Legit Reviews

Beijing, China, August 30th 2007 – FOXCONN today officially announced the launch of its first true overclocking motherboard; MARS will be the first in a new product line called Quantum Force, which will be dedicated to overclocking and gaming enthusiasts.

Based on the Intel® P35 chipset, MARS has been specially tuned for overclocking performance, and has undergone extensive testing and trials by some of the world’s leading overclockers before release to retail customers in September.

“Stunning performance”
Even with an early BIOS edition and standard air cooling, MARS has already posted FSB frequencies of 575MHz and looks set to smash more records in the future.

“The Foxconn board made it to No.8 [in the 3DMark05 Hall of Fame], even I didn’t have time for LN2 [liquid nitrogen] cooling and the P35 chipset doesn’t support Dual x8 or x16 bandwidth on CrossFire. So, for those handicaps the score and results with this board are stunning!” according to leading ‘OCer’ mICKEYmOUSE.

One reason for the great overclocking potential of MARS is the Gladiator BIOS. Specially developed for the Quantum Force product series, it is both user friendly and provides powerful OC options. BIOS features include a voltage multiplier for accessing a much wider range of voltage settings, advanced memory timing configuration and instant overclocking options for novices.

Gladiator BIOS voltage parameters


Choose Manual mode to enable the detail DRAM Timing settings
CPU Voltage Multiplier 1.000V(Default) / 1.036 / 1.078 / 1.116 / 1.161 / 1.203 / 1.251 / 1.296
CPU Voltage Setting 0.825V ~ 1.600V，stepping is 0.0125V
Target CPU Voltage CPU target voltage (CPU Voltage Multiplier x CPU Voltage Setting)
Current CPU Voltage CPU current Voltage
Default CPU Voltage CPU default voltage
DRAM Voltage Setting 1.800V(Default) / 1.665V ~ 3.365V
NB Voltage Setting 1.250V(Default) / 1.156V ~ 2.395V
CPU VTT Voltage Setting 1.200V(Default) / 1.200V ~ 1.725V，step is 0.075V
SB Voltage Setting 1.500V(Default) / 1.388V ~ 1.650V

“The meticulous options of voltage and frequency reveal the R&D engineer’s untiring effort for overclockers, which you can see immediately you enter the Gladiator BIOS options”. Philip Lin, expreview.com

Quantum Force product series
The Quantum Force product series will deliver high-performance products for enthusiasts and gamers, with better value for money, and more focus on user feedback throughout the development process.

“Quantum Force is not just about a new product line, it is also a complete philosophy about how we develop our products” claims Quantum Force product manager Greta Kuo.

“We have developed a design manifesto we call SWORD, which focuses on delivering more performance capability with better value for money, whilst listening to the feedback of real enthusiasts.”

Users can find out more about the Quantum Force Manifesto at http://www.quantum-force.net which will launch in early September and includes a product registration function, access to Beta BIOS downloads, forums, tutorials, competitions and a range of video and interactive content for enthusiasts.

“Quantum-Force.net is going to be a great home for our products on the internet, and a really interesting place for enthusiasts to visit and learn more about our products and philosophy. Whether you are looking for overclocking advice, Beta BIOS downloads, help solving technical problems or you want to show off your own overclocking talents on our Power Wall, I would recommend all enthusiasts to visit this website” claims Greta Kuo.

“Speed and stability at the centre”

“Our SWORD design philosophy begins with ‘Speed and stability at the centre’; so we engineer our products with this in mind. MARS is a very stable platform not just because of the BIOS quality, but also the hardware design… this ranges from our PCB layout techniques (which are not obvious to most users), to hardware components such as Cool Pipe or our 100% SOLID Capacitor policy and use of high-quality Ferrite Chokes in the power delivery circuits. However, our main focus has been on the BIOS, which is of course the most important tool for the enthusiast.”

User friendly features

MARS has been designed to make it easier to unleash the power from your PC. An onboard CMOS clear button is positioned on the PCB alongside on/off/reset buttons. BIOS features such as OC Gear (which allows you to store OC profiles) and OC Recover (which automatically recovers to last good setting after a failure), make overclocking more convenient.


”We’ve also laid out the BIOS menu as logically as possible, and made it easier to find and access advanced settings, whilst warning novice users about potentially dangerous selections for voltages” according to Kuo.


The convenient Windows-based AEGIS Panel utility provides a simple interface for monitoring system temperatures, voltages and fan speeds, and setting up warnings if temperatures get too high.

MARS Specification Detail

Specification
CPU Support Skt775 for Intel® Core™2 Quad, Core™2 Extreme, Core™2 Duo, Pentium® Dual-Core E2xxx, Celeron® 4xx, Pentium® D, Pentium® 4 processors.


Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-Core CPUs
FSB Support 1333/1066/800MHz
Memory Supports 4 x 240-pin DIMM of 1.8 Volt Dual Channel DDRII 1066/800/667, 8Gb max. memory capacity
Expansion 1* PCI Express x16 slot & 1* PCI Express x4 slot with CrossFire™ support

2* PCI Express x1 slots

3* PCI bus slots
Connectivity 1* eSATA, 6* SATAII, 2* IEEE1394a, 12* USB2.0, 1* ATA
RAID RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 with Intel® Matrix Storage Technology and Intel® Rapid Recover technology
Audio 7.1channel HD Audio
Networking Gigabit LAN
BIOS & Special Features Gladiator BIOS with OC Gear, OC Recover, Cool Fan control
Onboard CMOS & On/Off/Reset buttons
AEGIS Panel
Cool Pipe (heatpipe solution)
100% SOLID Capacitor design
EasyPin
Accessories User manual
EZ Set-up Guide
Quantum Force product registration card
Quantum Force free gifts

6* SATA cables + power cables

1* FDD + IDE cable

1* 2 x USB + 1x 1394A bracket

1* FAN (optional for North Bridge)

Utility CD including Symantec Anti-Virus
RAID Floppy Disk
Form Factor ATX

About FOXCONN
Foxconn is the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., the foremost provider of joint-design, joint-development, manufacturing, assembly and after-sales services to global Computer, Communication and Consumer-electronics ("3C") leaders.

A business group of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., Channel Innovation & Service Group (CISG) provides channel solutions to customers around the globe.

Foxconn's Channel Innovation & Service Group (CISG) is committed to providing reliable, high-quality products to all its customers - large and small. We understand how the channel has evolved - its impact on consumers and the people who work in the computer industry. Consequently, we are aggressively innovating to deliver solid, honest products that promote simplicity and ease of use, while at the same time appreciating the natural and human environment through the entire product life cycle. Through this philosophy of connecting people and technologies, Foxconn CISG is enabling a vast range of PC assemblers, retailers and end-users the freedom to create their own computing solutions.