Review-Foxconn A9DA-S Motherboard: High-end, Yet Affordable
The 890GX chipset sits on the second-highest position in AMD’s current lineup, which means that it’s an enthusiast product designed for high-end systems. However, this is not the case with Foxconn’s A9DA-S, a motherboard based on the 890GX. Priced well below US$ 100, the A9DA-S offers 890 GX’s features and performance while keeping the cost at a minimum. Maybe Foxconn is trying to attract budget-conscious system builders with this low-priced alternative.
We’ll be exploring the motherboard’s performance and feature sets in this article. But first, let’s take a look at the specification table.
Specification
| Processor: | AMD Phenom™II,Athlon™II processors, Socket AM3 |
| Chipset: | AMD® 890GX + SB850 |
| Front Side Bus: | 4.8 GT/s HyperTransport |
| Memory: | Dual channel DDR3 1600(oc)/1333/1066 x 4 DIMMs, Max. 16GB |
| VGA on Die: | Integrated ATI® Radeon™ HD4290 |
| Expansion Slots: | 2* PCIe 2.0 x16, 2* PCIe 2.0 x1, 2* PCI |
| IDE: | N/A |
| Serial ATA(SATA)/RAID: | SATAIII * 5 + eSATA * 1 w / RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 |
| Audio: | 7.1 channel HD Audio |
| LAN: | Gigabit LAN |
| IEEE1394: | IEEE1394a * 2 |
| Back Panel I/O Ports: | 1 x PS/2 keyboard port 1 x IEEE1394a port 1 x VGA port 1 x HDMI port 1 x DVI-D port 1 x Audio jack supports 6 jacks 6 x USB 2.0 ports 1 x RJ45 LAN port 1 x S/PDIF OUT port |
| Internal I/O Connectors: | 1 x ATX 24-Pin power connector 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector 3 x 4-pin CPU / System / NB FAN connectors 1 x CD-in connector 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x COM header 1 x Speaker 4 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 8 ports 2 x onboard Power-on/Rest buttons 5 x Serial ATAIII connectors 1 x eSATA connector 1 x Front Panel header 1 x IEEE1394a connector |
| BIOS Features: | 16Mb flash EEPROM w/ LAN boot PnP, ACPI, WfM, DMI |
| Support CD: | Drivers, DirectX10.1, Adobe Reader, SuperUtilities, Norton Internet Security |
| Standards/Manageability: | PCI 2.3, USB2.0, DMI 2.5 |
| Special Features: | * Based on AMD 890GX chipset with AOD Extreme & SB850 Southbridge * 2* PCIe x16 Gen2.0 with ATI CrossFireX™ and Hybrid Graphics™ support * onboard side port memory-128MB DDR3 1333 support, with graphics performance increasing over 15% * Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz(overclocking) support with AM3 socket Phenom™II processors * 100% SOLID Capacitor design and Ferrite Choke power delivery ensure a stable basis for overclocking and increased reliability * Fully supports AMD OverDrive™ utility for overclocking, system monitoring and testing. |
| Form Factor: | ATX (12.0″ x 9.6″) |
Sales Package and Contents
The package box design is rather unassuming with only few marketing gimmicks as opposed to the box of high-end motherboards which are usually adorned with all sorts of writing to explain the features. Still, what counts is the motherboard (and bundle) inside.
We found a fairly standard bundle package inside. One extra addition comes in the form of the e-SATA bracket that can be installed on the back of the computer.
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