Foxconn Winfast NFPIK8AA Motherboard Review

So what is the deciding factor between a gaming system and a workstation? Could it be marketing? Is it related to hardware? Maybe the type if chipset. There are several things to consider however this usually boils down to the class of hardware used and marketing behind the company building the hardware.

It is safe to say the NFPIK8AA falls into the workstation category. The registered memory requirement dictated by the 940pin Opteron is a leading indicator and provides smooth memory performance. Registered memory didn't do anything for bandwidth in our synthetic benchmarks but did help out on the realworld side. Overclocking was also rather impressive even though overall performance didn't change much. The limiting factor here was the registered memory and the lack of any real gains in memory performance.

The most impressive thing about the Foxconn Winfast NFPIK8AA is the overbuilt nature of the board itself; this is what really separates this system from a normal gaming or enthusiast board and makes it unique. Not only will this board fit into any standard case but it supports dual core processors, dual 16x video cards, dual channel memory, dual Gigabit Ethernet and twice as many SATA HDDs. Granted you will find many of these features on several enthusiast systems but usually for different reasons with some being a little overkill.

So what makes a workstation? Custom with a purpose, power without excess, and flexibility by design. The NFPIK8AA is all of these things and nothing more.

Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.

Dual everything, chipsets, video, channel memory, etc..
Sexy Red PCB, nuff said
True 16x SLI support
Dual Core support
Tons of SATA2 HDD connections
Excellent "included goodie" package

Nothing really bad to report other than the obvious, such as..

Workstation boards are expensive by compairson
Only supports the 940pin Opteron
Poor registered memory bandwidth
Only 1 PCI slot (ok, this one does suxX0r)