Hardware Foxconn Renaissance

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/04/07/foxconn-renaissance-review/1

Is it a cupcake? Is it a speaker? No! It's a heatsink! Armed with it's novelty wares the Foxconn Renaissance is branded with the slogan for 'Digital Life', affording 'high performance computing, connectivity and digital entertainment'. Is that ambiguous marketing or part of a bigger idea?

 

Trust me, they don't. I've had one of these boards since November and thoroughly regretting getting it instead of the Asus P6T Deluxe - SLI doesn't work with 2 GTX280 cards for example despite trying with an Asus and an MSI SLI bridge I obtained from elsewhere. Could you guys try this board with two high end cards (2 x GTX280 or 2 x GTX285) and see if it works for you? For me, both cards light up "green" when only one should be green to say it's the dominant card and none of the 4 DVIs have any signal!

As for Fox One, it wasn't even available on their website until I submitted a tech support request for it! Then again, after I did get hold of the program, I was rather disappointed to find that it's rather rubbish really. Memory frequency adjustment is in 1MHz increments rather than selecting the compatible frequencies for example.

Other than that, it works quite well really!

 

They really should have called this board the 'Foxconn Cupcake' (I don't know why but I think that would be such a cool name especially given how it looks).

 

and bit-tech should use its newfound clout and influence to bring an endorsed 'cheesecake edition' motherboard to market.

i'd buy it!

 

Future motherboard reviews will be conducted with copious amounts of confectionery in future. It's a price on our health we're willing to take for you guys!

 

coffee or tea cup warmer

 

Does that motherboard actually not have a floppy port? We're finally making progress it seems! Now to get rid of the IDE port..

 

no floppy port!

The IDE on my board doesn't work properly though ah well, gave me incentive to upgrade to SATA optical!

Bit-Tech: pwetty pwetty please can you try this board with 2 x GTX280 (if you still have the board) and see if you get the same result that I did?

 

Possibly aimed at Mr Kipling!

 

I'll see if I can get round to it next week.

 

Is there actually a fan in that cupcake northbridge heatsink ?
I thought it doubled up as a speaker, and was wondering why anyone would want to put a magnet on the NB....

 

no, it's just a ring of orange, the dark bit in the centre is actually hollow - it's not even UV reactive :-( (the RAM and PCI-E 16x are though!)

 

Thanks Bindi, It's annoying the hell out of me as I effectively have a ~£200 graphics card sitting here that I can't use, would be good to see if it's the board (in which case the Ren gets sold and a P6T Del get's bought instead) or the GPU (in which case the GPU gets sold)

I trust your verdict more than the relatively useless tech support of Foxconn: "um... well we tried it with 2x 9800 GTX+ and it worked, maybe it's your SLI bridge..." (have tried it with two bridges from different manufacturers, not had a response for 4 days now since telling them that)

 

what's with crazy cooling solutions? can't manufacturers learn that the simple non-expensive solution is always the best solution.

i get a feeling Foxconn and MSI motherboard cooler designers are not engineers! they are building architects.

nice looking board though, perhaps only Foxconn's high end and perhaps Asus ROG series can hold a candle against the looks of Abit iP35 pro.

 

okay the chipset cooler looking like a speaker is pretty cool.

 

The lack of any good competition against the P6T(aside from the EVGA X58 SLI), makes me sad, but then again I'm still rolling with an E8400 and a EP45-UD3P(one of the best choices I've ever made).

 

By the way, Is it even possible for more than 2X Crossfire/SLI? As the 4 PCI-E slots are smacked together.

 

With single slot card like an ATI4850, yes. I don't think you can have 4 way SLI with 4 separate cards though.

 

+1

Cheesecake Edition > Fatal1ty Edition any day of the week.

 

single slot cards or dual slot that has been water cooled to a single slot