Foxconn NFPIK8AA Dual Core nForce Pro Motherboard

Foxconn’s feature-packed, single-socket Opteron board for dual-core processors, the NFPIK8AA, based on NVIDIA’s latest nForce Pro chipset has all the makings of a perfect dual-core platform for workstations and enthusiasts, says The Tech Report. But does it live up to it’s potential?:

When compared with the Asus K8N-DL, which costs $50 more, the NFPIK8AA offers SLI support, more PCI Express slots, a second Gigabit Ethernet option, 1394b Firewire, and the ability to span RAID arrays across up to eight Serial ATA drives. The K8N-DL may have an extra CPU socket, but with dual-core Opterons trickling onto the market, the extra socket is really only necessary if you want to run a dually with four cores.

Unfortunately for Foxconn, AMD tells us that dual-core Opteron 100-series chips won’t be available for Socket 940. Instead, new Opteron 100-series chips will be released in a 939-pin package that won’t require registered memory. That will lower the cost of the Opteron 100-series platform, but it tanks the NFPIK8AA’s CPU upgrade path in the process. The NFPIK8AA is still compatible with dual-core Opteron 200-series chips, but those carry a price premium over 100-series chips. The higher cost is justified, of course, since Opteron 200-series chips can be run in pairs. That value will be lost on the single-socket NFPIK8AA.

Tech Report