Foxconn NF4SLI7AA - 8EKRS2 Motherboard Review

     Foxconn has long been one of the worlds largest OEM motherboard manufacturers producing almost 33 million motherboards in 2004 alone.  With the introduction of the nForce 4 chipset for the Pentium Socket 775 architecture, it was just a matter of time until we got our hands on the latest Foxconn has to offer.  Today we take a look at the NF4SLI7AA motherboard to see just what all the fuss is about.  Come on in!

     Foxconn introduces the NF4SLI7AA in some attractive new packaging.  The NF4SLI7AA motherboard comes in two versions the 8KRS2 and the 8EKRS2 which we will be reviewing today.  The 8eKRS2 adds a second LAN port and Firewire 1394 support.

     The durable plastic sleeve slides off to reveal a simple black and orange box with an eye catching metal Foxconn badge.  For an OEM manufacturer, this is a simple but effective design.

     The back is used to showcase the new technology and specifications you can expect.  Foxconn uses the term Super Technology to describe their suite of tools.  More on them in a minute.

     Opening the box reveals Foxconn has all the bases covered for your standard install.  Even black rounded cables are included.  Also included were both USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394b rear panel brackets. Using these brackets brings your USB port total to ten USB 2.0 ports, six of these are supported through the internal motherboard headers.

Specifications:

Processor	Intel® Pentium® 4, Socket 775, 800/1066MHz FSB Supports Intel Prescott processors Intel Hyper-Threading Technology supported>
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition (C19) + MCP-04
Memory	Dual channel, unbuffered, 1.8V DDR2-533/667; (4) 240-pin DIMM sockets, max 4GB
Graphics	Discrete (non-integrated) - use expansion slot
Expansion Slots	2 x PCI Express x16 (function as 1 x16 or 2 x8), 2 x PCI Express x1, 2 x PCI
IDE/ATA Support	2 x ATA/133 + 4 x SATA/300 (w/ cross-controller RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5) + 2 x SATA/300 (w/ RAID 0, 1)
Audio	Integrated, 7.1 channel High Definition (Realtek)
LAN	Dual integrated Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) MACs + PHYs, dual ports (Marvell)
IEEE-1394	2 via internal headers + rear cable/bracket assembly (1 x 1394b); second header accepts 1394a front I/O cable (supplied w/ chassis)
USB	Up to 10; 4 in rear I/O area + 3 internal 2-port headers; includes 2-port rear cable/bracket; ver. 2.0
Rear I/O Ports	1 x PS/2 keyboard 1 x PS/2 mouse 1 x RJ45 (LAN) 4 x USB 2.0 1 x line-in/line-out/mic (audio) 1 x parallel (SPP/ECP/EPP) 1 x COM (16550-compatible UART) Additional line-outs for 7.1 channel audio Second RJ45 (LAN) 2 x S/PDIF (1 x coax out + 1 x optical out)
Internal Connectors/Headers	1 x floppy disk drive Front audio header 3 x USB 2-port headers, ver. 2.0 2 x IEEE-1394b headers
BIOS	4Mb flash EEPROM w/ LAN boot, PnP, ACPI, WfM, DMI 2.0,
Special Features	Wake-on-LAN (WOL), suspend-to-RAM (STR, S3), suspend-to-disk (STD, S4), SuperUtilities - SuperBoot, SuperBIOS-Protect, SuperRecovery, SuperSpeed, SuperStep, SuperLogo, and SuperUpdate
Overclocking Features	Adjustable bus speeds Adjustable memory timing Adjustable voltages (may be Vcore only)
Form Factor	ATX, 12.0'' x 9.6'' or less - see User's Manual

The motherboard:

     Foxconn motherboards are usually red or blue.  Like our last review board, the 925XE7AA, this one is a fire engine red.  Foxconn has provided a nice active cooling fan for the Northbridge and a good size passive heat sink for the South bridge.  The location of the 24 pin and the drive controllers is shifted up the board nicely towards the traditional PSU and drive locations.  Foxconn uses the familiar manually switched board to choose the video mode.  I am still waiting for a good jumper-less SLI solution to replace this clunky method.

     Most of the expansion ports are aligned along the bottom allowing for a pretty clean install.  The location of the CMOS battery is a bit odd placing it under a second SLI card.  Fortunately the BIOS jumper is much easier to reach.  Notice also the blue jumpers on the Audio out located at the bottom left, located a bit far from the traditional front of your case, these may be a stretch for some cases.  I also found the BFG 7800 GT OC card was a pretty tight fit in PCI-E slot 1 due to the row of capacitors located just below the DDR slots.

     From this view, you can see the layout around the Socket 775 is pretty open and should not interfere with most aftermarket heat sinks.  The NF4SLI7AA uses not just a traditional 4 pin motherboard power lead but  also uses a 12 V power input located just above the PCI-E slots for additional power, this is a big pet peeve for me as it forces you to run a 12 V lead right across the board most often from an IDE power run.

     In addition to your traditional ports the NF4SLI7AA provides two connections for Gb LAN connections, 8-channel audio using the Realtek ALC850 CODEC, four USB 2.0 ports, and both S/PDIF optical and coaxial outs.