Stability

As usual we reset the BIOS back to its default settings, set our Corsair Dominator memory at 1,066MHz at its rated voltage and timings. We then installed a pair of Radeon HD 4870s in CrossFire, along with a Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition. We first ran Prime95 torture test on all four CPU cores to warm it up for a while, then we overlayed 3DMark06 looping in order to stress the rest of the system.

The first few runs we found that without additional airflow over the northbridge and MOSFET heatsinks it simply locked up the system between just a few and several hours. With additional airflow the machine would now run continually but either 3DMark06 and the display driver, or Prime95 would crash, while the other kept running.

We tried again with a single Radeon HD 4870 and even tried an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX to see whether it was a driver problem, as opposed to a board-level stability issue, but the problem kept reoccurring. Even when we tried a new board (sent to us because of an audio issue we were having), this too proved partially unstable.

Overclocking

We downloaded the latest AMD OverDrive software 2.0.13 and we have to say AMD have outdone itself - the software is fantastic. It looks great, it's intuitive to use and it really does work well with this Foxconn board - in fact, for the first time we'd argue that overclocking within the OS is better than the BIOS.


We managed a nice, round 3GHz stable out of a Phenom 9850 Black Edition which certainly isn't that bad at all. However we were able to push the Gigabyte 790GX with SB750 to 3.2GHz but the Foxconn A79A-S wouldn't go this far without locking up. We tried +4 and +6 on the ACC but instantly the system locked up - +2 seemed to be the sweetspot.

Power Consumption

While the idle power consumption is really not that bad compared to both the Asus M3A32 Deluxe which is also an AMD chipset based on the 790FX(/SB600) and the CrossHair II which is nForce 780a SLI-based, it is a full 12W hungrier than the Gigabyte 790GX we reviewed recently that uses the same SB750 southbridge.

Despite all of the AMD chipsets being comparable, the Foxconn still uses more power than even the Republic of Gamers board that features a ten-phase power regulation compared to this board's five, and just as many board features even if they aren't exactly the same. The Foxconn uses 5W more than the CrossHair II Formula under load, and a significant 11W more than the older Asus 790FX board.

Value and Experiences

Foxconn's DigitaLife A79A-S is a very average board: the unimpressive feature list, the adequate performance and the overwhelming level of mediocrity that engulfs the package will set you back an amount that warrants so much more to justify. Given the size of the company and talent within it, there could be so much more impressive motherboards being cranked out - it boggles the mind as to why there has either been very little effort and thought put into this product or the engineers have shot so far off the mark they're stuck in orbit.

However while it does not particularly innovate it does does offer a broad range of general features, it overclocks pretty well, it has oodles of PCI-Express to play with for either CrossFire or servers and the onboard buttons and two digit LED POST readout are useful, but I'm struggling to find more to complement about it.

There are so many little things left out that just aren't checked - the blue PCI-Express x16 slots are too far apart for normal CrossFire connectors and Foxconn doesn't include its own ones. In the end, we had to use specially long Asus ones and we doubt that many end users have the spare resources that we do in the office. Continuing, there is the SATA port incompatibility, the MOSFET heatsinks getting just too hot under extended, high power load and the continually bad audio implementation.

It has to be said that Foxconn's team in the UK were extremely helpful and supportive with our problems and even sent us another board to check our results, just in case the one we had wasn't working quite right. However, the intermodular distortion and clipping that were continual 'features' of the onboard audio and the waveform just isn't like what we're used to seeing. We tried reinstalling the drivers, reformatting and starting again and the new board but nothing could cure the issue. On paper the Realtek chipset has some fantastic features, it's just not working right on the A79A-S.

When we originally asked Foxconn for this it was because we thought it would be the new DigitaLife brand in black and orange with overclocking features inspired by the Quantum Force range. Instead, it couldn't be further from the truth and hails back to Foxconn's overly conservative past to keep a look and some old hat features no one will want. Foxconn's marketing team, the Quantum Force team and some engineering departments clearly have their heads screwed on straight, but I just wish the rest of Foxconn channel would follow suit.

The Foxconn A79A-S is an epic £195.11 (inc. VAT) which compared to other 790FX boards, is considerable. Older 790FX motherboards with SB600 southbridge can be had for the sub £100 mark now: the popular MSI K9A2 and DFI LANParty DK790FX are £92 and £90 respectively. The Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe we've used for the longest time with AMD CPU reviews is only £116 and the M3A79-T Deluxe which features the updated southbridge to match the Foxconn is just £128. In our opinion, the latter is probably better featured with ExpressGate, better power regulation and sleep states as well as the same onboard buttons and four PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots. Why would you pay £70 more for the Foxconn?

Final Thoughts

There is nothing about the Foxconn DigitaLife A79A-S motherboard that makes it even a remotely worthwhile purchase unless you enjoy buying average but overpriced products. Those of us who aren't looking for a disappointing experience will just keep looking for something worth our money.

• Performance
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• 6/10

• Features
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• x
• x
• x
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• x
• -
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• 7/10

• Value
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• -
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• 2/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 4/10

What do these scores mean?