Foxconn is the one of the largest component manufacturers in the world, but while its Quantum Force range of enthusiast motherboards are some of the best available, its standard range of motherboards often leaves something to be desired.
The unimaginatively (but at least clearly) named P43A is based on the Intel P43 chipset. Theoretically, this means that it shouldn't support 400MHz FSB CPUs, but like all the P43 motherboards in this Labs test, Foxconn has modified the BIOS so that it does. The P43 chipset is slightly cheaper than the P45 chipset, making the Foxconn P43A the cheapest LGA775 motherboard in this Labs test.
It's easy to see how Foxconn has managed to make this motherboard for such a low price. For starters, there's no RAID controller, which isn't a big deal at this end of the market, while the Northbridge, Southbridge and VRMs are cooled by very basic aluminium heatsinks. However, the P43A provides six S-ATA II ports and up to 12 USB 2 ports. Although the P43A has two 16x PCI-E 2.0 slots, the second slot has only four lanes, which isn't fast enough for a second graphics card in CrossFire. The three PCI slots will be considerably more useful, leaving plenty of space for a sound card, WiFi and TV tuner, or other combination of expansion cards.
The P43A proved to be the slowest motherboard in this Labs test. The BIOS isn't very intuitive to use, as you can only increase the vcore, Northbridge and RAM voltages in increments of a fixed value, which are determined by the BIOS, and not the absolute voltage. As there are no other voltage options available and the BIOS doesn't auto-recover from a bad overclock, therefore necessitating a CMOS clear, we could only increase the FSB to 415MHz without running into stability problems. This is the same overclock as that of the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3LR, which has a much more user-friendly BIOS.
Although the Foxconn P43A isn't a bad motherboard, the Intel P43 chipset leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike its forebear, the P31 chipset, which was eminently overclockable (to 470MHz or more), the P43 isn't a good overclocker. Given that you can pick up a far more capable P45-based motherboard for just £18 more, buying a Foxconn P43A is a false economy.
Author: James Gorbold & Antony Leather
Foxconn P43A