Foxconn Mars Living Review

[Ace-a-Rue]

does that mean the foxconn x48 blackops might be a $400 USD bust!?...hmmmm...i hate it when i hear bad rma stories with board makers...this does not bode well for foxconn.

[supershanks]

Well their main rival is Asus , maybe their pitching their support at the same level as Asus Shamino has done a great job , but was well put off by official channels.

What's worse is the new board has the same error message & is less stable.

[Ace-a-Rue]

hmmmm...i tried to connect to shamino link and my browser would not go there.

less stable on the replacement board compared to the original is like i got switching out 9650's; 2nd 9650 was 400 mhz less in overclock.

[supershanks]

It doesn't suprise me . Half the time the foxconn forum is down for me as well, again similarity with Asus forum is spooky
Mind you, it took a while before you could find this wonderful forum

Yes not sure what it is. Tried with 2 q6600's original & alternative etc.,
To be honest the one thing that is overlooked in the x38 v p35 issue is stability. I've found it much easier to get stable 24/7 clocks >3.6k on x38 than p35. Sure the p35 can match the x38 and perhaps beat it on benches, but 24/7 stability is misssing with P35. I've found that the same with both p35 Asus p5k & this board.

About the only place I've seen others refer to the stability is Anandtech Para 3

In fact, the primary reason is that they have proven to be extremely reliable for overclocking use on a 24/7 basis. Once set up correctly, we find these boards to be able to run the same settings day-in day-out,

[Ace-a-Rue]

this is where i differ with you about one P35 chipset; Abit did a "very good" job in presenting a board that is and was stable when released...has speed matured, especially the memory speed, YES!...but...that is expected with any board release.

i think stability is partly caused by vcore droop and people not taking that into account like on the IP35 Pro board....once you figure out the droop, the board is very stable.

[supershanks]

you might be right re IP35 Pro board, not had that experience. Just the Mars & p5k.deluxe. The asus had voltage damper , which gave rock steady vcore The mars, which has no dampner ,sees a 4.35% ripple on vcore using Everest & Occt which is quite large, droop is fairly average at 0.04v

[Ace-a-Rue]

that is about on par with the IP35 Pro Vdroop under load...at the lower end of actual set vcore, droop is about 0.03v; as i would go higher the droop increased to 0.04v...some complained of 0.05v droop but then i think about how they came up with that amount.

[supershanks]

Other thing I should mention, while waiting for the replacement board from Shamino see Post# 50 I found stable clock was almost impossible. It was only when the new board arrived & i swapped that i found the cause:-

Old Board
This chip is used by the CPU & the left side pin is a measuring point for vcore. Not a clue what caused it , not particilarly pushed the voltages at all. THe board continued to work but would run little more than stock settings.

New Board

Location

[supershanks]

Was playing around today and found 2 secret panels on my Mars NB cooler.
I happened to touch the top side of the cooler, pushing against the edge. Like something out of Harry Potter with a weird creaking the panel slid back

NB Normal


Both Sides have a movable panel:-

Side view

Both panels removed


So anyone wanting to mount a Thermaltight Ultra Extreme for examle, simply remove the panel & your ready to go

Was quite impressed with this feature, it shows a nice practical design touch.

[Clunk]

What a lovely pair of flaps