Foxconn P35A and ECS P35T-A: two novelties on a new chipset
Layout and Features
Externally, both the motherboards can be referred to as belonging to the same class.
To cool the power supply module and the chipset, the boards use radiators, without fans. However, the radiators on the Foxconn motherboard are larger in dimensions, so provide better cooling efficiency.
Each motherboard has four 240-pin DIMM slots for DDR2 memory modules, with the overall supported memory capacity being up to 8 GB.
Note that the Foxconn motherboard uses a red LED: it lights up once voltage is applied (or when the system is in the stand-by mode). Once the system starts up, the LED goes out.
Both the boards use two PCI Express x16 slots each.
However, because of the chipset's limitations, the full-featured 16 bus lanes are allocated to the first slot only. For the second slot, only 4 lanes are left. In the end, if the user intends to use the Crossfire, it will run in the slowest mode (16+4).
Also, each of these boards uses three PCI and one PCI Express x1 slots.
As we already noted, Foxconn P35A uses the south bridge ICH9, whereas ECS P35T-A - ICH9R. In the end, the Foxconn board supports 4 SerialATA II links, and ECS - 6 links.
Besides, the boards use the additional ParallelATA/SerialATA controller JMB361 made by JMicron. This chip provides support for one ParallelATA line (support for this protocol is missing in the south bridges Intel ICH8R and ICH9R) and one SerialATA II line. On both the motherboards, the additional SATA line is brought over to the rear panel.
In the end, the user can plug in as many as 7 hard disks (5 SATA + 2 PATA) to the Foxconn board, whereas 9 hards (7 SATA + 2 PATA) to the ECS product.
Then, ICH9 and ICH9R support 12 USB2.0 ports. On the Foxconn board, 4 ports are located on the rear panel, with 8 more plugged in with headers (the board comes bundled with a header for two ports). On the ECS board, the ports configuration is somehow different: 6 on the rear panel, with six more being additional (no headers are in the package bundle).
The Intel High Definition Audio subsystem in both the boards is almost identical; the differences are only about the codecs being used: the Foxconn board uses an ALC888 chip, whereas on P35T-A the ALC883 codec. Both the boards support the SP-DIF output, but on the Foxconn board it has been brought over to the rear panel.
Now a few words on the network: both the motherboards support high-speed conneciton. The Foxconn board uses a Gigabit LAN RTL 8111B controller, whereas on the ECS - Intel 82566DC.
The boards' rear panels are of the following configuration:
It should be noted that the Foxconn motherboard uses both a LPT port and two COM ports (the latter is implemented with a plate; missing in the bundle), on the ECS there is only one COM port, with the LPT port plugged in via a plate (missing in the bundle).
Among the additional features, of note is the special FoxOne chip on the Foxconn motherboard. As you already know, the FoxOne chip is meant for executing such tasks like dynamic overclocking, system monitoring, power management, and control of the fans' rotational speeds. It also closely interacts with the the FoxOne utility that allows the user to control the mentioned features from within Windows.
The board also uses the (Power) and (Reset) buttons:
Now on to the BIOS settings.
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