Epox 8RDA3+ Review

albert · June 28, 2003, 01:30:13 PM

I was just trying to decide which mobo to go for in my new system (the one I threatened to built months ago) and read this review:

http://www.motherboards.org/articlesd/moth...ews/1254_1.html

It has FSB 400MHz support and dual ethernet ports (w00t!!).

Any opinions on this board in comparison to the Abit NForce 2 alternative? Price difference a tenner.

Another alternative was the Soltek Golden Flame NForce2 with SATA support. But the dual LAN is winning it for the Epox at the moment.

Is there anything better on the Abit board than the Epox you guys who already own one can tell me about?

albert · June 29, 2003, 01:00:28 PM

Any thought gents? I've read more into it, the Abit one does have a HS and Fan on the Nothbridge which, Epox only has a HS. But there is an Expert mode in the Bios and you can tweak the clock rate of the CPU up 1 MHz at a time.

It comes complete with loads fo cables and extensions for the extra 2 USB2 ports, two Fireware ports, the list is endless.

TeaLeaf · June 29, 2003, 01:09:48 PM

This discussion was held only a week or so ago for Marsvolta. You should read the thread.

The Epox is slightly better specified but has been reported as having some hardware conflict issues. Unfortunately there seems to be no definitive list of what works, it is just pot luck. The Abit is well specified (but not quite as well as the Epox) and does not seem to have any hardware conflict issues reported.

In terms of raw speed the Epox board is very marginally faster, but the difference is minute and you would not notice unless you ran a series of benchmark apps.

Both the Epox and the Abit support the 200MHz FSB (400MHz for the RAM). Note, the Epox mobo was brought out when they got their 400MHz certification and they changed the name to denote the improved capabilities. The Abit mobo has always supported 400MHz, but only v2.0 (which has been on sale for 6 months now) has official support for it. FatBob has a v1.2 running at about 212MHz FSB is I recall.

Both mobos overclock really well and are the defacto choice for nForce2 mobos at the moment. Both do 1MHz increments etc. If you plan to do voltage overclocking then the Epox will allow you to increase the voltages slightly higher than the Abit. Having said that this is a difference, I would say that you would not notice it unless you were a total voltage overclocking freak. I have mine at 222MHz FSB (444MHz RAM) and I am still not using the top voltage settings. In fact I would suggest that the Abit max voltages are probably in line with the consensus 'sensible maximum voltages' that you will find discussed on overclocking forums. Raising the voltages too high will basically give the electons within the chip so much energy that they start punching their way through the chip substrate - the end result being a fubar chip (be it cpu, ram, video chip or what ever).

Both mobos will take big cpu coolers. Watch your AGP card blocking a RAM slot on the Epox though. No such problems on the Abit.

If you are not worried with hardware incompatibilities and want to get the absolute stone-crazed max out of your system then go for Epox, but for my money I'd be happy and am happy with the Abit, as are several other members of the forum.

TL.

albert · June 29, 2003, 02:28:57 PM

Cheers for the usual high quality response TL. I saw a few articles on the Epox compatibility issues but they seem to be minor, one was with the Radeon 9700 Pro but I have a Ti4200 Nvid so it should be ok.

I am looking at:

Epox 8RDA3
OCZ 1GB (2x512MB) PC3500 Dual Channel

I see Corsair have released the TwinX 3700 up to 1GB but none of the maon NForce boards say they support 3700. Petty since that 1GB Corsair 1GB twin is actually cheaper than teh 3500 OCZ (w00t!!) silly eh?

albert · June 29, 2003, 04:07:17 PM

Final Spec:

Epox 8RDA3+ nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-026-EP)
Â£85.50 Â£85.50
Lian Li PC-65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (CA-003-LL)
Â£84.00 Â£84.00
Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-001-WD) Â£75.00 Â£75.00
Samsung 3.5" Silver Floppy Disk Drive - OEM (RD-000-SA)
Â£9.00 Â£9.00
Akasa Paxmate Acoustic Absorption Mat (CA-000-AK)
Â£10.00 Â£10.00
Akasa AK-172 12" Cold Cathode - Green (CM-012-GE)
Â£12.20 Â£12.20
LiteON 16x DVD-ROM - Retail (CD-008-LO)
Â£25.90 Â£25.90
OCZ 512MB (2x256MB) PC3500 Dual Channel Series EL-DDR (ME-007-OC) Â£133.13 Â£133.13

TeaLeaf · June 29, 2003, 05:00:21 PM

None of the mobos 'officially' support PC3700 RAM, but they didn't offically supported PC3200 or PC3500 either (PC3200 officially does not exist!). Official support is a bit of a red herring, it is more about FSB speed. If you think about it all you have to do is get your FSB up to 231MHz and that will run the memory at its rated speed - PC3700

If you can't get your FSB up to that level then the RAM will run perfectly happily at the slower speed, just remember to stick it in the right slots and to run it in synchronous mode (ie set the memory divider to 1:1, or 3:3 or 6:6 etc in BIOS) otherwise it will not operate in dual channel mode.

So if you want to get Corsair then I would figure it is OK. I currently have OCZ in one machine and Corsair RAM in another - both run real nice. I personally would go for the fastest memory you can get so that you can guarantee it will not be causing a bottle neck in your system. Both OCZ and Corsair overclock real well. I would have gone for Corsair when I built my system but at that time they did not offer matched pairs of PC3700. That lack of product lead me to research other RAM makes and end up with OCZ. I have been a happy user of both makes.

My PC3500 (in sig below) is meant to run at 218MHz FSB and it is currently going at 222MHz, so the faster the RAM the better. Getting your FSB to 231MHz without using something better than air cooling will be a struggle anyway.

For reference:

FSB x 2 = Memory MHz speed, ie FSB 200 x 2 = 400MHz memory.
FSB x 2 x 8 = Memory PCnumber rating, ie 200 x 2 x 8 = PC3200 memory = 400MHz memory

Hope this helps.

TL.

TeaLeaf · June 29, 2003, 05:06:36 PM

BTW, nice spec, but what about the CPU and cooler? What are you going to stick in the case?

TL.

albert · June 29, 2003, 05:36:00 PM

First and very important.... Green mobo so Akasa AK-172 12" Cold Cathode - Green

Right here's the whole lot:

* Lian Li PC-65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (CA-003-LL)
* Enermax 550W EG651P-VE FMA Blue
* Epox 8RDA3+ nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-026-EP)
* Athlon XP1700+ (JIUHB)
* Aerocool DP-101 Deep Impact CPU cooler
* OCZ 512MB (2x256MB) PC3500 Dual Channel SeriesEL-DDR
* Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition 8MB Cache - OEM
(Will get a second one of these in time)
* ABIT GF4 Ti 4200 OTES (Big cooling system on this but not a long card like the 4600s http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzYy )
* Creative Audigy Player
* Samsung 3.5" Silver Floppy Disk Drive - OEM (RD-000-SA)
* LiteON 16x DVD-ROM - Retail (CD-008-LO)
* Lian Li Aluminum Bezel cover for CD-ROM (Flips up when the tray opens)
* Akasa Paxmate Acoustic Absorption Mat (I don't like big noises and this got full marks in the review)
* Akasa AK-172 12" Cold Cathode - Green
* 2 x Alaska Silver 60cm IDE cables
* 1 x Alaska Silver Floppy cable
* Artic Silver 3

I am still looking for a fan to put over the HS on the Northbridge. For some reason Epox decided not to have a fan on this model unlike earlier NForce boards but I can add that myself. My GFX and sound cards will be leeched out of the current pc as will the PSU, HS and Fan and cables. The Epox does come with a fantastic array of accessories and I will get the two front facing Lian USB ports wired up as the Epox has support for up to 2 additional ports.
The Abit OTES GFX card has mad cooling covering the whole card so no HSs are needed on that.

So there you have it, I shall get it all built and try and do a TL graphical report and use teh standard benchmarking tools.

Can't wait to give this overclocking lark a go

Doorman · June 29, 2003, 10:58:04 PM

I actually heard him order all this stuff online and heard the squeek of the credit card (Scottish Widows) and the huffing and puffing about being in 'budget'. Jeez, what a performance!

albert · June 30, 2003, 06:32:30 PM

OK so I'm just leeching the bits out of the old box to put in th enew one.... and now I think the old mobo has gone fuber at the IDE1 connection.

Anyone had an issue where your pc boots, does the RAM check then fails to identify the Pri and Sec IDE Mstr and Slv devices?

I'ev changed the IDE cables, changed the power connectors and I am now losing interest. No CS for me until I get this sorted out :cry:

PM me and I'l lgive any willing person my a call for tech support thanks.

Help...

OldBloke · June 30, 2003, 06:45:09 PM

I'm pretty sure you would've tried this ...

Unplug all IDE devices except one non-UDMA HDD.

Can it be seen in BIOS?

albert · June 30, 2003, 06:48:14 PM

Funny you should say that, I just did tha texact thing and the CD drives showed up which then allowed me to go into the BIOS and rediscover the HDDs aso I think the watch battery on the mobo has a bad contact.

I just cleaned the battery and it got past the POST ok that time, so progress is slow but at least your suggestion was a right on, cheers.

TeaLeaf · June 30, 2003, 06:52:10 PM

Yes I have had this fault before, typically where you boot it from cold. The eventual fault (after mobo/cable/ram swaps etc) was a faulty HDD (a Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 8MB cache).

Specific indicators of this problem included the ability to reboot normally when the system was warm, but the HDD woudl not be recognised when the system booted from cold. The HDD was on the same cable as the main boot HDD (which was also a WD 120GB Spec Ed etc). It was the second HDD that was at fault, but it caused both to fail to be recognised.

Temporary solution:
Turn the machine on - it will fail to recognise the drives - let it continue to try to boot - it will say it can't find boot - leave it - go have dinner - after 30 minutes try to reset and warm boot the machine - I bet ya it recognises this time and boots properly.

I turned SMART on in BIOS and it came back with a SMART5 fault after about 4 days of running. In normal uses when warm it worked perfectly though :? I swapped the HDD out for another identical HDD and it cold booted perfectly and has since then.

Hope this helps.

TL.

albert · June 30, 2003, 07:28:53 PM

Personally now I think the old pc is gutted about the new pc which is about to make it redundant. The PSU has just gone, which admitidly was a suspected problem months ago.

I am just going to leave it for now, get the new pc built this week and put the two old HDs onto th enew pc to get the data of them.

albert · July 02, 2003, 03:31:01 PM

Well the new pootah is now built. It has powered on, not blown up and I am just formatting the HDD to install some sort of sense onto it.

The BIOS on this EPOX board it massively well featured, and its set to defaults meaning my out of the box 1700+ is running at 1100 and the DDR RAM is seen as DDR200. So I think I forsee a fair old hike up one hell of a learning curve.

The Lian Li flip down Alu CD Bezel is very swish and the Lian Li temp display is also nice but I have no idea where to position my sensors. I ws going to shove one under the CPU but I don't know if I can do that now I've installed the CPU and HS?

The Epxo board has lots of space and is very well designed apart fron one corner where the IDE ports, the power switch, LED and such like, and the spare USB pins are all situated so there is a bit of congestion at one corner. Plus the HDD bay is really close to that corner so the IDE cables whilst not having to travel far will be tricky to fit on the the older and lower positoined drives.

I got some piccies but not had a chance to get them off the camera yet.

Any advice on temp sensors, BIOS setting for default XP1700+ TB and DDR400 RAM would be apprecdiated.