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Foxconn H55A review

Foxconn H55A
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £75
inc VAT

This budget ATX motherboard provides more slots and space than similarly-priced microATX boards but its performance is slightly disappointing for the price.

Specifications

LGA1156, ATX, Intel H55 chipset, supports: Core i3, Core i5, Core i7

http://www.cclonline.com

Foxcon’s H55A is a budget LGA1156 ATX motherboard. It doesn’t have any of the latest features, such as USB3 or SATA III but its size means it has more expansion options that the MicroATX boards we’re used to seeing at this price.

Four RAM slots can each take a 4GB DDR3 DIMM to a maximum of 16GB and can handle overclocked RAM at speeds up to 2,000MHz. A single PCI-E x16 slot can be used for a graphics card if you don’t want to use an Intel processor’s onboard graphics, while three PCI and three PCI-E x1 slots give you plenty of room for peripherals. However, a dual-slot graphics card will block the top PCI-E x1 slot.

Foxconn H55A

Other onboard connectors include three USB headers, six SATA II ports and an IDE connector. At the back, you’ll find a pair of eSATA ports and six USB ports. The VIA onboard audio processor has 7.1 analogue audio out via six stereo outputs, while the integrated graphics capabilities of Intel’s LGA1156 processors can be used via the HDMI and DVI ports.

The H55A’ss overall benchmark score of 129 is a slight bit disappointing and we’ve seen boards with this chipset score a fair bit higher. Although this is a full ATX board, we expected better performance for £75, particularly in the face of competition. As such, Gigabyte’s GA-H55M-S2 microATX board is both faster and cheaper.

Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor socket LGA1156
Form factor ATX
Size 305x219mm
Processor support Core i3, Core i5, Core i7
Processor external bus 133MHz (2.0GB/s Direct Media Interface)
Chipset north bridge Intel H55
Chipset south bridge Intel H55
Passively-cooled north bridge yes
Integrated graphics Yes
Supported memory type DDR3 1066/1333/1600
Maximum memory speed PC3-12800
Memory slots 4
Maximum memory 16GB
Dual-channel support yes

Buying Information

Price £75
Supplier http://www.cclonline.com
Details www.foxconnchannel.com

Internal Ports

Power connectors 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX
PCI-E x16 slots 1
Dual graphics architecture Hybrid CrossFireX
PCI-E x4 slots 0
PCI-E x1 slots 3
PCI slots 3
Fan headers 3
Floppy ports 0
IDE ports 1
Serial ATA ports 6
RAID chipset (max disks) none

Features

Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Sound (ports) Via VT1828S (6x analogue out)
USB2 ports / headers 6/3
Firewire ports / headers 0/0
Legacy ports 1x PS/2
Other ports 2x eSATA, DVI, HDMI
Cables included 2x SATA, 2x Molex to SATA power
Brackets included none
Software included drivers only

Setup and Overclocking

Voltage adjustment CPU/RAM/Chipset
CPU clock max adjustment 400MHz

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