Usually
low-end motherboards will also use low-end components, but Foxconn
decided to use Japanese capacitors from Rubycon (http://www.rubycon.com)
on this model, preventing the board from having the famous leakage that affects
some motherboards after some years.
Figure 4: Japanese
capacitors from Rubycon.
On Figure 5 you can see
the cables that come with this motherboard.
: Cables that come with WinFast 760GXK8MB.
Besides the motherboard
drivers and utilities, in the CD-ROM that comes with this motherboard you will
also find Norton Internet Security 2004 software for free.
Main Features
The main features of Foxxonn WinFast 760GXK8MB are:
- Socket 754.
- Chipset: SiS 760GX
(AGP 8x, ATA-133)
- Super I/O: ITE IT8705F
- Parallel IDE: Two ATA-133 ports.
- Serial IDE: Two SATA-150 ports.
- USB: Eight USB 2.0 ports, four welded directly
on the motherboard and four available thru an I/O bracket.
- FireWire (IEEE 1394): None (it’s
optional, however).
- On-board Audio: Produced by the chipset
together with the codec Realtek
ALC655 (six channels, 16-bit resolution, 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio).
- On board Video: Yes, produced by the chipset
(Mirage 2 graphics engine).
- On-board LAN: Yes, Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps)
produced by the chipset together with the Realtek
RTL8201BL chip.
- Buzzer: Yes.
- Power Supply: ATX12V.
- Slots: 1 AGP 8x slot and 3 PCI slots.
- Memory: 2 DDR-DIMM sockets (up to 2 GB up to
DDR400/PC3200).
- Number of CDs that come with this motherboard:
1 CD
- Softwares that come with this
motherboard: Norton Internet Security 2004.
- More Information: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/products_motherboard_2.cfm?pName=760GXK8MB-RS
* Researched on http://www.pricewatch.com/
on the day we published this review.