Its AM2, but not as we know it, captain....
FOXCONN are supporting AM2 with their latest board, the 975 2.0 Digital PWM which we were lucky enough to be near as they were actually setting it up.
Once the board was up and running, the AM2 ticked over quite happily, running dual NVIDIA cards as our pictures show… but although AM2 is new and exciting, there was something else about this board that makes it stand out from the crowd.
Click for larger imageOk, so that’s pretty much a standard shot of a motherboard running SLI that we’ve all seen before… so how about a shot of the bare board to give you a clue as to why this one is different.
Click for larger imageOk, so here’s the 975 2.0 Digital PWM without any gubbins plugged in. See anything different yet? A clue would be in that FOXCONN intend this motherboard to power systems that will rarely be turned off or left on for long periods of time, say for something like a media center or perhaps you’re just a lazy bugger who likes to leave his PC on a lot… got it yet?
Right then, here’s a close up of the socket and surrounding area, this is where the big difference is…
Click for larger imageYep, that’s the thing, there’s no dirty great liquid filled capacitors to pop and ooze gunge all over your nice shiny mainboard. FOXCONN have gone for a digital VRM solution, letting you run your PC for longer, giving a more reliable supply of juice to the CPU.
Click for larger imageAnd once the VRMs are doing their job, they need a bit of cooling, helpfully supplied by this natty black heatsink, as shown on the running model.
Click for larger image
