Tuesday, November 14, 2000

Introduction

Last time around, we were a bit surprised to receive a brand-new VIA Apollo Pro133A board in the mail.

This time though, we were a bit more prepared, as it seems a whole new host of such boards have been coming out of the wood-work of late. The Fic FA11 is one such board. It is a well designed board at first glance, replete with the usual functions such as PC133, and ATA66 support. Moreover, the FA11 has also been equipped with a few more novel features such as "Fic Audio Alert", and a sound-card based on the Creative Audio chipset (unfortunately, these features aren't included in the North American renditions of the FA11). With that said & done then - and if we still have your attention - lets get on with the meat of the review, and start our analysis.

The features

The FA11 motherboard is expandable via 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, and an AGP port. There are also 3 168-pin DIMM slots available, which can hold upto 1.5GB of PC100, or PC133 memory.

Configuration of the FA11 is accomplished in-part from the BIOS, and partly from the use of jumpers.

Among the latter, we find a block of Dip switches labeled SW1, which can be used to set the CPU's clock multiplier. As most of you can guess, this particular feature is less than useful in an era when most CPUs are multiplier-locked. Next, we have jumpers J1, J2, and J3, which can be used to force the FSB to 66MHz, 100MHz, or 133MHz. To really play with the processor however, it's necessary to jump into the BIOS menu labeled "Chipset Features Setup". From there, user's are presented with a selection of FSB frequencies ranging from 66MHz to 166MHz, and which includes: 66Mhz, 75Mhz, 83Mhz, 100Mhz, 103Mhz, 112Mhz, 124Mhz, 133Mhz, 140Mhz, and 150Mhz.

A final jumper, labeled JOCK, can also be used to access the "Over Voltage Driving" function, which can apparently be used to boost the CPU voltage. Unfortunately, no mention is made in the manual about how much voltage it changes, which leaves us with no way of knowing how much it augments the voltage, if it all.

Technical details

Very little space has been left around the CPU socket for the installation of a heatsink - particularly a large one. Even a relatively small unit, only a few millimeters larger than the socket itself was very difficult to install. Even worse, once installed, the heatsink retention clip obstructs the use of the memory slot 1, which makes it impossible to use while the heatsink is installed.

The memory slots are located far enough from the AGP port that there is no chance of the memory retention clip coming into contact with any graphics card you might care to install.

Eleven 1500mfd, and seven 1000mfd capacitors have been sprinkled around the CPU socket.

The CPU locking lever is made of metal, so there is no chance of breaking it.

Only 2 fan connectors are located on-board.

A function named "BIOS Guardian" is included, which protects the BIOS against viral infections.

Manual assignment of IRQs is not available.

A function permitting the BIOS to be reset to the last batch of valid settings can be activated by using the "Home" or "Insert" keys during a cold start.

Next: Additional features.