X-bit labs

Second Generation of Integrated Graphics from NVIDIA: GeForce 6150 and GeForce 6100 (page 8)

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 10/27/2005 | 01:41 PM ]

Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS

NVIDIA promised that mainboards on new GeForce 6100 series chipsets would begin to sell in October. The month is nearly over, but we have not yet seen the mainboards in shops. On the other hand, BIOSTAR, an NVIDIA partner in launching that product on the market, reports it has begun to ship not only GeForce 6100-based mainboards, but also small form-factor systems with this chipset.

Although it is yet impossible to buy an off-the-shelf mainboard on an nForce 6100 series chipset, many mainboard manufacturers offer samples of their upcoming nForce 6100-based products to test labs. Foxconn was kind to offer its samples to us.

The senior mainboard model from Foxconn on the integrated GeForce 6150 chipset has a model name of WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS. Note that Foxconn continues to use the WinFast brand for its Athlon 64 mainboards. The same brand is used by Leadtek for its graphics cards, so it is quite appropriately applied to a mainboard with an integrated graphics core.

The Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS resembles the above-described mainboard from ECS. Although these two mainboards are based on two completely different chipsets, the placement of the components on the PCBs is nearly identical. It means the reference design of GeForce 6100-based mainboards is close to the Radeon Xpress 200 reference design and the engineers from both companies paid much attention to the recommendations of the MicroATX standard.

Being equipped with a Socket 939, the Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS supports all available processors from AMD, including Sempron, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX and dual-core Athlon 64 X2. The mainboard supports all Socket 939 CPU models since the very first versions of its BIOS.

The three-channel CPU voltage regulator uses original inductance coils in a casing and capacitors from OST and Nippon Chemi-Con. OST’s capacitors are often criticized, while Nippon’s are high-quality electronic parts. Foxconn’s engineers managed to put as many as four DDR DIMM slots on this MicroATX mainboard. The slots are color-coded, the same color marking slots in which you should put identical memory modules. By the way, the Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS offers you more control over the memory subsystem than the above-described ECS RS480-M. Besides setting up the memory frequency and the Tcl timing, you can change Tras, Trcd, and Trp. The BIOS Setup lacks the Command Rate option, although there are four memory slots on board.

The Foxconn WinFast 6150K8MA-8EKRS is equipped with three PCI slots and one PCI Express x16 slot for an external graphics card which can work either with or instead of the integrated graphics core.