FIC AD11 Socket-A AMD 760 DDR ATX

Name: FIC AD11 Socket-A AMD 760 DDR ATX
Item: FIC AD11 Socket-A AMD 760 DDR ATX
Author: Anand Lal Shimpi

by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 13, 2001 1:57 AM EST

Posted in
Motherboards

0 Comments | Add A Comment

0 Comments

Final Words

The AD11 was the first AMD 760 board we ever tested back in September and it's the first individual AMD 760 motherboard review that we're publishing. And without a doubt the AD11 proves itself to be a solid contender in the Socket-A motherboard market. Its performance is impressive and the motherboard is extremely stable. FIC did an exceptional job in building a rock solid DDR motherboard.

On the other hand, the layout of the board is falls below average. The placements of the CPU socket, power supply connector, and the IDE / floppy connectors are not in the most ideal places. This is the sacrifice FIC had to make in order to maintain such a low profile ATX motherboard.

Something that is inexcusable however is the fact that FIC continues to refrain from allowing for clock multiplier, voltage and FSB manipulation solely from within the BIOS. The days of jumper-controlled motherboards are long gone and while dipswitches are slightly better, with the competition already boasting 100% jumperless designs it is time for FIC to do the same. If they are worried about upsetting OEM customers that prefer the dipswitches they can just as easily go the same route as ABIT and provide both, dipswitches and a jumperless utility.

If you want the best performance for Athlon systems, the AD11 is definitely on the list of boards to consider. Together with PC2100 DDR SDRAM, we have already seen how impressive the combo is. However, with the motherboard being almost 30% more expensive than conventional KT133A motherboards and the need to pay a premium for DDR SDRAM, this setup might prove to be too much of an investment.

It will still be a while before we start to see the added bandwidth of DDR SDRAM fully taken advantage of, so if you don't mind not having the fastest thing on the block, a KT133A with a decent amount of PC133 SDRAM may be your best option for now. Otherwise, you can be one of the early adopters and hop on the DDR SDRAM bandwagon. It will only earn you a 5 - 10% performance gain in most situations but for some that's enough to justify the cost; if it isn't, then there is a world of KT133A boards waiting to catch your eye.

How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating
	Rating (x/10)
Performance The performance of the AD11 is impressive. We will reserve final judgment on the AD11's performance until we see more AMD 760 based motherboards.	6.0
Price Among motherboards using the AMD 761 / VIA 686B combo, the AD11 is priced a little bit above average. Together with the fact that DDR SDRAM is much more expensive than PC133 SDRAM, the whole setup can be a pretty big investment.	4.0
Stability The stability of the AD11 is outstanding. The AD11 didn’t crash once within 24 hours, and the first crash occurred after 34 hours of testing. The results are very impressive, and the AD11 is no doubt of the most stable boards we have seen to date.	9.0
Quality FIC is still improving in the quality of their products. The AD11 isn't ASUS quality just yet but FIC is definitely moving in the right direction.	6.0
Features You will be able to find almost all the overclocking features on the AD11 as you would on other KT133 / KT133A motherboards; including multiplier ratio settings, CPU core voltage manipulations, and FSB tweaks. However, the lack of smaller FSB increments and the fact that FIC's setup is still primarily dipswitch driven knocks down the feature category a noticeable amount.	7.5
Layout The layout of the board is below average. The placement of the CPU socket is too close to the edge of the motherboard and the power supply connectors force the power cables to be routed over the CPU among other complaints we had.	4.5
Availability You should be able to find FIC products easily online without much trouble. A lot of OEMs also use them in their systems. In stores like Fry’s Electronics and Microcenter people have started to spot FIC boards as well.	6.5
Documentation & Software Bundle The manual by FIC is about average. It does contain all the settings but it lacks the explanation necessary to be truly quality documentation. The bundled CDs provide all the utilities and drivers, and the inclusion of the three additional software packages is definitely a plus	6.0
Overall Rating - not an average Click here to find out why	6.5

FIC AD11 Socket-A AMD 760 DDR ATX

Final Words

How it Rates

Post Your Comment

0 Comments

View All Comments

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now