FA11: Not the worst, but definately not the best.
Written: Feb 28 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Was stable with all of my hardware.
Cons: Bad for OCing.
No temp monitoring.
Manual suggests hardware that isn't on it.
The Bottom Line: I would not reccomend this motherboard. The features aren't all that great, and you can't overclock. Plus, its not even on FIC's website anymore.
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| cornpopz's Full Review: FIC FA 11 Motherboard |
When building my Pentium 3 system I chose this motherboard. (I got it for about $60 from an auction at uBid, so some information in this review may not be accurate). Also be warned that there are, I beleive, *two* versions of this mobo (one with onboard sound and probably PC health monitoring, and one without). Anyways...
There weren't many problems with the layout. The AGP slot has plenty of clearance with the memory DIMM slots, which is nice because that is a problem in many motherboards. This is mainly due to the 6 slot design of the board, there are 5 PCI slots (on my board, 1 is shared with an ISA slot, but I do beleive that on the supposed other version there is no ISA slot), and the AGP 4x slot. The ATX power connector is placed between the CPU and the back of the case, which may be a problem if you decide to put a gigantic fan on your CPU (which is overkill, since overclocking on this board isn't one of its strong points).
As far as features go, this board isn't all too hot either. My manual promised a front USB connector, but my board didn't have it. And aside from that, there werent many other features besides the usual (Wake-on-LAN, multiplier selection DIP switch, etc.). Most features were in the BIOS. The BIOS contains enough tweaks to satisfy, but nothing all too hot. Not much as far as RAM timings go, just one option with two settings (essentially "Normal" and "Fast").
You do not want to OC with this board. FIC includes a software utility that lets you change the FSB (P3s are permanently multiplier-locked), but since you can't change vcore, vdimm, or any RAM timings, theres not much point in OCing. Besides, since i highly doubt that this motherboard has any kind of AGP/PCI/FSB ratio, the PCI bus would probably just go too fast and your cards would end up limiting you.
The manual is in 4 languages, but mainly in English. It was obviously translated, because there are instances of very weird word choice and grammar. Aside from that, the manual gives a pretty good explanation about what stuff does on the board and how to set it up. However, the BIOS features descriptions are quite vague. Sometimes the description of the feature simply restates what its called.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 60
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Epinions.com ID:
cornpopz
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Location: Maine, USA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 1 member
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