Mobo Makers Try Again with Intel's 925X and 915P Chipsets

Foxconn 925A01

BIOS: 3C1XD213 (06/24/2004)

The 925A01 from Foxconn is the big brother of the 915A01, but is not based on the same design, despite numerous similarities. Nevertheless, there is a high degree of features overlapping: the same network and Firewire chips, a similar back panel (the 925X offers two serial ports), an almost identical BIOS and an identical range of supplied items.

While the cutoff test worked perfectly with approximately 74°C CPU case temperature, the system only started at 2.8 GHz using the originally installed BIOS version - although we used a Pentium 4 560 which is supposed to run 3.6 GHz. The reason for this was that support of the activated PRB (Performance Requirement Bit) was not available, so that the system booted up with a minimal clock speed for safety reasons. The first BIOS update provided a multiplier option which did not bring any improvement in this case. With two additional BIOS versions, Foxconn provided an option for changing the PCI clock and for varying the processor voltage - although the real problem still had not been solved by the end of our test.

The BIOS update tool downloaded the current version for this board from the manufacturer's website, but then aborted the operation with the message that the version is not compatible with the board.

The number of items supplied is the same as the 915 board.

The VT6307 offers a total of three 1394a ports.