Board Revision: n/a

BIOS Version: September 14, 2004

Taiwanese tiger Foxconn markets the WinFast label in its AMD-based boards. Traditionally, Foxconn has mainly produced Intel-based boards under its own brand name.

This is the only board in the test to use the 755FX chipset from SiS, which is far less common than the nForce chipsets from NVIDIA or VIA's K8T series. In terms of features, the SiS chipset is about on a par with the others. It combines an AGP-based architecture with the well-known Southbridge SiS964, featuring two UltraATA/133 channels and two SATA ports. The requisite AC97 sound system and a 100 MBit network controller are also on board. SiS is not planning to launch a Gigabit model until later chip generations, mainly for cost reasons.

In addition to the chipset features there is also a FireWire chip from Agere, and an additional Silicon Image SATA controller that adds two more ports into the mix. We were impressed by the board's snazzy design, as none of the flat cables get in the way of expansion cards. Plus, WinFast has happily opted out of using an active cooler for the Northbridge chip.

Unfortunately, our attempt to update the Flash BIOS failed. Users have to download both the Flash program and the data file from www.foxconnchannel.com. This can be quite confusing to buyers, as the connection between Foxconn and WinFast is not explained. When we tried to flash the BIOS, AWDFLASH reported an "unknown flash type", so the update was unsuccessful. This did not lead to any problems, however, and the benchmark results are also solid.