FIRST LOOK: SiS 755FX for Socket 939 Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on December 16, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Basic Features: Winfast 755FXK8AA
| Winfast 755FXK8AA Specifications | |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | SiS 755FX Northbridge - SiS 964 Southbridge |
| BUS Speeds | 200MHz to 350MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| PCI/AGP | Fixed at 33/66 |
| Core Voltage | Default, -0.1V, -.075V, -.05V, -.025V, -0.1V, +.025V, +.05V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Default, 4x-25x in 1X increments |
| HyperTransport Frequency | 1000MHz (1GHz) |
| HyperTransport Multiplier | 1X, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X |
| DRAM Voltage | NO Adjustments |
| HyperTransport Voltage | NO Adjustments |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 AGP 8X 5 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA/SATA RAID | 2 SATA Drives by SiS964 (RAID 0, 1, JBOD) PLUS 2 SATA by Sil3112A (RAID 0, 1) |
| Onboard IDE/IDE RAID | Two Standard ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 8 USB 2.0 ports supported by SiS964 2 Firewire 1394a by Agere |
| Onboard LAN | Gigabit PCI LAN by Realtek 8110S-32 |
| Onboard Audio | AC '97 2.3 8-Channel by Realtek ALC850 |
| BIOS Revision | Award 11/20/2004 |
The Foxconn BIOS provides a wide range of BIOS control options, particularly considering Foxconn's history of very limited overclocking controls. The only notable omission is the lack of any memory voltage adjustments at all. Foxconn tells us that future board designs will provide for memory voltage control, but memory voltage is not adjustable on the 755FXK8AA.
It is nice to see Gigabit LAN, the 8-channel Realtek LAC850 audio, CPU ratios, HT ratios, and even Firewire on a board designed to sell for such a low price. If Foxconn could just do a bit more to satisfy the enthusiast, this would likely be a top-selling Socket 939 motherboard.
Boards designed for value often take short cuts in board design to minimize costs. However, no one will accuse Foxconn of that in the 755FXK8AA. The layout is generally excellent - much better than boards costing much more than the value priced Winfast. The 20-pin ATX is ideally located, and while the 4-pin 12V is between the CPU and rear IO, it is well clear of the CPU socket and HSF. IDE and floppy connectors are in our preferred upper right edge location, and IO headers are grouped along the bottom of the board where they will not interfere with slots.
The 4 memory slots are also well clear of the AGP 8X slot, so changing memory doesn't require removing a large AGP video card. The board is also a 3-phase design, instead of the 2-phase that we often see on boards designed to a price point. Frankly, if we had to guess the price of the Foxconn based on features, quality, and layout, we have guessed a higher price than this board actually sells for. This means that Foxconn/Winfast did a great job of providing more than you might expect in a board selling for less than $100.
The rear ports include 5 audio jacks, 4 USB, Firewire, SPDIF coaxial connector, parallel port. Gigabit LAN, serial port, and PS2 mouse/keyboard ports.
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ChineseDemocracyGNR - Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - link
The SiS755FX adds 1000MHz HTT support. So it's a chipset for socket 939 processors.The SiS756 is a new chipset, supporting PCI-E graphics.
RAINFIRE - Sunday, December 26, 2004 - link
I wasn just wondering if the SiS 756 is replacing the 755FX chipset. This seems to be the case with me. Anyone know if this is what is happening?RAINFIRE - Sunday, December 26, 2004 - link
I was just wondering if the SiS 756 chip is better/replacing the 755FX. This seems to be the case as far as I can see. Any thoughts, conments on that? I've been keeping a Next Gen Motherboard list and want to get it right.Cygni - Sunday, December 19, 2004 - link
The 755 had solid performance and i was very surprised that more board makers didnt use it. The 755FX/756 seems to be another step in that direction. Realistically, because the Nforce4 and ATI Xpress 200 are STILL not on the market, it is still possible for the 756 to be the first PCI-Ex capable AMD chipset.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
Yes, the board is available here:http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
Price is $101. The Foxconn is $69, the ASRock is $77 but it has overclocking options (the Gigabyte doesn't).
Peter - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
I've seen that ... they did actually go ahead and made it available WITH the dedicated VGA RAM? Good then. But at $30 more than the same thing in shared-RAM configuration, they've missed the price point ... I mean, $30 buys me an entire Xabre graphics card.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
#20, that is great news! Are you going to test the K8Upgrade-760GX (SiS760GX, mATX) or the K8Upgrade-1689 (ULI M1689, ATX)?#22, Gigabyte makes a board with dedicated memory. It does improve performance but it's considerably more expensive too (at least $30).
There's a review:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/gigabyte/K8S760M/K...
Peter - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
Wesley, I wrote this _after_ reading the article ;) Head still on shoulders.SiS integrated video for the A64 platform looks particularly interesting because it can have dedicated (!) VGA RAM attached to the north bridge chip. This is because they left the RAM controller in there - exclusively for the integrated VGA this time, since the CPU brings its own.
Now if only the board makers adopted that feature ... all I've seen so far (ASRock, ECS, PC-Chips) run it in shared-RAM mode, and so does my shiny new Averatec 5500 notebook. History repeating - even back in the Pentium and early PII days, the integrated SiS chipsets (530, 620, 630) supported dedicated VGA RAM, but practically nobody made boards that used it.
As for clock synthesizer chips, well if this piece of hardware doesn't support what you want it to do, then no update of BIOS or other software will make it.
Calin - Friday, December 17, 2004 - link
#17, I would like to have an Athlon64 board with integrated video... but not with SiS integrated video. I would wait until (hopefully) some ATI-based board appears here in Romania. (I know I might be wrong about not buying a SIS with integrated video, but I prefer not to take the chance)Calin
Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#17 - We have been talking with Asrock, and we will be reviewing a ASRock K8Upgrade, and the upgrade module, which is based on the SiS 760GX. We also requested a ULI chipset board but we have not received any info yet on when that board may be available for review.