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Foxconn Winfast NFPIK8AA Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Monday, April 03, 2006
Introduction
It's a proven fact that 90% of all enthusiast computer hardware is designed with really one purpose in mind, gaming. However it doesn't always have to be that way, in fact aside from overclocking and various BIOS and/or board level modifications enthusiast hardware can be considered just about anything, including the original high performance system, the workstation.
In the early years the workstation was typically the centerpiece of any high-end office, some companies even invested in several as they provided the best environment for CAD and 3d modeling. Funny thing is when I worked in an Architecture office my workstation was an HP desktop, like what you could buy for your house, with a 21" monitor. It wasn't anything special and goes to show how far systems and desktops have come over the years. This system did have its limitations, the processor was pretty slow for what I was working on and memory limitations dictated how many programs I could have running at any one time.
Workstation class hardware is designed to address these limitations and commands a higher price tag as a result.
Workstation class hardware is designed to address these limitations and commands a higher price tag as a result.
The first motherboard review here at Ninjalane was of a workstation class motherboard designed by a Taiwanese company called Freeway design. It supported 2 Pentium III socket 370 processors and up to 2 GB of ram. At the time Xeon systems were expensive and didn't come in a variety of speeds like the P3 did so, to fill this niche many motherboard makers started designing mainstream SMP boards and leveraged the ability to run desktop systems with dual processors. Freeway took this one step further and released a product using a completely new board design with a Sexy red PCB.
Freeway on the left - Foxconn
Unique products are what we like to see here at Ninjalane and like the Freeway FWD-P3C4XD we have found another.
Enter the Foxconn NFPIK8AA, I have nicknamed this board "The Power of Duals" as this board has two of everything. An old saying from the SMP days was "Two is Better Than One". To some this ment a performance enhancement, in others it was simply bragging rights.
Enter the Foxconn NFPIK8AA, I have nicknamed this board "The Power of Duals" as this board has two of everything. An old saying from the SMP days was "Two is Better Than One". To some this ment a performance enhancement, in others it was simply bragging rights.
