Foxconn P35 specs
Specification
| Foxconn P35A | |
|---|---|
| Item | Specification |
| Processor Support | All Intel dual/quad-core LGA775 processors, including Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Extreme models. Pentium 4-series, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium D-series 45nm and 1333MHz FSB support. Upcoming Celeron D support. |
| Northbridge | Intel P35 (MCH) |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH9 |
| Memory Support | 4 DIMMs, DDR2, 533/667/800/1067*, 8GiB max |
| Graphics (main) | 1 x PCI Express Graphics x16 |
| PCI Express | 1 x PCIe x4 (x16 mechanical) via ICH9 1 x PCIe x1 from ICH9 |
| PCI Conventional | 3 slots; PCI2.2 |
| ATA | 1 ATA133 port, JMicron JMB361, PCIe to ICH9 |
| SATA | 4 ports SATA2 AHCI, ICH9 eSATA, JMB361 |
| SATA RAID | None |
| LAN | Gigabit, (1 x 10/100/1000), Realtek PCIe and PCI to ICH9 |
| Audio | HD Audio, 10-channel, Realtek ALC888 codec, ICH9 |
| Floppy | 1 port |
| FireWire | None |
| USB | 12 ports, USB2.0, ICH9 |
| I/O ports | PS/2, Serial, Parallel, eSATA, 4 x USB2.0, 1 x RJ45, audio, coaxial S/PDIF-out |
| Monitoring ASIC | FoxOne |
| Fan headers | 4 |
| Form factor | ATX - 12in x 9.6in |
| Street price as at 21/05/07 | ~£99 inc. VAT |
* - the BIOS that we tested with, P17, removed DDR2-1066 support as a configurable option. Foxconn assures us that production models' BIOSes will have this high-bandwidth option intact.
Discussion
Foxconn will be releasing two P35-based boards. The standard P35A's specifications are listed above. The P35A-S will carry additional features that include FireWire and the provision of the enhanced ICH9R southbridge, which adds a further 2 SATA2 ports and RAID functionality.Coming back to the stripped-down P35A, priced at around £99, its main selling points, when compared to P965, are based around official support for all upcoming LGA775 Intel CPUs.
We like the fact that Foxconn has used the chipset's 22 PCIe lanes in a sensible fashion. It's included a second mechanical x16 slot, run electrically at x4, to provide CrossFire multi-GPU or basic multi-monitor support. The second slot's limited bandwidth (x4) may be an issue and we'll investigate that in our performance section.
The use of the ICH9 southbridge limits SATA ports to 4 and doesn't provide redundancy/extra performance by way of chipset-integrated RAID. If you need that, the P35A-S will be a better, if more expensive, bet.
ATA support has been added via the use of a JMicron controller. Intel doesn't like PATA but most manufacturers, like Foxconn, tend to add in discrete ASICs and thus cater for a broad range of potential users who still run ATA-based drives, mainly on the optical front.
We like hot-plug eSATA for its generally overhead-free transfers and the steady proliferation of eSATA-equipped external caddies makes its addition a useful feature.