Foxconn A88GM Deluxe (AMD 880G) Motherboard (Page 11)

Power Consumption

We are now able to find out what kind of power is being used by our test system and the associated graphics cards installed. Keep in mind; it tests the complete system (minus LCD monitor, which is plugged directly into an AC wall socket).

With a Phenom II X6 on the A88GM Deluxe (a 125 Watt CPU) we actually see pretty decent numbers here. We would have liked to see a little less power draw, but overall it is not too terribly bad.

Heat Generation

As a new measure, we are now monitoring the heat generation from the key components on the motherboard; this being the Northbridge, Southbridge (if it contains one) as well as the Mosfets around the CPU. The results are recorded at idle and load during the power consumption tests.

For generated heat the Foxconn A88GM Deluxe was roughly in the middle of the pack without the HD 5870. Once that was dropped in things got much warmer.

Final Thoughts

So far we have seen some interesting things from Foxconn. Their 890GX motherboard was one of the better ones we played with while their H55 was awful. Here again we are seeing an excellent product from Foxconn with the 880G based A88GM Deluxe.

Of course the board is not going to win you any overclocking records, nor will it cover your gaming needs without the purchase of a discrete GPU. It will run any AMD CPU you throw at it and perform quite well even when compared to the 890GX based boards. With a price of under $100 it could be an excellent base for an inexpensive gaming system or even workstation.