After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.
Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com
Freeway Design FWD-P3C4XD Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Sunday, November 26, 2000
Conclusion
Conclusion
I am actually very impressed with the FWD-P3C4XD. The board and processors were stable all the way to 960Mhz without adjusting
anything more than the FSB. I did however run into some stability problems when going for the maxiumum FSB setting. The computer
would post and start to load Windows2000, then when I was almost to the desktop I got the BSOD.
At that point I gave up, I wasn't completely sure where the problem was, though considering my memory was only approved to 133MHz I blamed the BSOD on that.
Keep in mind when I did this review I was using the onboard sound, a Geforce2 Ultra from Creative and a Linksys Ethernet card. Pretty much everything you would see in a production workstation (granted some have SCSI). All of the tests were performed under Windows2000 with SP1 installed and using the drivers that came on the Freeway Design CD.
The bios was easy to understand and there was a setting for everything. FSB can be set on the fly via the bios. The onboard sound and other devices can be disabled or enabled depending on how you are setting up your system.
For those that enjoy a little reading when they install their motherboard the FWD-P3C4XD comes with an elaborate user manual that documents every aspect of this board., in two languages I might add.
Although there are many pluses, there are also a few minuses. Though most of these can easily be overlooked. First the lack of onboard ATA100 support. Most boards that we have seen have ATA100 support in one form or another.
Second I'm not a big fan of onboard sound, most of the controllers are limited in functionality. Though onboard sound does serve a purpose. There is an extra PCI slot for that SCSI card I was missing earlier, or you can use it for another video card for a multi-monitor experience.
Based on previous experience with other motherboards, single and dual processor alike, I am impressed with the Freeway Design offering. The board provides ease of use and configuration for the person that is looking for an out of box product. The board also offers flexibility to the person that must tweak and configure for the best performance.
At that point I gave up, I wasn't completely sure where the problem was, though considering my memory was only approved to 133MHz I blamed the BSOD on that.
Keep in mind when I did this review I was using the onboard sound, a Geforce2 Ultra from Creative and a Linksys Ethernet card. Pretty much everything you would see in a production workstation (granted some have SCSI). All of the tests were performed under Windows2000 with SP1 installed and using the drivers that came on the Freeway Design CD.
The bios was easy to understand and there was a setting for everything. FSB can be set on the fly via the bios. The onboard sound and other devices can be disabled or enabled depending on how you are setting up your system.
For those that enjoy a little reading when they install their motherboard the FWD-P3C4XD comes with an elaborate user manual that documents every aspect of this board., in two languages I might add.
Although there are many pluses, there are also a few minuses. Though most of these can easily be overlooked. First the lack of onboard ATA100 support. Most boards that we have seen have ATA100 support in one form or another.
Second I'm not a big fan of onboard sound, most of the controllers are limited in functionality. Though onboard sound does serve a purpose. There is an extra PCI slot for that SCSI card I was missing earlier, or you can use it for another video card for a multi-monitor experience.
Based on previous experience with other motherboards, single and dual processor alike, I am impressed with the Freeway Design offering. The board provides ease of use and configuration for the person that is looking for an out of box product. The board also offers flexibility to the person that must tweak and configure for the best performance.
I would like to say thanks to the people of Freeway.
You can see their product offerings at the following websites
http://www.freeway.co.jp (Japanese)
http://www.freeway.co.tw (Chinese)
and the Retail shop "TwoTop"
http://www.twotop.co.jp (Japanese)
Yes I know they are not in English but most of the important stuff is univeral.
You can see their product offerings at the following websites
http://www.freeway.co.jp (Japanese)
http://www.freeway.co.tw (Chinese)
and the Retail shop "TwoTop"
http://www.twotop.co.jp (Japanese)
Yes I know they are not in English but most of the important stuff is univeral.
