Product Listing

Foxconn "Digital Life" X38A (Intel X38)

By Zachary Chan - 18 Oct 2007

Conclusion

Conclusion

The Foxconn X38A came to us in an unassuming anti-static bag, sporting an unassuming layout design. Now, Foxconn is one of the biggest players in the manufacturing sector, and yet, their motherboards are usually simple and only capable enough to be viable in the market, but never over the top or flamboyant. When we initially did our preview article, you can say that we didn't expect the X38A to excel in any area, but it just goes to show time and again that you cannot judge a book by its cover.

True, the Foxconn X38A will not turn any heads with its specifications and component setup, all of which are standard fare on almost every motherboard today. Yet, the X38A has a certain uniqueness to it that makes it a desirable board even when you compare it against the real heavy weights in the market. Take a look at the traditional high-end motherboard, such as Gigabyte's X38 DQ6 series. The Gigabyte boards offer a direct approach to the chipset, with single memory support and dual PCIe x16. The X38A entices with its hybrid memory design and triple PCIe x16 interface. MSI's X38 Diamond on the other hand seems to be the ultimate hybrid motherboard, but when price comes into the factor, it is hard to beat X38A's value proposition. The Foxconn X38A carries a recommended retail price of only US$220! Gigabyte's GA-X38T-DQ6 (DDR3 edition) retails for around US$315. ASUS' P5E3 Deluxe is a whopping US$350 and even the gamer edition Maximus Formula goes for around US$280. Most of the time, we find it really hard to justify the premium pricing on a product. Very rarely do we find a product with a price point that actually lures you into considering an upgrade, even if you know you don't really need one yet.

The Foxconn X38A settles in its own comfortable niche as a well rounded, hybrid, high-end, high-performance motherboard with a mainstream price. It is this motley combination that puts the Foxconn X38A in its own class that very few or no other board can meet.

Performance-wise, the Foxconn X38A started out like any other DDR2-based P35/X38 board out there. The board held its own in every benchmark and showed a consistent all-round performance level that is suggestive of a well implemented chipset. Plug in DDR3 however, the X38A was suddenly on steroids. Although, the X38A is still one of the early X38 boards we've tested with DDR3, it is the first DDR3 capable board we've come across that has shown us a good indication of DDR3 performance scaling against DDR2. For DDR2 owners, you'll get the level of performance from the X38A that you expect from boards of this class, but it is DDR3 owners that will reap the benefits of the board. It is too bad that the X38A could not wrap up our performance testing with strong overclocking results though, which would have made this board a great underdog performer, much like how Gigabyte's original DS3 gained its popularity.

The Foxconn X38A isn't without its faults. The overall feel of the board isn't as polished as you would get from a high-end ASUS or Gigabyte board. The BIOS sometimes resets certain settings on its own after a reboot, which became a chore to double and triple check, especially considering we have to ensure correct settings for testing purposes. We also encountered some minor issues like the board refusing to boot from a warm reset from time to time. When this problem croped up, we were forced to turn off the power and turn it back on to boot properly. We did not encounter any stability or compatibility issues while the board was actually running though, which was a good thing. These are ultimately not show stoppers for an average user, but it does put a dent on the overall quality and polish of the board and the only thing stopping it from getting a better score. Hopefully, we will be seeing future firmware updates that are able to stabilize the board further. As the chipset matures, the Foxconn X38A has the markings to become a very solid entry into the market.

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