Winfast NF4UK8AA-8ERKS is the first NF4 Ultra board from Foxconn. This board, just like most of the other NF4 Ultra boards we tested so far implements most of the functions of the NF4 Ultra chipset. They include support up to 8 x USB 2.0 (4 rear + 4 thru' external bracket) ports, Gigabit Ethernet with Firewall built in, 8 ch audio, 1394. It also comes with 2 IDE + 4 SATA ports for NVRAID supported by the chipset.

In our test, we compared the performance to 2 other NF4 Ultra boards and 1 ATi Express 200P board. From the tests, we can see that the performance of the NF4 Ultra based boards are quite close to one another. Compared to the ATi K8 board from MSI, the NF4 Ultra based NF4UK8AA-8EKRS wins in a number of benchmarks.

The board comes with overclocking options. Voltage can be set for the VCore, Vdimm, VHtt for example. FSB can be set up to 300MHz. There is also option for ASync 166,133,100 operation. HTT frequency can be set to
1x ~ 5; width can be set to 8 or 16 bits. The disappointment is that multiplier control seems to be missing from the BIOS that comes with the board. We have requested for a new BIOS with that option. You can see the gallery for the options available.

As we know that NF4 Ultra chipset supports overclocking by locking parameters like PCI, PCI-E, SATA, we tried to check out how far can we overclock the NF4UK8AA-8EKRS mainboard. Using the FX-53 processor which I tested the other NF4 Ultra boards. I booted up the system and used CrystalCPUID and set the multiplier down to 8x. I rebooted the machine and went into the BIOS and the FSB to 210. HTT is set to 3x, vdimm at 2.8v, vcore at 1.55v, vchipset at 1.8v. I was able to boot up and went into WinXp. A check using CPU-Z shows that the multiplier is 8x and memory is running 1:1. I went a bit further by rebooting the machine and set the RAM to CAS 3, 8-4-4 and setting the FSB to 236MHz. I think the BIOS has got something to do with the results. I hope Foxconn will issue a new BIOS that can implement the multiplier and fix the possibly PCI-E lock. The FSB range can also be extended beyond 300MHz.

Overall, if you are looking for a stable board, the Winfast NF4UK8AA is definitely a choice to be considered. Just like most boards, it only implements the older 1394a and not 1394b. A dual GbE would make the board more appealing as well.

Pricing

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Pros

• 1394
• USB 2.0 
• Gigabit Ethernet
• IDE RAID + SATA RAID
• 8 ch audio
• Overclocking features - voltage, fsb

Cons

• Single Gigabit Ethernet
• 1394b
• Multiplier control missing
• No Diagnostic LEDs

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.