..:: 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 Packaging ::..

           

     I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, one of the most disappointing trends I have seen as of late stretching all the way from Tier Two and Three to Tier One manufacturers is to skimp out on hardware and cabling inclusions in their latest product lines. Given the price that many of these boards are fetching, I would expect them to come with a little more than the absolute bare essentials. Now, sure some boards are bought for overclocking only, and not for the package, and some boards are bought for their value which has a lot to do with the package. As you all know, I try to find a balance between the two that will cater to all users, rather than one specific group. When it comes to the product package, the 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 offers up probably the best package for the money I’ve seen in a long, long time.

     First off, let’s take a look at the quality of the 925XE7AA-8EKRS2‘s. As we found with previous offerings from Foxconn, the product manual was excellent. The areas where we felt more information was needed have been addressed, and the manual now covers the hardware installation process in better detail than was seen in earlier manuals. Foxconn also offers detailed pin out diagrams for those users who might choose to utilize built in IEEE1394 and USB 2.0 ports with their case instead of the expansion brackets that are offered, more on those in a minute.

     When it comes to covering the BIOS, once again Foxconn has once a solid job of providing the end user with all of the necessary information they’ll need. Normally, we’ll see manufacturers skimp out when it comes to covering the BIOS options, but this can’t be said for this board. Foxconn provides excellent coverage of the various tweaking and overclocking adjustments that are allowed, as well as providing detailed explanations covering other BIOS options that are available to the end user.

     The most refreshing aspect about Foxconn’s 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 is the incredible difference we’ve found between the i915P / i915G motherboard accessories we reviewed late last year, and this product package. With the 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 being one of the cheapest i925XE motherboards out there right now, considering all that Foxconn has included with the product, I’d say that this board is an excellent bang for the buck. I haven’t been able to work with a product package of the quality in some time, and it’s a real refreshment to see Foxconn take a serious approach to giving the consumer more for their money.

     As far as the hardware inclusions go, we see that Foxconn has loaded up the 925XE7AA-8EKRS2 with cables, cables, and more cables. To put it simply, Foxconn has included a cable for every port available on the motherboard. This is the way that it should be done on high-end boards, all the time, every time. We find three rounded IDE cables, one rounded floppy cable, and eight, yes eight Serial ATA data cables. To top that, we see that Foxconn hasn’t skimped out of power support for the Serial ATA devices either, with full support for up to eight Serial ATA devices.

     Other items that have been included are two rear expansion brackets for USB 2.0 and IEEE1394. The IEEE1394 expansion bracket offers support for both of the a/b ports, something that I haven’t seen done all that often. Normally, well see support for one of the port types, but the other will be dropped. The USB 2.0 bracket offers support for an additional four USB 2.0 capable ports. Also keep in mind that these expansion brackets have been colored black, as with all the cabling to create an excellent color coordinated system.

     Lastly, we find that Foxconn also offers three separate driver diskettes for the various RAID controllers, as well as for the ICH6-R. I’ve seen some manufacturers dump the floppy, and just tell the end user to make their own floppy and download the file off the CD onto it. This is more of a pet peeve of mine, as I get a bad taste in my mouth to see things like this for a cheap floppy. Foxconn also includes the typical rear I/O panel, as well as the main driver / software CD.

     Overall I’d have to say this is the best package I’ve dealt with since the middle of last year, if not later, especially for the price ratio. Some of the other products out there add in other bells and whistles, only to skimp out of cabling or other areas of the product package. The 925XE7AA-8EKRS2’s product package shows that Foxconn is listening to the hardware enthusiast on what they want and need in a high performance product. If Foxconn can keep up this pace, and make improvements in other aspects of their motherboards, we could soon see a Foxconn fan base propping itself up.