FIRST LOOK: Foxconn 755-A01 for Athlon 64

The number of new computer products seems to grow exponentially, while the lifetime of new products becomes shorter and shorter. Since you come to AnandTech for information, we will be using our FIRST LOOK reviews to bring you hands-on, shorter reviews of more computer gear. First Looks and Roundups will be used to bring you more information comparing products. Our in-depth reviews will be reserved for new chipsets, significant new products, or boards that simply deserve a more in-depth look. When we gave our Editor's Choice to the SiS 755 chipset, we really expected to see motherboards from some of the familiar names in the motherboard market. First out of the gate was the ECS 755, which was clearly designed to be a value board. The first generation ECS fell short in many areas, but ECS continued to improve the board. It certainly had matured by revision A2, when we did a full review of the ECS 755-A2. The ECS performed well, but had modest overclocking controls and a very basic feature set. We continued to hope that some manufacturers would do even more with the excellent 755 chipset.

Foxconn is the second manufacturer to supply a SiS 755 motherboard for review. For those of you who are not familiar with Foxconn, they are probably best known for their electronic components, particularly slots and connectors. Regardless of who made your motherboard, you are likely to have some Foxconn connectors on the board. Recently, Foxconn has been bringing motherboards to market. While early offerings have been geared toward the value segment, Foxconn has plans to extend their line and bring more cutting - edge boards to market in the future. For now, their only Socket 754 offering for Athlon 64 is the 755-A01 based on the SiS chipset. Foxconn has been in the Intel motherboard segment a bit longer, and has a broader range of chipsets available for the Pentium 4.

The 755 was an impressive chipset. Does Foxconn bring a better feature set to the market? How does the 755-A01 compare to other SiS 755 boards? We also took a closer look at the 755-A01 performance compared to other motherboards that we have tested for the Athlon 64.