The Episode III of X58 war- The Foxconn Quantum Force BloodRage locked

FOXCONN started to develop high-end motherboard since 2007.
They use different code name for each of their High-end products for having a higher brand awareness.
Such like they named their P35 motherboard as “MARS” and “Blackops” as their X48. So on and so on.

This time they launch their brand new product of Intel X58, so-called the Highest-end chipset of Intel.
Blood Rage is the code name of Quantum Force series X58 motherboard. It sounds so gamer-centric and full of vigor.

First of all, I like to show the packing outlook to you guys.
Look similar to other brand’s highest-end motherboard packing.
But I found that Foxconn Quantum Force packing has a lot improvement than before models.


The inside box accessories,
Users manual, installation guide and other relative information.


Here are all the cables, which likes SATA cable with the right angle design.
Some connectors, IO shield, NB additional fan and the water block…etc.



BloodRage bundles with the audio daughter card they called “Sonar X-Fi” audio card.
They provides 2 different ways for NB cooling: the water block and a container for LN2.


Foxconn Quantum Force BloodRage
The main colors of it are Black and Red, this color matching seems to be one of the best looking in market.
I like something clear and stylish.






The lower left of the board :
It features with 4 x PCIe x16 slots
(supports 2 x 16X or 4 x 8X, also supports both ATI Crossfire and Nvidia SLI or PhyX card)
1 x PCIe X1 slot
1 x PCI slot


The lower right part of the board :
It features with :
6 x SATAII (ICH10R, supports RAID 0/1/5/10)
4 x SATAII ( JmicronR322, supportsRAID 0/1/JBOD)
1 x IDE
Dual BIOS, on board power & reset buttom and Debug LED...



The upper right part:
It features:
3 dimms which supports 133/1600/1800, the maximums capacity can be up to 12GB
BloodRage features 3 dimms design which’s different from others in market.
I heard that is a Intel’s suggestion, all about a good DDR3 performance.
The left hand side is the 24pin power input.

BloodRage boot-up screen


BIOS main option screen


The voltage and ratio settings are within Quantum BIOS section.


CPU Feature


DDR3 timing setting pages, XMP(Extreme memory profile) are here.


The voltage part:
CPU Core Voltage +10~1260mV(CPU maximum 2.52875V)
CPU VTT Voltage +10~1260mV
DRAM Voltage 1.50~2.86V(after1.60V, the interval is 0.01V)
CPU Vdroop Compensation.
That is a function for CPU to maintain a stability environment when CPU is in a heavy voltage loading status.


Every steps of the DDR3 parts are so “fine tune” like,
X58:IOH core Voltage. 1.10 ~ 2.36V(interval is only 0.02V)


The Backup slots provided 8 different « slots » for users to load and save their OC settings.
Foxconn Features provides various functions.


Hardware Monitor

DDR3 2000 CL9 9-9-24 1T, BIOS 1.65V
SP2004 3 X bland mode, 5.80G full loading status !



DDR3 2074 CL9 9-9-24 1T,BIOS 1.65V
Sandra Memory Bandwidth-35575MB/s


DDR3 2102 CL9 9-9-24 1T,BIOS 1.65V
Super 1M/CPUMARK99


DRAM part really shows a good record to us.
I think 3dimms design should be a key point to make the OC ability to be better than before.


CPU:
Intel Core i7 965 Extreme

CPU 133.7 X 29=>3876Mhz
DRAM DDR3 1871 CL8 8-8-24 1T

CrystalMark 2004R3


CINEBENCH R10


3DMARK VANTAGE


CPU FSB 206.2Mhz/DDR3 2062 CL9 9-9-24 1T


Now I changed the Intel Core i7 920 for the test:
218Mhz Super PI 1M/CPUMARK99


After my initial test, Blood Rage’s FSB record is apparently not bad.
No matter i7 965Extreme or 920 are all can reach the lever to 206 to 218MHz.
I have updated the G15 version(12/30) BIOS , the overall performance is obviously having advancement.
I hope follow-up version BIOS can be kept the same standard.


The conclusion of FOXCONN Quantum Force Blood Rage
The merits:
1.No matter the Packing/ bundling and mother design, this model almost the best looking one to other X58 models in market.
2.Various BIOS option, wild range of voltage adjustment, OC ability is really not bad.
3.Supports both the ATI CrossFireX ad NVIDIA 3-way SLI. Full “coverage”
4.Total 14 phases hybrid PWM, an extraordinary design for PWM.
The board has 100% Japanese solid-state capacitor. And X-Fi audio card.
5.3 extra PWM to support the DRAM power supplying. 4 ways cooler for NB
6.Good connectivity: 6 x SATAII, 2 x eSATA, IEEE1394 ports
7.Dual BIOS + on board Power/ Reset/ CMOS Reset button.

Drawbacks:
1.The “market availability” is not that well in Channels around the world.
Users’re not that easy to buy QF products. Hope this can be improved soon.
2.The XMP only supports DDR3 1600(highest). It would be perfect If it can supported DDR3 1866.
3.The additional fan for NB is not easy to install with NB.


Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆
Features/ component ★★★★★★★★★★
Appearance: ★★★★★★★★★★
C/P ratio ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

The price of FOXCONN Quantum Force BloodRage is around USD$300.
OthersX58 is almost having a price that “more or less”.
But, some other brands has launching their step-lower models of X58, price is around USD220~240.
If Quantum Force can also launch another X58 in this price segment, I think it’ll be very competitive in market.


FOXCONN contributes a high-end product line”Quantum Force” about more than 1year.
They launched motherboards which based on P35/X48/P45/780a/X58 chipset.
Those models are all designed and positioning under a highest-performance platform.
Therefore, the components or the layout design is getting better and better each time.
And the bundling, software or some OC gears are also elaborated by their design team.
Hope they keep the momentum in 2009.
It’s good to see more and more “new” brand in good quality and creativity.

AnandTech review:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3489