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Foxconn A75M FM1 Motherboard Review

Motherboards/AMD FM1 by stefan @ 2011-10-26

For users which are not pretentious, the A75M FM1 motherboard from Foxconn represents a solution to consider, in case we want to get the benefits of the Lynx platform, like the powerful IGP or the quad core APUs. For making this board even more attractive, the Dual Graphics feature should be enabled, along with the ability to be able to modify the memory speed and its timings.

Conclusive Thoughts

The new A75M board from Foxconn comes with enough expansion slots for building a decent media center, which could include a mainstream video card, along with a TV tuner or high performance multichannel sound card.

The motherboard does not support APU overclocking unfortunately, but this is not such a big issue compared to the lack of settings inside the BIOS for adjusting memory timings or speed; no matter what memory we will install in the spare slots, it will always run at 1333MHz. As we have seen from the previous Lynx platform review, the IGP seems to benefit a lot in games or other 3D applications from increased memory bandwidth (while setting the RAM at 1600Mhz or 1866Mhz) so it's expected to get lower performance scores at only 1333Mhz, even if the memory installed is rated at a higher speed.

The Lynx platform is also known for its Dual Graphics feature, where we can run the IGP in Crossfire with a dedicated VGA card (from the supported series). The older BIOSes for this board ending with version P03 supported this feature, but starting with P04 this was eliminated and now we can keep activated either the IGP or the dedicated VGA, but not at the same time. If we try to force the IGP to be kept active while a VGA card is installed (by using the manual settings inside the BIOS), we will be welcomed with a blank screen and an unbootable system.

The issues mentioned before can be, fortunately, fixed with some future BIOS revisions (at least Dual Graphics since it was activated before), but it would have been better to have all these fixed before the board was launched.

Regarding the board stability, there are no complaints at all, the A75M being solid during all performed tests and benchmarks.

The Foxconn A75M can be found at CaseKing.de for about 67.90 Euros; certainly after activating the Dual Graphics and memory customization options inside the BIOS, this board will become a steal at this price.

I would like to thank again to CaseKing.de for making this review possible!

UPDATE: Foxconn has now made available an unofficial BIOS based on P05 which also supports Dual Graphics. It can be provided here also on request. (until an official version will be available)

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