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Foxconn P35AP-S Motherboard Revisited: New BIOS

Motherboards by massman @ 2008-01-24

In our latest P35 motherboard round-up we had the Foxconn P35AP-S to test. It featured both ddr2 and ddr3 memory compatibility, which introduced a few unknown problems. We asked Foxconn if they planned to fix the problem, not long afterwards we got a response.

Fixing a bios problem

Problems ...

To keep it simple, let's have a look at the conclusion of our Foxconn P35AP-S Review:

Foxconn is new on the end-user market and combines extra support such as DDR3 with the fast and proven P35 chipset, offering lots of overclocking functions.

+ Very fast when overclocked
+ DDR3 support
+ Gladiator bios covers about everything you need regarding overclocking
- No real extra's
- Memory overclock doesn't work like it should work*

As you can see, it is a good board, but not good enough as it had some memory problems.

In terms of the memory support, we have a few remarks. First of all, don't go for a 'combo' motherboard (both DDR2 and DDR3) if you want a high memory overclock. Both motherboards had problems when clocking the memory at 600MHz, whereas the 'normal' boards (DFI and Asus) had no problem at all. Both MSI and Foxconn were contacted and the Foxconn engineers assured us to check out the problem to try and find a solution, whereas MSI advised us to run the board with Corsair or OCZ memory. The MSI even had problems running the memory at 500MHz when using Cas4!

To be short, both combo motherboards had problems with higher clocked memory, most likely due to a bios insufficiency. In order to help out our readers and people who use this board, we decided we were obliged to contact both Foxconn and MSI.

Madshrimps (c)

Let's draw a timeline:

18/11/07: Noticed the memory issues and contacted Foxconn
20/11/07: Got into contact with technical support, they assured me they would solve the problem.
23/11/07: Recieved an updated bios which should fix the bios
26/11/07: Day of publishing the P35 round-up article, flashed the new bios

The new bios allowed me to run 600MHz DDR2 without any problems, everything is rock stable.

To download the updated bios, click here.

Conclusion

Fixing a bios problem in almost 1 week? The support is more than great! This places the board next/close to the DFI P35 Lanparty, which is a bit less cost-effective.
We have also received a new bios from MSI, but that did not yet fix the issue. They're still working on it, so I expect a follow-up article on the MSI P35 Platinum Combo very soon.

Recommended for

Comment from Rutar @ 2007/11/26

the madshrimps roundup attack on motherboard reviews, I'd be affraid if I was still writing the outdated one motherboard reviews

Foxconn really works on their street cred with that board

Comment from geoffrey @ 2007/11/26

Owning a P5K myself, good performance considering its price, and not too overloaded with BIOS features which hardly make a difference and are too complicated to understand for people who just jumped in.

Liked the article btw

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/11/26

Can't beat the Asus P5K board in both price and performance.

Comment from Massman @ 2007/11/27

You can by overclocking

Comment from jmke @ 2007/11/27

if you overclock,how will you beat the price/performance value? since FSB OCing hardly has any effect in real world applications

Comment from Rutar @ 2007/11/27

I think it would be more noticable with a Quadcore, where the Vdrop is more important.

Comment from Massman @ 2007/11/27

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

if you overclock,how will you beat the price/performance value? since FSB OCing hardly has any effect in real world applications

You and me have different definitions of overclocking

. I see it as benching, you as cost-effective performance tweaking. In other words, I am willing to pay 45€ extra for a board which is faster, you're not.

Comment from thorgal @ 2007/11/28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Massman

You and me have different definitions of overclocking

. I see it as benching, you as cost-effective performance tweaking. In other words, I am willing to pay 45€ extra for a board which is faster, you're not.

I can second that, so am I

But the majority of people are not, unfortunately for the hardware vendors

Comment from jmke @ 2007/11/28

but Massman, as a reviewer you'll have to look at both sides of the overclocking approach

Comment from Massman @ 2007/11/28

That's why the Price/Perfomance winner =/= High-end winner

Comment from jmke @ 2007/11/29

nope

Comment from Kougar @ 2007/12/02

45nm support on 975X chipsets is iffy, best to check on a individual board by board basis. Some sites have run 45nm chips on 975X ASUS boards however.

Interesting review! Am I correct that the ASUS P5k only has 3 vRegs? That's pitiful, no wonder there are reports that Quadcores would kill the thing. Does explain the 0.1v vdroop problem too, my own 3vReg DS3 had about that same vdroop also with a E6300. To bad Gigabyte didn't show up to the party.

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