Foxconn Digitalife ELA P45

Testing

Testing motherboards is usually performed by running several synthetic and gaming benchmarks, and comparing the results from these to other boards to see which has the better performance. However, in most motherboard reviews, you’ll notice that performance wise, most boards perform very similarly; mobos have very little effect on performance. With that in mind, this review features no testing, and instead has focused more on features and its overclocking ability.

Overclocking

Overclocking with the Foxconn DigitaLife ELA can be made as complicated or simplistic as you like. Now I’m no guru in this department, but I was able to overclock my Intel E8400 from 3 GHz to 4.05 GHz. This was quickly done just by upping the CPU clock speed and with it, the memory speed.

After this, I set out the task of trying to find the max frequency the board could handle. I did this by lowering the CPU multiplier to 6 and raising the FSB gradually to the maximum it would reach. With my current setup and with auto voltages, I achieved a Front Side Bus speed of 465. This wasn’t bad and I’m sure the board could go much further with the correct setup.

Cost

Cost wise, the Foxconn DigitaLife ELA can be found at most e-tailers for £220. This is right out in the deep-end of P45 mobos along with the Gigabyte GA-EP45T. However, it’s rare to see a decent P45 motherboard with Crossfire X support for sub £150. If you’ve got the money for three ATI cards, £220 shouldn’t even be a concern for you anyway.

Motherboards