It was a great move for AMD
to integrate the memory controller into the Athlon64 processor as this
guaranteed that even the value-end of Athlon64 systems would maintain a high
level of performance.
With that in mind, realistically the only thing that differentiates a high
and low end motherboard these day are features. If consumers want to use dual
videocards, two Gigabit NICs, and half a dozen Serial ATA ports, be prepared to
spend the money. On the other hand, if you want a no frills Athlon 64 system,
that's also a possibility.
Never let the fact that Foxconn is not a well known motherboard brand (yet)
hold you back from taking in what we've learned here. The Foxconn Winfast
NF4K8AC-8EKRS handled the benchmarks well, and is pretty much able to keep up
with the best of the reference boards, except that its price is just $115 CDN ($95 USD)! If you're looking to
build a budget or entry level system, this is certainly a motherboard to keep it
in mind.
Given the tight pricing here, it's not surprising that
the Foxconn NF4K8AC-8EKRS does not come with a lot of goodies... but the basics
like 7.1 audio, Gigabit LAN and IEEE 1394a are at least covered. If there is a
feature that's missing, there are four PCI slots and two PCI Express x1 slots
for future expansion.
The WinFast NF4K8AC-8EKRS motherboard is not
particularly user friendly, so if it is your first system build, you might want
to have a friend look over everything before powering it on. The board layout of
the NF4K8AC-8EKRS is good but there are a few quirks. While I don't like the
location of the floppy drive connector, that is nothing to cry about, what I
didn't understand though was the location of the auxiliary power connector!? The
only thing I will say about that is, it is in the worst possible
location.
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