Introduction

Foxconn moved into the enthusiast and gaming motherboard segment a year ago with one of the first NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI boards in the market, the C51XEM2AA. At that time, Foxconn was said to have closely worked with NVIDIA on the design of the board, which also marked the beginning of NVIDIA's designed-to-order reference platforms. NVIDIA revived the concept when they launched the nForce 680i SLI chipset, selling complete reference motherboards to OEM partners, leading to the existence of two types of boards in the market, those that are "Designed by NVIDIA" such as the ECS PN2-SLI2+ and the custom engineered ones like the ASUS Striker Extreme or Gigabyte's GA-N680SLI-DQ6.

The Foxconn N68S7AA-8EKRS2H motherboard.

Being one of the largest contract manufacturers in the IT industry, Foxconn has a predictable past of sticking with reference designs, but interestingly enough, they've chosen not to go the same route with their own version of the nForce 680i SLI. Foxconn's latest N68S7AA-8EKRS2H motherboard sports a great looking custom design that isn't cluttered, but still looks like it means business. Let's find out if the N68S7AA-8EKRS2H has what it takes to make the grade.

The list below shows the peripherals that are bundled with the Foxconn N68S7AA-8EKRS2H:-

6 x SATA data cables

3 x SATA power converter cables (dual plugs)

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

FireWire (2 ports) bracket

USB 2.0 (4 ports) bracket

COM port bracket

SLI high-speed digital link interface bridge

I/O shield

Driver CD

User's manual

Foxconn N68S7AA-8EKRS2H Technical Specifications

CPU Support	Supports 90nm/65nm LGA775 processor package Supports Intel Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Extreme Supports Intel Pentium D / Pentium Processor Extreme Edition  Supports Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
Chipset	NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI SPP 400 - 1333MHz front side bus NVIDIA DualDDR2 Memory Controller 18 PCI Express lanes One link at x16 for graphics card (SLI capable) Two PCIe x1 lanes NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI MCP 28 PCI Express lanes One link at x16 for graphics card (SLI capable) One PCIe x8 Four PCIe x1 lanes Supports up to ten USB 2.0 ports Supports six SATA 3.0Gbps ports Dual-channel Ultra ATA-133 IDE controller Supports up to five PCI slots
Memory	NVIDIA DualDDR2 architecture 4 x 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. 8GB DDR2-400 to DDR2-1400 non-ECC memory Slot independant dual-channel mode NVIDIA QuickSync Fourth Generation DASP Support Enhanced Performance Profile (EPP) SLI Memory
Storage	NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI MCP  2 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.)  6 x SATA 3.0Gbps interface  NVIDIA MediaShield Technology  Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, JBOD  Supports RAID Morphing Supports eSATA JMicron JMB360 SATA Controller 1 x SATA 3.0Gbps interface Supports eSATA Supports AHCI, NCQ
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio (Azalia) Realtek ALC888 8-channel HD Audio CODEC Optical and Coaxial S/PDIF
Networking	2 x NVIDIA Gigabit LAN co-supported by Marvell 88E1116 PHY chip (Transceiver) DualNET (TCP/IP Acceleration, Teaming) FirstPacket Technology
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	VIA VT6308P FireWire controller 2 x 1394a ports @ 400 Mbps speed
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 1 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors 7 x SATA connectors (6 x onboard, 1 x eSATA) 10 x USB 2.0 ports (4 x rear, 4 x bracket, 2 x header) 2 x FireWire-400 ports (1 x rear, 2 x bracket) 2 x RJ45 LAN ports Optical and coaxial S/PDIF port 8-Channel Audio I/O ports 1 x 9-pin serial port bracket 1 x Parallel port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
Expansion Slots	3 x PCIe x16 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 2 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 2 x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features	Foxconn FoxOne Technology SuperRecovery, SuperBoot, SuperBIOS-Protect, SuperStep, SuperLogo, SuperUpdate, SuperSpeed All solid capacitors
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

Rear I/O panel features PS/2 ports, Parallel port, eSATA connector, coaxial and optical S/PDIF, FireWire-400, two Gigabit LAN, four USB 2.0 and a set of surround analog audio jacks.