Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 & Gigabyte 8I945P-G
Next Up: Foxconn's 945P7AA-8EKRS2
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| Processor Intel Pentium 4, Socket 775, 533/800/1066MHz FSB Supports Intel Pentium D, Prescott, & Celeron D processors Intel Hyper-Threading Technology supported Chipset Intel 945P Express + ICH7R Memory Dual channel, unbuffered, 1.8V DDR2-533/667; (4) 240-pin DIMM sockets, max 4GB Graphics Discrete (non-integrated) - use expansion slot Expansion Slots 1 x PCI Express x16, 2 x PCI Express x1, 3 x PCI IDE/ATA Support 1 x ATA/100 + 2 x ATA/133 (w/ RAID) + 4 x SATA/300 (w/ RAID) Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, and Intel Matrix Storage Technology (1+0 on 2 HDDs) Supports IDE RAID 0, 1, and 1+0 Audio Integrated, 7.1 channel High Definition (Realtek) LAN Dual integrated Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) controllers (Broadcom) IEEE-1394 2; 1 x 6-pin in rear I/O area + 1 front via internal header; 1394a USB Up to 8; 4 in rear I/O area + 2 internal 2-port headers; ver. 2.0 |
Rear I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 keyboard 1 x PS/2 mouse 1 x RJ45 (LAN) 4 x USB 2.0 1 x line-in/line-out/mic (audio) 1 x parallel (SPP/ECP/EPP) 1 x COM (16550-compatible UART) Additional line-outs for 7.1 channel audio Second RJ45 (LAN) 1 x IEEE-1394 1 x S/PDIF (coax out) Internal Connectors/Headers 1 x floppy disk drive Front audio header 2 x USB 2-port headers, ver. 2.0 1 x IEEE-1394 header COM2 header (only) BIOS 4Mb flash EEPROM w/ LAN boot, PnP, ACPI, WfM, DMI 2.0, Special Features Wake-on-LAN (WOL), suspend-to-RAM (STR, S3), suspend-to-disk (STD, S4), SuperUtilities - SuperBoot, SuperBIOS-Protect, SuperRecovery, SuperSpeed, SuperStep, SuperLogo, and SuperUpdate Overclocking Features Adjustable bus speeds Adjustable memory timing Adjustable voltages (may be Vcore only) Accessories Support CD, user's manual (or installation guide), rear I/O shield, 1 x floppy drive cable, 1 x HDD/ODD drive cable (supports UDMA/ATA 33/66/100/133 drives) Quick installation ''poster'' RAID driver on floppy disk(s) 2 x SATA data cables, 1 x SATA power cable (supports 2 drives), 1 extra HDD/ODD drive cable (supports UDMA/ATA 33/66/100/133 drives) Form Factor ATX, 12'' x 9.6'' or smaller - see User's Manual |
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Foxconn's take on the 945P comes in the form of the 945P7AA-8EKRS2. This board comes with a similar feature set to the Gigabyte model, with a few more options. Centered around the 945P and ICH7R chipsets, the 945P7AA brings the same dual-core Pentium D support as well as supporting legacy LGA775 single-core Pentium processors. Essentially, the only processor not supported is the Pentium Extreme Edition dual core which has two Hyperthreaded cores on a single die. The 945P is not equipped to support dual core HT technology, with Intel reserving that solely to the 955 Chipset.
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This model comes with a single PCI Express x16 slot, two PCI Express x1 slots and three standard PCI slots. Four DIMM slots support 4GBs of DDR2 at 533 and 667MHz. Four SATA II ports powered by the ICH7R Southbridge offer RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and Matrix while an ITE8212 controller drives two ATA 133 IDE ports capable of RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD. There was also a single ATA 100 port and Floppy port as well.
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For Ethernet, the 945P7AA sports dual Gigabit ready RJ-45 ports. Under each Ethernet port are two banks of USB 2.0 ports with headers on the board expanding the total to 8 ports. Coaxial SPDIF and FireWire ports reside under the LPT1 port while a COM1 and PS/2 group is situated at the left-most side of the rear cluster. There was an additional FireWire header on the board to add an additional FireWire port. Rounding out the package is the boards 8-channel audio supporting Intel's High Definition Audio.
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Foxconn mounted passive cooling on both the Northbridge and Southbridge chips, although the mounting of the Northbridge cooler was a bit too loose for our taste. Overall, however, the design and layout of the board was clean with little spacing issues to report. We found the board's two fan headers less than desirable if adding cooling is planned. We also found the spacing around the CPU tight with capacitors, where we could easily bend a capacitor trying to remove the cooler.
