The AM2 / AM2+ based Foxconn A78AX 3.0 motherboard.
For about a year now, Foxconn's been lying low in the local component scene. What was first a fiery attempt into penetrating the realm of established value motherboard brands like ECS and ASrock, and even the realm of the big three - ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, dwindled to a trickle feed, enough to maintain presence but not enough to drive the product closer into the hands of the Filipino consumer. We recently attended a small gathering arranged by one of the major players in the tech distribution industry in the country, ATP Peripherals, and there's no reason not to believe Foxconn's serious at taking a shot at the Philippines' markets once more.
Expect to see more motherboards and casings bearing the Foxconn brand in the next few months nationwide. If you don't know what a Foxconn is or what they're about, they're one of the major global giants who makes all sort of electronic products behind a long list of brands we love to hear about, including Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Sony, and Nokia. Your XBOX and PlayStation's made by them, too.
Motherboards and highend computer casings are the two major focus points for Foxconn for the next few months, and they're into nettops and netbooks as well - but you won't see Foxconn branded computers in these sort of products, since they're already the big guns behind some of the local brands like Neo.
In terms of the kind of motherboards we can expect to see, in the mainstream and entry-level segment, ATP has told us that they'll be bringing in the G31 and G41 for the Intel Core 2 series and H55 varieties for the Core i-series to the market. In the high-end segment, Foxconn wants to take a bat at the big three with their Quantum Force line of motherboards. And with names like Inferno Katana, Flaming Blade, Blood Rage, and Black Ops, we think they've already got a good start in connecting with the PC gaming consumer. They're also planning to bring in motherboards for the AMD platform, too, namely boards using the AMD 800-series chipsets.
We've spoken to Grace Leu, Foxconn's Sales Manager responsible for the Asia Pacific region and she tells us they're forming up exciting programs and activities with their exclusive local distributor, ATP, that should steer computer buyers and enthusiasts into their fold. Among the things users can expect is a competitive after sales service. ATP's giving all the boards a 2-year warranty and should there be anything that breaks down due to a manufacturing defect and is covered by the warranty, users can get them replaced without too much of a hassle.
Grace says they'll re-enter the market with full guns blazing (not her exact words), entering the competition with quality products at more affordable prices.
In the coming months, we've heard they may be eying a motherboard exchange program that will let users upgrade to a newer motherboard while disposing of their old one. We don't have too much details on this yet, but as it is, the thought already steers up more than the usual excitement in this segment.
Grace Leu, Foxconn's Sales Manager for the Asia Pacific region delivers the good news. The board above is the Foxconn A78AX 3.0.
They also provide ITX motherboard solutions. This one is the Foxconn D51S, equipped with Intel's latest Atom processor for the entry-level desktop platform, the Intel Atom D510 along with the Intel NM10 chipset. It has 2 DIMM slots for up to 4GB of DDR2 800 or 667MHz memory. It has 2 SATA 3.0Gbps ports, Gigabit LAN, 5.1 channel audio, 4 USB ports + 2 USB headers, the other standard ports available in motheboards, and a PCI slot. It's making use of the in-chip Intel HD graphics GMA 3150 graphics processor, too. It's also got a TPM header for those who need such.
The Foxconn G31MV Micro ATX motherboard. This one obviously bats for the entry level and mainstream segment. This has the G31 + ICH7 chipset combination and supports up to Intel's Core 2 Duo or Quad processors, up to 4GB of DDR2 800 or 667MHz memory with its 2 DIMMs. It also has a PCI Express x16, a PCI Express x1, and 2 PCI interfaces, 4x SATA 3.0Gbps ports, 10/100 LAN, 5.1 channel audio. An Intel integrated graphics chip is built into the board.
And this is the micro ATX Foxconn G41MX-F 2.0. It's using the G41 + ICH7 combo and made for use with Intel's Core 2 line of CPUs. This one can take in up to 8GB of DDR2 800 or 667MHz memory, has a PCI Express x16, a PCI Express x1, and 2 PCI interfaces, 4x SATA 3.0Gbps ports, Gigabit LAN, and 5.1 channel audio. There's also a TPM header for security purposes, too.
Now we're talking of a little more performance oomph here. This is the Foxconn P55-A, supporting Intel's latest Core i-series of processors. It's running on the Intel P55 chipset and can take in up to 16GB of DDR3 1333 or 1066MHz memory. It's got a PCI Express x16 slot, an x4, and x1, and 3 regular PCI slots. This model's got Intel Matrix Storage technology and has 6 SATA 3.0Gbps ports with RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 support. It's got Gigabit LAN, 8x USB 2.0 ports + 3x USB headers, and 7.1 channel HD audio (by VIA's VT1828S).
This is the Foxconn G41MXE (got plenty of choices here don't we?), this almost the same as the G41MX-F 2.0 above in terms of features but differs in a few key areas, one of them is in the graphics chipset used. This one's on Intel's GMA 4500.
And this is the Foxconn H55MX-S motherboard, which is very similar to the P55-A model above but again, differs in certain key areas, namely this one supports the built-in Intel HD graphics that some of the newer Core i-series processors have built-in. Audio is handled by the Realtek ALC888S sound chip.
The Foxconn H55MX-V - again, very similar to the H55MX-S above, but this one comes with 5.1 channel audio instead of the 7.1 that the above board comes with.