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FIC AU13 nForce2-ST Motherboard Review
FIC AU13 nForce2-ST Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
FIC's AU13 takes over where the AU11 left off and add's the ever important Serial ATA ports.
 82% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: FIC Apr 17 2003   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > FIC AU13

Conclusions on the FIC AU13

If you're in the market for a nForce2 motherboard the FIC AU13 is definitely for you. With a retail price of $135 CDN ($90 US) the AU13 has more features and is less expensive the even the FIC AU11! The FIC AU13 didn't prove to be much of an overclockers motherboard, so if that's your game perhaps you'd be best to look elsewhere.

In terms of performance the AU13 did very well for itself, it kept up with Epox's 8RDA+ easily in terms of stock performance. As you saw overclocking was quite difficult however. Perhaps if FIC were to use a larger passive/active heatsink with some thermal paste, the motherboard could have reached a higher FSB.

There were still a few things I disliked about the motherboard. My biggest issue with the AU13 is the small Northbridge heatsink. I wish FIC would have gone with a larger passive/active cooler and use some thermal paste between instead of the thermal pad. While I understand AMD does not require the four mounting holes around the CPU socket anymore, it would have been nice for FIC to include them anyway since many of the other manufacturers already do.

FIC has packed quite a bit into this motherboard, there's 10/100 LAN, nVidia APU 5.1 audio, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, and Serial ATA. If you find yourself needing more, expanding the AU13 is a breeze with its six PCI slots. The layout of the AU13 is great, there are no capacitors, headers or anything else that will get in the way with longer/full length PCI devices. It was nice to see that big black heatsink on the southbridge, that chip is not going to overheat.

If you're priorities are a motherboard that's relatively quick, extremely stable and has a good set of features for a good price, you'll like the what the FIC AU13 has to offer.

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Related Articles

Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...

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3. ABIT NF7-M nForce2 IGP Motherboard Review
4. Asus A7N8X nForce2-SPP Motherboard Review

5. MSI K7N2-L nForce2 Motherboard Review

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Contents of Article: FIC AU13
 Pg 1.  FIC AU13 nForce2-ST Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  What will you find on the AU13?
 Pg 3.  Heatsink Clearances and Overclocking
 Pg 4.  The AU13 BIOS
 Pg 5.  Benchmarks: SysMark2002, Winstone 2002
 Pg 6.  Benchmarks: Winbench 99, SiSoft Sandra 2003
 Pg 7.  Benchmarks: PCMark2002, 3DMark2001SE
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: QIII Arena, UT2003
 Pg 9.  — Conclusions on the FIC AU13

 
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