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Foxconn H55MX-S review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £62
inc VAT

Foxconn's budget LGA1156 motherboard isn't just stripped down, but also badly laid out, which detract heavily from its fast performance.

Specifications

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

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop

The H55MX-S is one of Foxconn’s cheapest LGA1156 motherboards. It has a better range of back panel ports than many similarly priced motherboards, but we were immediately sceptical about its layout. It has just two memory slots, so can only take a maximum of 8GB RAM. There’s also no BIOS support for memory speeds above 1,333MHz and Foxconn’s supplied ONE overclocking software only provides a limited range of automated options. Support for CPU overclocking is also virtually non-existent.

Foxconn H55MX-S top

The H55MX-S has two PCI slots and one PCI-E x16 slot. A PCI-E x4 slot immediately below it that will be blocked by any graphics card with a large cooler. Worse still, installing a large graphics card will also block two of the six SATA ports, which is a problem if you want both a decent graphics card and multiple optical or hard drives. The motherboard also has three USB headers which can be used to connect up to six extra ports, but that’s about it as far as useful extra features go.

We were bemused by the serial port on the back panel – we certainly haven’t needed one in several years. Six USB ports and a PS/2 port are rather more useful, as are six analogue 3.5mm audio outputs and an optical S/PDIF out port. There’s also a full set of VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors for the graphics processor integrated into most of Intel’s LGA1156 processors.

Foxconn H55MX-S ports

The H55MX-S works well enough – it even got an excellent Overall score of 132 in our tests – but we can’t fathom the logic behind some of Foxconn’s feature and layout choices. Even if you’re building a media centre PC that will never require any overclocking, extra memory or more than four SATA devices, there are still less compromised motherboards available for the same price, the Asus P7H55 for example.

Basic Specifications

Rating **
Processor socket LGA1156
Form factor microATX
Size 244x218mm
Processor support Core i3, Core i5, Core i7
Processor external bus 133MHz (2.4GHz DMI)
Chipset north bridge Intel H55
Chipset south bridge Intel H55
Integrated graphics No
Supported memory type DDR3 1066/1333
Maximum memory speed PC3-10600
Memory slots 2
Maximum memory 8GB
Dual-channel support yes

Buying Information

Price £62
Supplier http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop
Details www.foxconnchannel.com

Internal Ports

Power connectors 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 4-pin ATX
PCI-E x16 slots 1
Dual graphics architecture N/A
PCI-E x4 slots 1
PCI-E x1 slots 0
PCI slots 2
Fan headers 3
Floppy ports 0
IDE ports 0
Serial ATA ports 6
RAID chipset (max disks) none

Features

Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Sound (ports) Realtek ALC888S (6x analogue out, S/PDIF header)
USB2 ports / headers 6/3
Firewire ports / headers 0/0
Legacy ports 1x PS/2, serial port
Other ports VGA, DVI
Brackets included none
Software included drivers

Setup and Overclocking

Voltage adjustment CPU/RAM
CPU clock max adjustment 0MHz

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