Fic SD11 Athlon Slot A
AMD 751 VIA 686A mainboard
Friday, January 28, 2000
The performance tests results
All tests were all performed under Windows98.
The system setup was as following:
Motherboard: Fic SD11
Motherboard Version: 1.8
BIOS version: NC608
CPU: AMD Athlon 800Mhz
CPUID: 0621
Memory: 128Mb of Transcend PC133 SDram
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig UDMA66
IDE second channel Primary port: Kenwood 48X True X
AGP slot: ATI Rage Fury 128GL
Graphic drivers version: 4.11.6107
OS: Win98 4.10
DirectX 6.1
Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Ziff Davis Winstone99 - Winbench99
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Winbench CPUmark99
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68.36
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Business Winstone99
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29.26
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Tests du sous-syst¸me vidˇo
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Quake2 version 3.20
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800 X 600 X 75Hz
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67.83 FPS
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Tests du sous-syst¸me disque
Overall Quality Evaluation
The evaluation table below shows both the strong and weak points of the tested motherboard. No need to remind you that performance is not the sole purchasing criteria in a motherboard. Most of today's motherboards exhibit performance very close to each other, so we need additional information in order to help us distinguish the real advantages of a motherboard compared to its competitors. This is exactly where this evaluation table comes in handy.
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Fic SD11 Athlon Slot A AMD 751 VIA 686A mainboard
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Feature
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Evaluation
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Design Originality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Circuit Board Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Component Layout
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Capacitiors
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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CPU Retention Mechanism
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amounts of Expansion Slots
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Amount of Memory sockets
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Ease of installation
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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BIOS Setup Design
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Performance
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Overclockability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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1
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Stability
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Bundled Software
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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1
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Bundled Hardware
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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4
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Users Manual Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Packing Quality
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Poor
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Good
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Average
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Excellent
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Top Grade
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5
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Features supported
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ATA66
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PC133
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Wake On LAN
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Modem ring
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Pwr Fail Res
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1
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Features supported (suite)
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SB-Link
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AMR
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Mouse Pwr On
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Susp. to RAM
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Susp. to Disk
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0
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Features supported (suite)
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IRDA
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SCSI
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Keyb. Pwr On
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Hardw. mon.
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Vcore adj.
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0
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Features supported (suite)
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RAID
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Alarm
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Jumperless
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L2 lat. adj.
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IRQ assign.
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1
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Total Score obtainned for this motherboard
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70 point out of 100
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Features color codes: Blue = supported, Red = optional, Black = not supported
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The Fic SD11 scores 70, out of a possible 100 points.
The weak points
The SD11's weak points are its total lack of frequency adjustment options, the impossibility of using a 133Mhz system bus - and consequently PC133 memory, a lackluster software bundle, and a complete lack of all the functions typically found on the majority of motherboards.
The strong points
The SD11's strong points are its user-friendly nature; installation doesn't require the setting of jumpers, or of BIOS options inorder to configure the processor.
Conclusions
At first glance, the Fic SD11 seems to lack the usual finishing touches. The SD11 arrives practicly denuded of all the function normally included with the near-totality of competing boards. In my opinion, this indicates that another Athlon board will soon be stepping up to the plate at Fic. On the performance side of things, there is nothing new in saying that the SD11 delivers excellent performance that puts it ahead of Gigabytes's own GA-71X, on all counts.
For additional information, visit Fic.
