After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain.  I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain.  If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration. 

Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com

  • reviews
  • motherboards
  • Foxconn A88GMX MicroATX Motherboard Review
  • Foxconn A88GMX MicroATX Motherboard Review

    Author:
    Published:

    Board Layout and Features

    Overall board layout does not differ much from a typical MicroATX motherboard, in fact overall layout mimics that of a full sized motherboard missing 3 expansion slots and everything moved up due to the smaller PCB.
    The back of the motherboard features a metal heatsink reinforcement plate to prevent the PCB from flexing after the heatsink has been installed.

    This board is not designed for extensive enthusiast activity and actually has a 140w processor max.  The 4-phase analog PWM reinforces this limitation but should not discourage you considering that the majority of current AM3 processors are 140w and less.
    4x DDR3 memory slots are provided with support up to 16GB of system memory and module speeds up to 1600Mhz

    MicroATX motherboards are limited to have only 4 expansion slots.  The Foxconn A88GMX comes with a single 16x and single 1x PCI Express slot and 2 standard PCI slots and should provide adequate expansion abilities regardless of system use.
    The area around the South Bridge chip is packed with a variety of connections including 6 USB hearders, a single SATA port, removable BIOS chip, CMOS clear jumper, and TPM connector.  Most enthusiasts will never use a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) however business machines will leverage this technology quite a bit depending on their overall security concerns.