Are Foxconn mb's reliable?

[geepondy]

Under the recommended mb thread, a Foxconn was the number one choice for a low end Core 2 mb. It looks like it might suit my needs as I don't plan on overclocking an E6600. It's been five years since I bought a mb and I've never heard of Foxconn, are they reliable? Also for this and other lower end mbs is the onboard sound generally ok?

 

[moosey]

I think you'll be fine with Foxconn. They make the Intel BX2, which gets good stability and performance reviews. I have the Intel board and it's been fine.
You should also be fine with the onboard sound, unless you're really demanding.

 

[vailr]

Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with factories in mainland China, supplies all of Hewlett-Packard's motherboards.
And Apple's Ipod.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: vailr
Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with factories in mainland China, supplies all of Hewlett-Packard's motherboards.

Except for those made by ASUS, which account for the majority of motherboards used by HP. A search of HP's product specifications turns up two boards made by Foxconn; the Nance and Spruce.

Meanwhile, a search for ASUS yields over a dozen boards.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: vailr
Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with factories in mainland China, supplies all of Hewlett-Packard's motherboards.

Except for those made by ASUS, which account for the majority of motherboards used by HP. A search of HP's product specifications turns up two boards made by Foxconn; the Nance and Spruce (both current production).

Meanwhile, a search for ASUS yields over a dozen boards.

Your linked information is somewhat out of date.
At the Indianapolis, Indiana HP final assembly plant, I can tell you that ALL motherboards (as well as PSU's and cases) used for final assembly at that plant were made in China by Foxconn. Many employees (about a third) in the Indianapolis factory are Foxconn employees, instead of HP employees. Products produced there are ALL of HP's business PC's, including the high-end dual Xeon workstations, such as:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107218
Foxconn-produced business laptops are also loaded with software and packed for shipment there.
NOT the "Media Center" type PC's sold to the General Public at Best Buy, Staples or Office Depot, for example. Those are produced in the Ontario, California production facility.
Have no info on the motherboards used for final assembly at that location.
Also, don't have production numbers comparing the Indianapolis facility v. the Ontario, CA facility.

 

[Binky]

Foxconn is a VERY large OEM supplier that has been around for a lot longer than you would think. They only recently started pushing into retail with their own branded products. I have a Foxconn AMD 939 board that has run absolutely perfectly for about 2 years now. I've been very happy with it for the ~$70 I paid for it.

 

[tcsenter]

NOT the "Media Center" type PC's sold to the General Public at Best Buy, Staples or Office Depot, for example. Those are produced in the Ontario, California production facility.

If my information is 'out-dated', then your information is limited to a narrow product line. HP sells many many times more consumer PCs than multi-thousand dollar business PCs.

HP only just recently within the past few months began to use Foxconn motherboards in its consumer PCs, and even then it is only two motherboards compared with the many years that ASUS supplied virtually all of HP's motherboards. Here are recent and current ASUS motherboards used by HP:

A8M2N-LA (NodusM3)

P5BW-LA (Buckeye)

A8N-BR (Pyrite)

M2N61-LA (Nyssa)

A8MN-BR (Hematite)

P5BW-LA (Basswood)

P5BW-LA (Basswood3G)

M2N68-LA (Narra)

P5LP-LE (Leonite)

How "out-dated" do you estimate are motherboards supporting E4x00 Conroe and Quad Core Kentsfield?

 

[vailr]

@tcsenter:
Business PC's assembled at the Indianapolis facility range from ~$545 "small form-factor" (model dc5750):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107251
up to the ~$3,400 workstations.
The second item in your linked web page is:
HP Pavilion Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, ASUS A7V-VM (Mocha)
http://search.hp.com/redirect.html?type...c%3Den%26jumpid%3Dreg_R1002_USEN&pos=2
A VIA chip board which uses 133 MHz SDRAM. I'm pretty sure: that system is no longer being offered for sale.
If you want to argue about that, be my guest.
If you have web links, or other evidence comparing sales of HP's business PC's v. sales of their "consumer" PC's, then supply a link.

 

[FireTech]

@geepondy - back on topic..
Bottom line they are not 'cutting edge' but reliable enough, cheap and I'm happy with mine. For your non-overclocking needs you'll be fine.
It is worth comparing it closely with others in it's class (you didn't name the board in the OP) as some have more limited bundles/features than others for the same-ish $$'s. Enjoy

 

[hans007]

foxconn makes a lot of stuff.

consumer line pcs both compaq and hp are manufactured in mexico and china.

in the past trigem has assembled some as well (though they really dont anymore).

asus manufactures some pcs, as well as ecs tatung. the motherboards generally are made by asus, though in the past trigem boards were used for trigem models, and msi and gigabyte have also made a few of the boards for the units made in america.


foxconn isn't really used in the consumer lines.

 

[tcsenter]

The second item in your linked web page is:
HP Pavilion Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, ASUS A7V-VM (Mocha)
A VIA chip board which uses 133 MHz SDRAM. I'm pretty sure: that system is no longer being offered for sale.

The search feature didn't have a way to restrict the results to "only current motherboard", I assumed any reasonably intelligent person could see for themselves that the list included past and present ASUS boards.

By contrast, ALL 10 particular ASUS-made boards to which I linked are modern Socket AM2 and LGA775 boards supporting current generation processors, DDR2, and PCI Express. All four of the ASUS LGA775 boards I linked to support Conroe up to 1066MHz bus, one of which supports Kentsfield quad-core.

The Foxconn-made Spruce is based on the dated i865G+ICH5, supports AGP, DDR, and Pentium D up to 800MHz (no Conroe). I seriously doubt the Spruce is even still used in new models (AGP??). I left out another six or so ASUS LGA775 boards based on i945+ICH7 that supported PCI Epxress, DDR2, and the entire LGA775 line except Conroe or higher CPU.

I'm aware that Foxconn is a huge first tier motherboard manufacturer like ASUS and ECS. I have nothing against Foxconn, your claim that Foxconn makes all (or even most) of HP's boards is provably wrong.

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: vailr
Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with factories in mainland China, supplies all of Hewlett-Packard's motherboards.
And Apple's Ipod.

They also make the Xbox 360.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Interesting...

They make a lotta stuff.

 

[geepondy]

The Foxconn model I was referring to is the one listed in this forums Intel Core2duo low end recommendations, the P9657AA-8EKRS2H. From NewEgg, I've read reviews about quirky behavior and a sometimes quirky bias that I'm wondering if I should spend a little more and get something like the top rated midline motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3.

By the way I see a lot of the motherboards are advertising "solid" caps now. I work in electronics and I would like to know what a "solid" cap is as opposed to a regular electrolytic. Has anybody ever actually had a cap blow on their motherboard?

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: geepondy
The Foxconn model I was referring to is the one listed in this forums Intel Core2duo low end recommendations, the P9657AA-8EKRS2H. From NewEgg, I've read reviews about quirky behavior and a sometimes quirky bias that I'm wondering if I should spend a little more and get something like the top rated midline motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3.

If you have the money, go with the DS3 (rev3.3) or even DS3P(rev 3.3) if you can stretch it. They have a better bundle too.

By the way I see a lot of the motherboards are advertising "solid" caps now. I work in electronics and I would like to know what a "solid" cap is as opposed to a regular electrolytic. Has anybody ever actually had a cap blow on their motherboard?

Gigabyte on solid caps
I haven't (a slight bulge on one in my Foxconn though) but go to www.badcaps.net for more info. I don't think it's such a big problem with major manufacturers now..