Foxconn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Motherboard Review :: The Board

Foxconn 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Spec Sheet
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Part Number	925XE7AA-8EKRS2
Manufacturer	Foxconn
Price Check	Find Best Price
Downloads	BIOS Drivers Manuals
Chipset	Intel 925XE Express ICH6R
North Bridge	Intel 82925XE MCH
Socket	LGA775 Socket
Processor Types	Pentium 4
Number of CPUs	1
Hyper-Threading Support	Yes
Front Side Bus	1066/800MHz
Memory Type	DDR2
Memory Channels	Dual
Maximum Memory	4GB
External Graphics	PCI Express x16
IGP	None
South Bridge	Intel 82801FR ICH6R
Audio	8-channel
IDE	100/66/33
SCSI	None
SATA	1.5 GB/s
RAID	0, 1, 0+1
LAN	10/100/1000
Firewire	IEEE 1394b/a
USB	USB 2.0
Expansion Slots
BIOS	AWARD
Form Factor	ATX

The 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 board is based upon the 925XE chipset. This chipset offers support for all of the latest Intel LGA-775 CPUs whether on the 800MHz or 1066MHz FSB, including the 3.46 Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, which is the only 1066MHz FSB available. Memory support is provided by 4 240-pin DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Modules) for up to 4GB of unbuffered non-ECC DDR2 memory. The memory slots are color coded in pairs to designate dual-channel mode.

The Foxconn board includes a PCI Express X16 slot for the graphics card. If you are buying this motherboard be aware that the memory slots will be blocked by a longer card such as a 6800GT or Ultra. A normal sized card like a X800XT PCI Express card fits without blocking any of the memory slots. PCI Express X16 provides up to 4GB of bandwidth, which is twice the AGP8X bandwidth that the PCI Express slot replaces.

Expansion options on this board exceed the norm. In addition to the PCI Express X16 slot, Foxconn appointed the board with 3 PCI Express X1 slots and 3 PCI 2.3 compliant slots. Most boards on the market today sport only 2 PCI slots, and 3 PCI Express X1 slots, or 3 PCI Express X1 slots and 2 PCI slots. If you use a 2 slot video card like the X850XT PE or 6800 Ultra, one of the PCI Express X1 slots will be unavailable.

One thing you'll never run out of on this board is hard drive support. The Foxconn 925XE board sports no less than 8 SATA ports, 4 on the far side of the board controlled by a Silicon Image 3114 controller and 4 below PCI slots 1 and 2 controlled by the ICH6R. This board supports Intel's Matrix RAID technology via the ICH6R controller. The positioning is excellent, as the SATA ports are in easy reach. The 925XE board has 3 IDE connectors and a floppy drive connector, with the ITE controller providing PATA RAID support.

The input/output block on the Foxconn 925XE board is well appointed. Present are a PS/2 mouse/keyboard port, a parallel port, a COM1 port, a SPDIF jack, six jacks for the onboard sound, 4 USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire port and 2 RJ45 jacks for two Gigabit Ethernet ports. A Realtek PHY controls the Gigabit Ethernet ports.

A Realtek ALC880 CODEC provides onboard audio. This supports Intel's High Definition Audio standard that is replacing the AC'97 audio standard. The HDA standard nearly alleviates the need for a discrete sound solution like a Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS or similar sound card solution. HDA offers support for 7.1 surround sound and most of the current sound APIs including EAX. Realtek has an audio jack sensing utility to tell when there are speakers or headphones connected.

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