EPoX 8K3A+

About a year ago, I started hearing about this company Epox. The big draw were the overclocking features at a price much lower than more well known names like Asus, Abit, and Gigabyte. Epox has become a popular company with some very loyal fans, and I think it's time to see what this company is made of. Today, I present the Epox EP-8K3A+ based on the Via Apollo KT333 chipset.

Before I go any furthur, I'd like to thank Abbas Jaffarali of T-Break for the use of the above shot. I'm still looking for a camera that won't break the bank, but I am close to finding one that'll do the job for me. For reference, you can take a peek at T-Break's review of the 8K3A+ over here.

Specifications

-Via KT333 northbridge
-Via VT8233A southbridge
-Support for all current Socket A/462 CPU's
-3 DDR DIMM's supporting upto 3GB of PC2700 (DDR333)
-6 PCI slots
-1 AGP 4x slot
-Highpoint HPT372 ATA133 RAID controller
-Optional 5.1 channel sound
-2 USB + 2 port optional bracket
-2 serial, 2 PS/2, 1 Parallel
-2 digit POST read-out (optional)

As you can see, Epox has a nice setup here with the 6 PCI slots, and absolutely no CNR slot in sight. I'm glad to see this, as most companies opt to put in a nearly worthless CNR slot instead. Also notice that the AGP slot has a retention mechanism, which is something you can appreciate more if you move your system around frequently, like hitting LAN parties often.

While the layout is clean, the placement of certain items concerns me. For some, it's not a big deal, but those of us with full-tower cases, myself included, are going to be somewhat annoyed by the location of the IDE connectors. I would've much rather seen Epox place at least the IDE ports supplied by the Via VT8233A southbridge in the location of the floppy port.

Another thing is the AGP slot. You may have heard about the little fiasco recently with the 8KHA+ and the GeForce 4, and while that is a valid concern, I have not heard about people having problems with the new cards in the 8K3A+. I also cannot vouch wether or not the GeForce 4's will work with this board as I do not have one on hand. What concerns me is the location to the DIMM slots. To add or remove your DDR sticks, you are pretty much going to have to remove the AGP video card. Not the end of the world, but I feel that Epox could have set this up better. The last thing that I want to say about the layout is on the ATX power connector. I've heard the location is supposed to add to stability, but it can get the cord in the way of the heatsink, blocking the airflow we know the firey Athlon's need. This is by no means a horrible layout, but I feel that it could have been better.