Product Reviews

Foxconn's Mars is aimed squarely at gamers. It's based on the Intel P35 chipset and supports all Core 2 Duo and Quad processors, with FSB speeds up to 1,333MHz, and a maximum of 8GB of DDR2 memory up to 1,066MHz.

It has two PCI-E x16 slots, so you can install two ATI graphics cards and use them in CrossFire mode. However, as the second slot has only four lanes rather than 16, this isn't a choice we would recommend as it will limit 3D performance. Instead, the Mars is ideal for anyone who is looking to build a fast PC with a single graphics card.

One of the main reasons for this is the sheer amount of control the Mars offers for overclocking. As well as settings

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for increasing the FSB speed, you can boost the voltages being sent to the chipset and other components. This helps to avoid crashes when running at faster speeds. You can also adjust the processor multiplier in 0.5x increments instead of 1x. This feature is supported by the new 45nm Penryn processors, making the Mars suitable if you're planning on buying one of the latest Intel Core 2 Duos. Finally, you can store four custom overclocking profiles and switch quickly between them.

If overclocking doesn't interest you, then the Mars is still a fast motherboard at standard settings and has so much on board that you won't need to buy any extras. There are more SATA and USB ports than you're likely to need, plus RAID 0, 1, 5 and 0+1 support, Gigabit Ethernet and two FireWire ports and eSATA. There's also 7.1 audio with optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs. Usefully, there are power, reset and BIOS clear buttons, so you can assemble and test the Mars before installing it into your case, and there are also five fan headers to give plenty of cooling.

Thanks to its heat pipe cooling, there are no fans on the motherboard, so it won't add to the din your PC makes. Although the Mars doesn't have built-in wireless networking, it's still great value at this price.