by Doors4ever
05/05/2009 | 05:50 PM
Foxconn solutions have become so widely spread that very often we don’t even notice them. However paradoxical that might seem. The processor socket on your mainboard is most likely marked with “Foxconn” brand, and even the board itself may have come off the Foxconn production lines, even if it was sold under a different brand name. Of course, the company was hardly happy about this state of things. In 2007, within their new branding campaign, Foxconn launched a new family of products for overclockers called Quantum Force series. All mainboards in this series had their own unique names: MARS, BLACKOPS, DESTROYER, AVENGER. They were based on different chipsets but boasted extensive functionality and advanced fine-tuning and overclocking-friendly features, much more sophisticated that what the regular mainboards had to offer. Today we are glad to introduce to you one more Quantum Force series solution – a mainboard called Foxconn BloodRAGE. It is based on the newest Intel X58 Express chipset and supports contemporary Intel Core i7 processors.
When you first see Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard, you get really excited. The board is truly beautiful. The first thing you notice is the vivid combination of red and black colors, and then, after taking a closer look, you start to like it for its technically smart and thorough layout.
When we start discussing the top of the mainboard PCB layout we usually say some general things about high-quality components and convenient or inconvenient location of the power supply connectors. The major differences distinguishing most mainboards from one another are usually hiding in the lower part of the PCB. Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard has no problems with the electrolytic capacitors as well as the power supply connectors placement. However, this time we notice a few more interesting things in the upper part of the PCB.
I would like to start with the digital processor voltage regulator circuitry that has 14 phases on Foxconn BloodRAGE. In fact, we can’t claim that the more phases are there in the voltage regulator, the better, but this number is indeed very impressive. Besides, there is enough room around the CPU socket to accommodate large CPU coolers. Our only concern is the too close location of the memory DIMM slots, which may and most likely be in the way. We have already seen same close placement of these particular components on Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 and GA-EX58-Extreme mainboards, while ASRock X58 SuperComputer and Asus P6T mainboard offer a little more free room over there.
Things get even more complicated as Foxconn BloodRAGE only has three memory DIMM slots. This is not really that big of an issue, because the maximum capacity of 12GB of RAM is more than enough for contemporary needs and by the time you need more, new mainboards will already be available. However, DDR3 SDRAM specifics usually require installing the DIMMs into the pair of slots farther from the CPU socket. This way, even on Gigabyte mainboards where the memory slots are just as close to the CPU, the distance between the first DIMM and the processor socket will be way larger, thus leaving more room for a large CPU cooler. However, Foxconn BloodRAGE uses the available extra space for a three-phase memory voltage regulator. This regulator as well as shorter signal lines between the processor and the memory should theoretically ensure higher stability, especially during work at higher frequencies.
You may have noticed that there are doubled retention holes around the CPU socket. This is done to insure that you can install not only a special LGA1366 cooling system but also an LGA775 cooler onto Foxconn BloodRAGE. We have already seen this feature on Asus P6T mainboard. Well, not only Asus engineers came up with a solution like that. However, I doubt you saw the barely noticeable contact spots around the memory DIMM slots. Foxconn BloodRAGE allows controlling seven important voltages on the CPU, memory and chipset, and using a “PCB Voltage Sensors” tester on these contact pads you can monitor these voltages. A terrific idea!
We were very curious about a large button with Quantum Force logo on it located next to the 24-pin power connector. This is the so called Force Reset Button. After adjusting the settings, the regular reboot may not always succeed, but according to Foxconn, by pressing the Force Reset Button you enable new initialization of the CPU, memory and chipset, which reduces the probability of a failed reboot.
Force Reset Button may come in quite handy sometimes, but the PC Speaker located right next to it produced some pretty annoying beeping after every system reboot. I could find neither an option in the BIOS Setup nor a switch on the PCB that could disable the speaker.
Now let’s move over to the lower part of the Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard PCB. The Intel X58 Express chipset North Bridge allows all mainboards based on it to work with two graphics cards at full PCI Express 2.0 x16 speed. Two additional PCI Express x16 slots of black color allow installing two more graphics cards, but in this case they will work at half the speed. The board supports both: ATI CrossFireX as well as Nvidia SLI configurations. Besides the four PCI Express x16 slots, Foxconn BloodRAGE has one PCI Express x1 slot and one PCI slot.
ICH10R South Bridge supports six Serial ATA ports (black connectors) that allow building RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 0+1 arrays. The additional JMicron JMB363 controller provides support for up to two PATA devices and implements two eSATA ports on the back panel. The distinguishing feature of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard is two SAS ports (Serial Attached SCSI) implemented via Marvell 88SE6302 controller. Two SAS ports (red connectors) can also accommodate regular SATA-HDDs. Among indisputable advantages of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard we should also mention two BIOS chips and a set of jumpers used to switch between them, a two-digit POST indicator, color-coding of the onboard connectors and ports, a Power On and Reset buttons.
Besides the already mentioned two eSATA ports, the mainboard back panel also carries a PS/2 keyboard port, Clear CMOS button (you can disable it with a special onboard switch thus protecting yourself against accidental CMOS clearing), coaxial S/PDIF port, one IEEE1394 port (implemented via an additional T.I. TSB43AB22A controller, the second port is laid out as an onboard pin-connector), two network RJ-45 connectors (Realtek 8111C) and eight USB ports. The remaining four USB ports out of twelve supported by the chipset South Bridge can be implemented via onboard pin-connectors using the additional bracket with two USB and one more IEEE1394 ports bundled with the board.
Don’t be surprised to see no audio-jacks on the mainboard back panel. All of them have been moved to a separate SONAR X-Fi Xtreme sound card. According to the specifications, it is built around an eight-channel Realtek ALC889 codec. The only thing I think is missing is the optical S/PDIF.
We would like to specifically dwell on the Foxconn BloodRAGE cooling system. Upfront there is an individual heatsink for the three-phase memory voltage regulator components. In fact, I doubt that it is really necessary there. If you do not exceed the maximum allowed memory voltage of 1.65V, you won’t even notice the heatsink warming up. All other heatsinks starting with a small one on the chipset South Bridge and finishing with two additional ones over the processor voltage regulator transistors are connected into a single system with heatpipes.
All heatsinks use very secure and reliable screw-retention, no weak plastic clips of any kind. There are metal backplates attached to the reverse side of the PCB.
Two additional heatsinks over the processor voltage regulator transistors are not there for any decorative purposes. They heat up pretty tangibly during work. However, Foxconn’s biggest price is certainly in the unique chipset North Bridge heatsink. It can be used in passive mode, but if the airflow around it is insufficient for proper cooling, you can top it with a 40-mm fan attaching it with wire clips. Both, the fan and the retention clips, are included with the mainboard. Moreover, you can take the heatsink off and install a water block instead.
The mainboard is also bundled with special clamps for water pipes and a set of aluminum heatsinks. Extreme users may wish to replace the water block with a plastic stack for dry ice or liquid nitrogen.
Now I understand why they called it “4-in-1”: it can be used in four different ways.
However, systems like that are mere anachronisms already, just like the gigantic additional heatsink included with Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme, for example. Successful overclocking of Core i7 processors doesn’t call for extremely high voltage on the chipset North Bridge that is why its extreme cooling may also be excessive.
In conclusion to our Foxconn BloodRAGE layout review let’s take a look at its official specifications:
The layout schematics from the mainboard manual will give you a better view of major functional components and their placement:
During our earlier discussion of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard we have already mentioned a few enclosed accessories. Of course, besides such exotic components as the water block or a plastic stack for liquid nitro, the board also comes with more common parts: a PATA cable, SATA cables and adapters, additional bracket with two USB and one IEEE1394 ports, SLI bridges, user’s manual, an installation poster, CD disk with drivers and software, and back panel I/O Shield.
All these goodies together with the mainboard are nicely packed into a vertical box with a convenient carry-handle:
The front flip-cover will reveal part of the board inside through clear windows. The back of the box mentions a few major advantages and features of the Foxconn BloodRAGE solution.
By pressing “Del” on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard boot-up, you get access to the main menu of its BIOS Setup.
There seems to be nothing unusual at first glance. Only the “Advanced BIOS Features” section that has always been in the second position is now replaced with “Boot Setting Configuration”. It turned out to be the same thing with standard parameters.
We will skip a few general sections with traditional parameter sets and dwell on “Hardware Monitor” that looks very impressive:
The first thing that pleases us a lot is a long list of monitored voltages. Besides, we can adjust the rotation speed of the three fans right from the mainboard BIOS: CPU Fan, NB Fan and System Fan. In “Smart Fan” mode the board sets the most optimal speed depending on the current temperature readings. You can give up adjustable rotation speed by setting “Full Speed” mode or lock the speed at a certain percentage from the maximum value – by setting “By Duty-Cycle” mode. The rotation speed of two more fans can also be adjusted, though not directly. You just need to define the dependence of their rotation speed on the speed of one of the first three fans.
The next section is called “Quantum BIOS” and contains all overclocking-related settings. It looks almost absolutely perfect: there are options of adjusting all important frequencies with the info fields that will immediately report their actual values highlighted with different colors for more illustrative picture.
In order not to overload the section with info and keep it easy to work with, some parameters have been singled out into individual sub-sections. The first one is called “CPU Features” and contains all CPU-related parameters. Only “CPU Turbo” parameter was left in the main section for some reason.
“Memory Settings” sub-section contains everything related to memory subsystem configuration:
“All Voltage Settings” sub-section offers all parameters dealing with voltages adjustment:
So far the options in Quantum BIOS sections and sub-sections didn’t require any specific explanations on our part: things have been pretty clear. I suggest checking out in a bit greater detail the sub-section called “OC Gear”. There are two groups of parameters in it: “CMOS Backup” dealing with the BIOS settings profiles and “Foxconn Features” with more diverse options. This is where we are going to begin.
Gigabyte has been installing two BIOS chips on their mainboards for many years already, however, we don’t see DualBIOS technology evolving in any way for some reason. The board may switch to the backup chip any minute and then switch back, but the user has no control over any of this. We see a totally different approach by Foxconn. We can select the desired boot-up chip with special jumpers or in the BIOS via “Software BIOS Selection” parameter. Moreover, during the BISO update the utility will ask which BIOS chip you want to update. Very convenient!
“Smart Boot Menu” parameter makes a totally different impression. I still don’t understand why they called it “smart”. Look for yourselves: the board doesn’t know to launch a start-up menu with any key combinations. To change the order of boot-up devices you need to access the BIOS and change it in the “Boot Setting Configuration” section. It is very inconvenient, however, there is another way: by enabling “Smart Boot Menu”, which will then be displayed on every boot-up.
The problem is that this menu will be on the screen until you manually select the boot-up device or exit the menu. So, why would anyone want to see the boot-up menu on every system reboot if you may only need to change the boot-up device once a month or so? I could agree if this menu were displayed for a few seconds and then the board switched to the default boot-up device if no action from user has followed. But currently, this is hardly a “smart” feature and it is very good that it is disabled by default: I really had no desire of enabling it after getting to know it better.
As for “Smart Power LED” parameter, it is pretty neutral. If you enable it, the power indicator on the system case will blink in a specific manner if any problems occur during startup POST. If everything is OK, it will glow as usual without any blinking. If the board is equipped with a fully-functional POST indicator panel, then the practical need for “Smart Power LED” is questionable, however, it will not cause any harm or inconvenience, either.
Another thing I would like to draw your attention to is the enabled “Spread Spectrum” parameter and disabled “Over Clock Recovery”. However, this is only because the system is working in its nominal mode. As soon as we start our overclocking experiments, these parameters will change to the opposite values. A lot of mainboards out there act this way, but unfortunately, not all of them. It is really nice that Foxconn BloodRAGE take care of overclocking fans even in such minor details by taking over the routine operations like that.
As for the “CMOS Backup” parameters group, everything here is pretty evident. The board allows saving eight different BIOS settings profiles and loading the necessary one when needed real quick. The peculiarity here is that we can’t name the profiles as we see fit, but have to choose from the preset list.
Honestly, it is not as convenient as giving the profile your own name, but still better than no name or description of any kind. It is very easy to select the desired settings profile: the active profiles are highlighted green and the descriptions remind you of their contents. Only it takes quite a bit for the profiles to be saved and loaded.
Here we are going to wind up our discussion of the “Quantum BIOS” functionality. The last thing left is the “Board Information” section reporting the current system status:
All our tests were performed in the following system:
We used Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 x86 OS and ATI Catalyst 9.3 graphics card driver.
We see a very colorful picture on boot-up, which may be replaced with one of your own images if you like:
You can disable the startup logo in the mainboard BIOS or remove it by pressing Tab key. In this case during POST stage you will see pretty detailed information about the current CPU and memory settings as well as about connected external devices.
Formally, we have nothing to comment on regarding Foxconn BloodRAGE operation in nominal mode. The assembly process went smoothly, the board powered on and worked just fine, like any other good board. With enabled Turbo Boost technology the CPU clock frequency multiplier increased to 21, which pushed the CPU clock speed to 2.8GHz.
In idle mode the multiplier as well as processor core voltage drop down. As a result, it allows lowering the heat dissipation, power consumption, and slows down the fans thus reducing the generated noise.
However, the potential owners of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard may face some problems even before purchasing the board. Before buying a mainboard as well as before starting the tests I prefer to check out the mainboard’s specifications. However, at the time of tests it turned out that there was only a brief description of the board features and no manual of any kind on the Quantum Force web-site. There was also no manual on the CD disk bundled with the board. So, I decided to check out the main Foxconn web-site to see what other Intel X58 Express based mainboards the company made. You can imagine how surprised I was when I discovered a detailed description of Foxconn BloodRAGE features and an electronic user’s manual there. Moreover, I even found the latest P07 BIOS version, while the Quantum Force site only offered P06 version at that time. Looks like Quantum Force web-site is not updated in a timely manner.
Next the mainboard refused to power on reporting that no processor fan was installed:
In fact, there was a fan. However, it was connected directly to the power supply unit and not to the special mainboard connector. Therefore, I went to the BIOS Setup to disable this alarm, but couldn’t find the corresponding parameter in the “Hardware Monitor” section. We couldn’t proceed with the system boot-up, the board demanded to connect a fan giving us no opportunity to overcome this obstacle. It doesn’t make sense to connect the fan that you don’t really need only to make the board work, does it? But, I found a way-out: I took a cable used to control the rotation speed of the PSU fan and connected it to the “CPU Fan” connector. This trick worked just fine and only later we found a parameter that allowed booting without the connected “CPU Fan”. As we learned we had to go to the “Power Management Setup” section and change the “ACPI Function” parameter. I have to say that it was not very intuitive.
You won’t find out about the complications that take place when you attempt to change the boot-up device, but as for the drawbacks of “Smart BIOS Menu”, we have already discussed those in the chapter of our review devoted to the mainboard BIOS. Other than that everything is beautiful, although the mainboard couldn’t read correct settings for Kingston HyperX DDR3-1866 memory from the modules SPD despite the “Extreme Memory Profile XMP” parameter. Instead of 1866MHz memory frequency at 1.65V voltage in one profile or 1800MHz frequency in another, the board tried to set 1600MHz frequency with a dangerously high voltage of 1.95V(!), so we had to refuse these services right away. I don’t see big problem with the non-operational XMP technology, because I personally prefer to set all parameters manually anyway. Unfortunately, the board wouldn’t start at 1600MHz+ memory frequency when the CPU worked in its nominal mode. It is also not a big deal, because the memory frequency increase is accompanied by timings increase, which makes the overall performance boost barely noticeable. It is much more important that we can increase the memory frequency on Foxconn BloodRAGE during CPU overclocking. However, we are going to return to this discussion in the next chapter of our review.
Each mainboard has its own peculiarities. The problems with CPU overclocking on Foxconn BloodRAGE originate from the fact that a lot of parameters are connected with one another in a not very evident manner. Successful overclocking usually requires basic knowledge, understanding of what different parameter changes may lead to and logics. Of course, any parameter change in the BIOS will inevitably result into the change of its actual value, but if you don’t touch it, then its value remains the same. Things are a little different with Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard. You will have to trust your intuition during CPU overclocking on this platform, because in most cases changing one parameter may also change a few others. Sounds not quite clear, doesn’t it? I will try to explain what I mean on a few actual examples from our Intel Core i7-920 overclocking experience on Foxconn BloodRAGE.
At first I decided to find out how far the board can overclock this CPU without increasing its Vcore in order to keep all Intel power-saving technologies working. Everything went on smoothly until we got to the point when we had to check the system stability during overclocking. The workload created by Prime95 (or any other utility used for stability check) caused the CPU frequency to drop and “float around”. The CPU-Z screenshot shows that the processor frequency is just a little over 3.7GHz, although 181MHz times 21 (clock multiplier), we will get 3.8GHz resulting CPU frequency.
It is not a utility bug, because Everest program showed the same exact CPU frequency, although it “adjusted” the base frequency accordingly. For the above described example, the program indicated 177MHz base frequency, which gives 3724MHz CPU frequency if multiplied by 21.
I was already picturing how I would compare the performance of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard at “floating” CPU speed and 181MHz base frequency vs. some other mainboard at steady CPU speed and same base frequency, but there was no need to prepare myself. It turned out that Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard would maintain stable frequency if you disable “BIOS Vdroop Compensation” parameter in the BIOS, which prevents processor core voltage from lowering under load. And the only reason why we could disable this parameter was because the board doesn’t reduce, but increases the CPU Vcore under heavy load! You can see it on the screenshot above: the CPU core voltage equals 1.28V while the nominal setting is 1.225V.
Looks like we may have established non-obvious, but confirmed connection between “floating” frequencies during overclocking and “CPU Vdroop Compensation” parameter. Now we can proceed to CPU overclocking fearing no frequency drop under heavy workload. However, later on, when we overclocked the CPU a little more and increased a few voltages, frequencies started floating again and could only be stopped by enabling “Current Feedback Override” parameter. In fact, this parameter allowed the board to increase the processor clock frequency multiplier to 21 with enabled Turbo Boost technology even when the high power consumption of the overclocked CPU would require a 20x multiplier at the most. I don’t know for sure if this is what this parameter has been initially intended for or if this is yet another non-obvious interconnection of parameters, since it appeared only in the latest BIOS version and there is no mention of it in the mainboard manual.
Let’s get back to the processor Vcore. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that unlike most contemporary mainboards Foxconn BloodRAGE doesn’t disable Intel processor power-saving technologies when the CPU Vcore is increased. In idle mode not only the clock multiplier but also the core voltage will lower. They won’t go down to the nominal level, but will be lowered proportionally to the initial increase. This is not just good, but superb news! I believed that these mainboard features have been long gone for good together with Abit solutions. CPU overclocking without increasing the voltage makes no sense on Foxconn BloodRAGE. Why would we give up core voltage increase if it not only improves our overclocking success and performance but also causes no efficiency loss of any kind? The bad news, however, is that these great features of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard didn’t’ really help us during CPU overclocking experiments.
I have already mentioned before that during processor overclocking the board doesn’t lower but increases the CPU core voltage under heavy workload and that all parameters (frequency and voltage in our case) are connected with one another. The problem is that the higher the base frequency and CPU overclocking, the more the board increases the voltage. It is only good in theory, because in reality the CPU cooling system was failing and every time the core temperature reached 98°C we had to stop the tests, lower the voltage and then the frequency, too. As a result, we couldn’t overclock the CPU to its maximum and had to stop at 181MHz base frequency. With Turbo Boost enabled and the processor clock frequency multiplier set at 21 we ended up with 3.8GHz CPU clock speed.
We overclocked without increasing the processor core voltage. The complex connection between the frequencies and voltages on Foxconn BloodRAGE we needed to lower the processor Vcore instead of raising it, but there was no way of doing it. However, we could raise the memory frequency to its absolute maximum, although the board wouldn’t allow it in nominal mode. Intel processor power-saving technologies kick in in idle mode and lower the processor clock multiplier as well as core voltage.
We tried to hit record-breaking frequencies with disabled Hyper Threading technology. When the CPU is only occupied with four computational threads instead of eight, its power consumption and heat dissipation get significantly lower. We achieved a very high though not record-breaking result. Our CPU hit 4GHz threshold.
And here is proof that Intel processor power-saving technologies continued working just fine: although we increased the processor Vcore, it keeps going down in idle mode:
I hope that I managed to paint a true picture of how in fact complicated it is to overclock processors on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard. It is not so simple to overclock Intel Core i7 to begin with, but in this case it becomes even harder because of numerous non-obvious dependencies and unpredictable response of the board. Therefore, I have my questions about the name of this particular mainboard - Foxconn BloodRAGE. World of Warcraft fans should be very well familiar with the power of certain warriors in this game that allows them to get all the rage they need but… at the expense of their own health. However, the board didn’t prove up to its name: things didn’t get bloody this time, my health remained OK and all nerve cells were safe and sound :) It is hard to overclock on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard, but it is in fact very interesting, too. The excessive complications made me sad that despite all effort I couldn’t push my CPU to the maximum limit.
Our regular readers may have noticed that the maximum results obtained during Intel Core i7-920 overclocking on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard are exactly the same as during the experiments on Asus P6T. Therefore, it will make perfect sense to compare the performance of systems built around these two solutions in the nominal mode and during overclocking.
Despite all advantages from the CPU overclocking, a lot of computer users prefer using their systems in nominal mode. Moreover, many of them don’t even bother to configure their systems for maximum performance in their particular case: they don’t change memory frequency or timings, do not use any optimizations, do not disconnect the unused devices. Therefore, in order to check how the mainboard adjusts for the most optimal operational mode without any user interference, we loaded the default BIOS settings and barely changed anything. Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard set a little lower memory timings, while Asus P6T pushed the clock frequency multiplier to 22 a little more often due to Turbo Boost technology. However, in the end both mainboards performed almost the same:
There is nothing surprising that two mainboards working in the same conditions performed almost identically. However, it may sometimes change during overclocking, even if we don’t leave the system config to the mainboard but carefully adjust most of the important parameters manually. Let’s see if the performs differs during system overclocking up to 3.8GHz CPU frequency and 1810MHz memory frequency:
I was surprised to see how far ahead Foxconn BloodRAGE was in the first two Everest memory subsystem tests. However, noticeable differences in synthetic benchmarks do not often project over the performance in real applications. This time, the systems again performed very similarly in all other test applications. I have to say that this is pretty anticipated, but also very pleasing result: Foxconn BloodRAGE is just as good as its competitor in all work modes. However, I can’t say that these two boards are identical in everything. The results of our power consumption tests turned out totally unexpected.
We used Extech Power Analyzer device for our power consumption measurements. This device is connected before the system PSU, i.e. it measures the power consumption of the entire system without the monitor, including the power losses that occur in the PSU itself. When we took the power readings in idle mode, the system was completely idle: there were even no requests sent to the hard drive at that time. We used Fritz Chess Benchmark to load the CPU and FurMark utility to load the graphics card and recorded the maximum readings.
This more or less routine procedure performed on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard suddenly produced very strange results. Its power consumption was much higher than the results we obtained on other mainboards. We had some concerns that the problem could be with the new Enermax Infinity EIN720AWT PSU that we had just started using, however, our suspicions were absolutely unjustified. Asus P6T mainboard tested with the same exact PSU consumed just as much power as it did before. The power analyzer also wasn’t the one to blame: we brought Foxconn BloodRAGE back onto our testbed right after Asus P6T and the readings repeated. Foxconn BloodRAGE consumed 20-30W more in nominal mode, which is extremely too much.
Things appeared not any better during overclocking, either. Right after the OS boot-up, different services start launching changing the processor workload, system starts data indexing and hence keeps sending requests to the hard drives, so system power consumption jumps up and down. However, as time goes by all this action stops and power consumption stabilizes at a certain value that we take as a reading for further analysis. Things turned out not quite like that with Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard. Even when there seemed to be no real activity going on, the system power consumption kept changing in cycles increasing and then dropping down fast and then growing up to the maximum again. Therefore, the table above mentions an interval rather than one single value for the idle mode readings.
If we take a look at Foxconn BloodRAGE power consumption during CPU overclocking in general, it will be about the same as that of Asus P6T. At least, we could see no serious difference between them as we did in nominal mode. However, it is also not a very good outcome. Asus mainboards for Intel processors consume about as much power as other solutions only in nominal mode or during very slight overclocking, when the processor Vcore remains untouched. As soon as you increase the processor core voltage or even lock it at a certain value, Intel processor power-saving technologies stop working on Asus boards that is why they start to consume much more power than other solutions. Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard, however, has the same level of power consumption as Asus board even with all processor power-saving technologies intact, which is way beyond average.
We can’t tell for sure why Foxconn BloodRAGE is so power-hungry. There is an opinion that the more phases there are in the CPU voltage regulator circuitry, the better; however, Foxconn BloodRAGE could prove this wrong. It is good to have a lot of phases in this circuitry but only in specific conditions when there is heavy CPU load involved. In idle mode a voltage regulator with fewer phases works better. There is a good reason why many mainboard makers started implementing different proprietary power-saving technologies that change the number of active phases in the processor voltage regulator dynamically depending on the current CPU utilization. By the way, Foxconn, unlike Asus, is not one of them yet.
However, too many voltage regulator phases is not the only reason for such high power consumption on Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard. In this case the board would be consuming more power in idle mode but about the same during heavy CPU utilization. However, this is not the case. Besides, our tests showed that dynamic deactivation of unused voltage regulator phases doesn’t save too much power anyway: only 3-7W. So, the absence of Foxconn’s proprietary power-saving technologies doesn’t really explain much. There is one thing, though, I can state for sure: even though all processor power-saving technologies remain up and running at all times, Foxconn BloodRAGE cannot be considered an energy-efficient solution neither during CPU overclocking, nor in the nominal mode.
The CD disk that comes bundled with Foxconn BloodRAGE contains all necessary drivers and a number of brand name utilities with detailed user instructions. These utilities are: FOX DMI, FOX LiveUpdate, FOX LOGO and Norton Internet Security 2008. Today we are going to dwell on the features of the new version of Foxconn’s own AEGIS PANEL utility. You may remember how bulky, awkward and inconvenient the first versions of this program were:
The second version of AEGIS PANEL looks totally different. Once you install it, a small panel appears along the right side of the screen and then disappears after a little while. It will reappear again if you roll the mouse pointer over that area.
Just roll the mouse pointer over one of the icons and it will expand, get animated and an explanatory description will be displayed above it. For example, a helmet symbolizes a monitoring panel.
Click on the icon and a sad half-empty window will open.
However, as soon as you roll the mouse pointer over the curved sword, you will see the current voltages:
The fan will reveal the fan rotation speeds:
By aiming at the pile of wood, you can get temperatures:
I was mistaken to believe that it was all this section could offer. However, after studying the manual for this utility I discovered that it is not enough to simply roll the mouse over the icons: you do need to click on them, too. By clicking on the sword, we can set the acceptable voltage intervals manually:
By clicking on the fan you can select the rotation speed adjustment mode.
If you get back to the AEGIS PANEL startup window and click on the sword, you can access the section where you can overclock your system.
The third icon with some armor on it serves to control the panel installed into the 5-inch chassis bay. It is an optional panel that wasn’t bundled with our mainboard sample, so we are not going to proceed with this section functionality at this time.
The next section of AEGIS PANEL also uses a curved sword icon. At first I couldn’t figure out what this section is designed for, “Save” and “Store” tabs have confusingly similar meanings.
And again I turned to the manual for help. It turned out that the “Save” tab offers us to choose one of the previously saved settings profiles to save it on an external storage device. “Store” tab on the contrary will help you move the profile save on your drive back into the BIOS. This way you can exchange profiles with your friends and keep reserve profile copies.
The last icon in the startup AEGIS PANEL window with an axe on it will open a page with one single setting that will enable utility launch on system boot-up.
Overall, despite radical change of the interface and slightly expanded functionality in the second version of Foxconn AEGIS PANEL, it still doesn’t seem very convenient to work with. Too many extra actions, half-empty large windows, non-obvious unintuitive features that you can only figure out after consulting the manual – all this made me uninstall the utility soon after my first encounter. As a small excuse, I could say that AEGIS PANEL is not the only utility like that today. Almost all mainboards’ proprietary utilities are created “on leftovers”. There are a lot of good mainboards out there, but barely any good brand name tools and programs.
I believe it is wrong to sum up the article in the last few paragraphs of the conclusion section for those who normally read only introduction and conclusion. This “reading” is counterproductive, you can’t get the essence and learn the details. You have to read the entire article to get a clear idea of the product and understand the conclusions. So, let’s sum up just a few things for ourselves, recall the major things about this mainboard that will help us make a fair and correct verdict.
Overall, Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard makes a very good impression. It comes with a very rich even excessive accessories bundle, boasts excellent looks and broad functionality. The mainboard layout is extremely successful, we can’t really list all engineering solutions that will make your experience with Foxconn BloodRAGE not only effective but also pleasant. The first few that come to mind are doubled retention holes around the CPU socket, contact pads for voltage monitoring, very conveniently organized work with two BIOS chips… This list can be very long, so let us mention practically the only serious drawback – memory DIMM slots located too close to the CPU socket. We can easily come up with an example when a large CPU cooler and (or) a memory module with a tall heat-spreader will simply not fit.
As for BIOS Setup, it has its advantages and drawbacks, but most importantly the developers continue improving their code, expanding its functionality and eliminating drawbacks. The reserve BIOS chip features an early P02 version in it and I have to tell you that it is dramatically different from the current P07 one in looks as well as functionality. So, we hope that Foxconn BloodRAGE will work even better with the time, although today already its BIOS has everything necessary for system fine tuning and overclocking.
After our tests we had quite a few comments about the practical aspects of Foxconn BloodRAGE operation. We are extremely concerned with very high power consumption in nominal mode. As for overclocking, the mainboard reaction to user actions lacks precision and perfection. The complex internal connections between different parameters make overclocking more difficult, while in theory it should be fast, easy and obvious. The saddest thing is that despite all our efforts we couldn’t push our CPU to its maximum frequency.
Well, summing up everything I have just said, let’s think what users Foxconn BloodRAGE may be best fit for? Of course, the board works just fine in nominal mode, but it is not fit for those users who prefer nominal modes with default settings, because of its high power consumption and not the lowest price. Actually, I was very surprised to find out that a mainboard based on a flagship Intel X58 Express solution that boasts extended functionality and very rich accessories bundle goes not for $500, not for $400 but for less than $300! Impressive! I would say that Foxconn BloodRAGE is probably the No. 1 mainboard in terms of price-to-features and functionality ratio. However, a mainstream user will probably be able to find a less ambitious and less expensive mainboard.
Obviously, Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard, like all other Foxconn boards from Quantum Force series, is primarily targeted at overclockers. However, the board is not quite suitable for those overclocking fans who care mostly about the final result, namely, who need to overclock the system quickly and start using it right away. Overclocking on Foxconn BloodRAGE is too complicated and unpredictable, you will spend too much time searching for most optimal and stable system configuration. Even though Foxconn may disagree with me, I still want to say that this board is unfit for extreme overclockers and record setters. The board didn’t let us overclock our CPU to the maximum frequencies that we managed to hit on other mainboards before.
I believe that Foxconn BloodRAGE will be a perfect fit only for true overclocking lover, for those who really enjoy the process and not just the result. These users will get if not an unlimited field for experiments then at least a very big one, a ton of opportunities for exciting experiments aimed at finding the most optimal combination of closely connected settings. Besides knowledge and experience, you will need patience, attention, even intuition and Foxconn BloodRAGE will undoubtedly reward you with excellent results. I am sure that you will surpass our modest achievements revealed today. Good luck!
Well, our review of Foxconn BloodRAGE mainboard has come to an end, however, I wanted to draw your attention to a few other Foxconn mainboards from Quantum Force series based on Intel X58 Express chipset and to an overall unusual situation. Foxconn used to release several “regular” mainboards on the same chipset and only one top product in the Quantum Force series. This time, however, there is the entire elite family of mainboards on Intel X58 Express. Foxconn BloodRAGE reviewed today is the top flagship solution in this family. The next one in this hierarchy is Foxconn BloodRAGE GTI that differs from the top model only by the absence of additional SAS and IEEE1394 controllers.
Besides, there are two more mainboards in the Quantum Force series that have very close features: Foxconn FlamingBlade and FlamingBlade GTI.
Foxconn FlamingBlade has two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots instead of the excessive four, the discrete sound card moved onto the board, the CPU voltage regulator circuitry has only six phases and there is only one Gigabit network controller.
FlamingBlade GTI also has no 4-in-1 Quantum Cooler and is equipped with common looking heatsinks that seem very efficient. Besides, there are no eSATA connectors on the back panel anymore.
I think Foxconn FlamingBlade and FlamingBlade GTI mainboards look even better-balanced than BloodRAGE and BloodRAGE GTI. They haven’t lost anything significant, I could even say that they have simply got rid of a few excessive functions having kept everything really necessary. Anyway, if are not happy about something in Foxconn BloodRAGE, you may be able to find a better option for you among the other three models in Foxconn Quantum Force series based on Intel X58 Express chipset.