Intel X58 Roundup: Six $300+ Platforms Compared

Foxconn Blood Rage

Features and Layout

Foxconn seems a little perplexed about the name of its latest Quantum Force motherboard, calling it "BLOOD RAGE," "BLOODRAGE," "BloodRage," or "Blood Rage" in various electronic and printed documents. We had to list every variation at least once to make them all “searchable,” but inconsistent naming aside, it’s a really striking product.

Extreme overclockers are the target market for the Blood Rage, as with previous Quantum Force products, and the highest-speed memory configurations will always use the minimum number of modules required to fill all channels. The lack of a second set of memory slots is forgivable in keeping with the Quantum Force overclocking theme, but users who want more than 6 GB of RAM must wait for 4.0 GB module availability.

Another thing that makes the Blood Rage unique is its ability to hold LGA-775-style coolers. The addition of legacy mounting holes makes sense when one considers the scant availability of LGA-1366-compatible water blocks during the first few months of Core i7's existence, and continues to allow extreme overclockers to use their earlier-design liquid-nitrogen cooling pots.

An additional feature that separates the Blood Rage from other products in today’s comparison is its support for 4-way CrossFireX (QuadFire) configurations using single-slot graphics cards. Four-GPU configurations using dual-GPU products, such as two Radeon HD 4870 X2 or GeForce GTX 295 units are also favored with an empty slot between cards assisting cooling. However, 3-way SLI users will be disappointed because placing double-slot graphics cards in the red slots will block access to the black slots. Foxconn could have made such 3-way configurations possible by swapping positions between the uppermost x16 slot and the x1 slot above it, but its engineers had other plans.

Cable placement is mediocre, with the eight-pin EPS12V connector exactly where it should be but the floppy header inconveniently stuffed under the bottom PCIe 2.0 slot. Windows XP still requires a floppy for adding AHCI or RAID drivers during its installation and many gamers still favor the established operating system. A few extreme overclockers still prefer Ultra ATA to SATA, so our normal suggestion to remove this interface and put the floppy connector in its place might be condemned by the Quantum Force target market.

All six of the ICH10R southbridge SATA connections face forward, requiring additional clearance between the motherboard’s leading edge and any nearby drive bays. Beneath these are power and reset buttons, while two outward-facing ports to the left use Marvelle’s PCIe-based SAS controller.

While a single PCI Express x1 pathway is somewhat limiting for the four drives supported by the JMB363 Ultra ATA and dual eSATA ports, two pathways for the dual Realtek RTL8111C Gigabit Ethernet controllers are more than adequate.

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With only two 400 Mb, the TSB43AB22A IEEE-1394 Firewire controller needs nothing more than a legacy PCI interface for optimal performance.

A license with Creative Labs allows Foxconn’s Realtek ALC889-based codec card to support additional features, including EAX Advanced HD 4.0, with software.