Foxconn X38A (Intel X38)
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Date: 04.12.2007
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Overclocking and stability
Prior to moving to overclocking, let's look into the power converter. It uses a 6-phase power scheme, in which there are four 271 mkF and nine 561 mkF capacitors.
To facilitate the thermal mode of the power supply module, there is quite a massive radiator on the power components.
Now move on to examining the overclocking tools which are gathered in the "Fox Central Control Unit" section.
First off, Foxconn X38A allows adjusting the system bus speed within the nominal (200/266/333) to 800 MHz in 1 MHz increments. Of convenience is that you can enter the desired FSB value from the keyboard.
Secondly, the board allows raising the CPU voltage (Vcore) by 0.3875V in 0.0125V increments.
Then, the advanced user can raise the Vmem by 0.892V (in 0.032V increments).
The programmers at Foxconn have implemented a multi-colored highlighting of values. Safe values are highlighted in customary white, with those potentially dangerous highlighted in red-orange.
We get a feature for raising voltage on the north bridge (by 0.38V in 0.032V increments)
Besides, the user can raise voltage on the south bridge by 0.424V (in 0.037V increments)
and on the system bus - by 0.56V (in 0.08V increments).
During the overclocking experiments, we came across numerous problems which the board was to blame for. But a couple of days before the review was complete, the new BIOS (723F1P03) was released in which most of the errors were fixed. Nevertheless, the maximum stable FSB speed in the test specimen was 400 MHz.
We are not enumerating the BIOS flaws over here. The thing is, we got one of the preliminary engineering samples, and the final version of the board will arrive at our lab in mid-December (right at the time when the comparative roundup review of motherboards based on P35 and X38 has been published). At that time, we'll also determine the true overclocking capability of Foxconn X38A.
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