The Foxconn K8M890M2MA-R2SH is a really cheap and cheerfull Socket AM2 motherboard. There's only one way that a manufacturer can come up with a motherboard that sells for such a low price, and that's by using every feature that the chipset has to offer without bolting on any extra gadgets.
The chipset in on this board is the VIA K8M890 which includes VIA/S3G DeltaChrome graphics (cheap and nasty) and a VT8237R Plus Southbridge.
There are two DDR2 memory slots so you get dual channel memory support, and if your a gamer and the integrated graphics aren't sufficient you can plug a proper graphics card into the PCI-E x16 slot provided.
There is also a PCI-E x1 slot and two PCI slots. The Southbridge supports RAID 0 or 1 for the pair of SATA connectors and there are four USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panel, with two USB headers that may prove useful if your case supports extra ports.
There is 10/100Mbps LAN rather than Gigabit and the 6-channel audio uses the AC'97 codec and only has three mini jacks for connection. So you are limited for sound but at this price whos complaining.
The BIOS supports overclocking and allows you to separate the PCI Express and PCI buses, which is handy if you have a sound card and don't fancy causing audio problems as you increase clock speeds.
Switching to the integrated graphics was a bit of a shock as VIA/S3G DeltaChrome supports Shader Model 2 (DirectX 9.0b) and is very slow indeed. I was actually able to see the 'page loading' message for a fraction of a second when i opened the Ebaums world website which simply doesn't happen when you use proper graphics, whether or not they are integrated.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Final thoughts for this motherboard are Foxconn has come up with an incredibly cheap AM2 motherboard that offers a full range of integrated features including fairly basic graphics. To get the best from this board you need to use a plug-in graphics card, but even so it's a superb basis for a cheap PC.
I paid £30 from a computer show in worcester but they retail at £34 - £39... Hope you find this review helpfull and happy upgrading.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Good review. Foxconn boards have been around for a while and have been used by several of the low end PC builders, they are not brilliant performers but more than adequate for most non-serious-gamers use. Paul
dempsey_review 05.03.2007 02:38
good personal opinion of it. Dempsey :-)
pauljm 05.03.2007 00:42
Some good solid information and reports of the performance you personally experienced. Spot on.
very helpful by (50%):
helpful by (50%):
