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

[windwithme]

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.

 

[windwithme]

The upper left part:
Although this is now a LGA1366 socket here, but they intended to reserved a LGA 775 mounting hole here for users to keep their 775 heat sink.
This is Quite a thoughtful design for users. For the moment, Intel has 920/ 940/ 965extreme processor, which can be supported by Blood Rage.
The board provided total 14phases Hybrid PWM for CPU’s power supplying.
The special thing is they put them together when it is operating.

IO rear panel part:
8 x USB2.0 ports
1 x IEEE1392a
2 x Gigabit LAN ports, which supports Teaming Function as well
2 x eSATA
The black button is the clear CMOS function button

BloodRage NB/ SB and Mosfets heat sink modules
That Red button, they called “Force Reset” button. What you have to do is press the button and the system will shut down and reboot itself.
And it seems some friendly design between power button 4secs reset and clear CMOS function.

Ha, there is a print logo on SB

The board features 3phases PWM for dimms part.
I think it might improve the stability while the system is in OC status.

They designed a 4 in 1 Quantum cooler for Blood Rage’s NB.
The default mode is the passive air cooling, 2nd is active cooling which means they provides a fan for it.
This pictures shows the NB apart from the copper base.

The 3rd way is water cooling
Now It equips with the bundle water block.
The bottom is also made by copper.

The last way is for LN2 or dry ice cooling, a aluminum made container.

Another unique selling point for X58: 3 channels DRAM, the bandwidth is 2 times to the ordinary one.
6GB kit in 3-channel DDR3 1866…

 

[windwithme]

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

 

[windwithme]

Test bed info
CPU: Intel Core i7 965 Extreme
MB: FOXCONN Quantum Force Blood RAGE
DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator 2GBX3 DDR3 1866C9D
VGA: MSI R4870X2-T2D2G-OC
HD: SAMSUNG 250GB
POWER: Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply
Cooler: Thermaltake V1 AX/JETART Nano Diamond/Lubic

The drivers/ software install pages.

some kinds of application.

Aegis Panel
A software monitor for OC and various hardware statuses monitoring…you can manage the voltage that you desire.
That the OC panel deck is a optional item.
It is based on a hardware design, what I mean is it can adjust the HW directly.
While your PC is running some program, it can adjust your voltage, FSB, memory simultaneously.

A funny option: Fox log, users can change the boot-up screen by their own.

It accept any graph file that are 640 x 480, JPG/BMP.

DRAM part.
Corsair Dominator 2GBX3 DDR3 1866 C9D
Match with X58 it can be DDR3 1866 CL9 9-9-24 1.65V

The new generation Corsair AirFlow is intended to be designed for 3-channels DDR3, and also it’s best for maximum 6-dimms with a best heat dissipation.
It looks like a high-end level quality design.

DDR3 1862 CL9 9-9-241T, BIOS 1.6V
SP2004 3 X Blend mode, 5,79G with a full loading but stable.

DDR3 1871 CL8 8-8-24 1T, BIOS 1.65V
SP2004 3 X Blend mode, 5.70G with full loading status.

 

[windwithme]

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 Ragefs 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 gcoverageh
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 gmarket availabilityh is not that well in Channels around the world.
Usersfre 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 ššššššššš™
Features/ component šššššššššš
Appearance: šššššššššš
C/P ratio ššššššš™™™

The price of FOXCONN Quantum Force BloodRage is around USD$300.
OthersX58 is almost having a price that gmore or lessh.
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 itfll be very competitive in market.


FOXCONN contributes a high-end product linehQuantum Forceh 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.
Itfs good to see more and more gnewh brand in good quality and creativity.

 

[Abarbarian]

Nice review.

They are taking the mikey with the LN2 cooler adittion though.

Q:Can you show me how to use nitrogen liquid with computer?? for on processor(cpu), memory card, video card, motherboard

-Chad Henry (age 17)
Northview High School, Grand Rapids, MI USA
A:For this, you need to purchase a special case to house your entire PC. This case will have a tank of LN2 in it, which must be replenished every once in awhile. Also included will be plates that have tubes through them. These will be connected to your processor, GPU (graphics processing unit), memory and perhaps other places on your mainboard. These cases cannot be built using commonly found hardware, as the LN2 will freeze and damage the pipes, leading to leaks inside the case.

I would advise against this unless you need EXTREME performance (meaning you need to overclock your CPU by a large factor). Even so, it will be very expensive to maintain, since you will need to purchase a container capable of carrying LN2 in, as well as purchasing the LN2. Also, cases that support this are VERY expensive (a couple hundred US dollars, typically). Overclocking using LN2 usually yields approximately 20% better performance than with good air cooling, and maybe 10% over water and other exotic cooling techniques. (Extremely cooling the processor’s transistors does yield the best performance possible, but overcooling will make them nonfunctional.)

I would suggest something a little less overboard if possible, such as water or peltier cooling, which is much safer in general, though also very dangerous if done incorrectly. Especially Peltier cooling, which takes advantage of the Peltier effect (where electricity is run through a metal plate and one side gets very cool and the other very hot). Water and peltier coolers have been known to short out CPUs. Direct LN2 exposure would put the components in your system well below operating specs and also short the components. Check out Koolance’s site for more info on water cooling cases, or just use the money that you’d spend on LN2 cooling to get a faster CPU and a more stable motherboard.

-Jeff

(republished on 07/17/06)
​

http://van.physics.uiuc.edu/qa/listing.php?id=594