<p>About a year ago, I started hearing about this company <a href="http://www.epox.com" target="_blank"><u>Epox</u></a>. 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.</p> <p>Before I go any furthur, I'd like to thank Abbas Jaffarali of <a href="http://www.tbreak.com" target="_blank"><u>T-Break</u></a> 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 <a href="http://www.tbreak.com/hard/mobo/epox_8k3ap/page1.html" target="_blank"><u>here</u></a>.<p> <p><b>Specifications</b></p> <p>-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)</p> <p>As you can see, Epox has a nice setup here with the 6 PCI slots, and <i>absolutely no</i> 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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p>
<p>While I'm not happy about the location, I am glad that Epox chose to use HighPoint Technology's HPT372 ATA133 RAID controller over a comprable Promise solution. HighPoint's controllers come with the ability to act as simply additional IDE controllers instead of RAID if the user wishes so. Promise solutions typically leave you with the option to use either RAID 1 or 0, and only some motherboard companies, like Asus, give you the option to use the controller as a standalone IDE controller.</p> <p>Much like MSI's D-LED, Epox includes an optional POST LED display. However, this uses 2 seven-segment displays to allow for more error codes. The different diagnostic codes are located in the motherboard manual. It's not something to salivate over, but it's one of those extra little features that make troubleshooting less stressful.</p> <p>The board I have is a revision 1.0, which does not feature the souped-up audio, just basic AC '97 sound from the 8233A southbridge. For me, that's fine, as I already have a nice sound card anyway.</p> <p>It's obvious that the KT333 northbridge is covered only by a passive heatsink. While hard core overclockers may opt to strapping an active solution on it, this does indicate that the KT333 doesn't run as hot as previous Via chipsets. That can't be a bad thing.</p> <p>Speaking of the manual, Epox isn't anything to write home about. It's not the most detailed manual I've read, but it gets the job done. It does have some computer terms and definitions as well as the POST LED codes, as previously mentioned, but the HPT372 manual isn't integrated into the motherboard manual like I've seen all other companies I've run across do. Instead, Epox chose to include a separate manual, which is fine, just not what I'm used to.</p> <p>The installation of Windows XP turned up some intresting things. 1.) The HPT372 did not like my home-made rounded IDE cables and would tell me that my hard drive was corrupted. 2.) I had a memory management BSOD that was solved by upping the convienent VDimm from within BIOS. I'm not totally clear as to why this happened, but it a little frustrating. I also ran into a little issue with the BIOS flashing and I'm assuming it's a freak thing, but I'll mention it. After flashing to the beta BIOS, dated April 3, 2002, I had the most BSOD's I've ever seen. Flashing it back didn't help either, and it turned out that the partition XP was installed on became totally corrupted. A reinstall and flash to the 4/3/02 BIOS and everything, including the DIMM voltage problem was fixed. I will be using the beta BIOS for testing as it fixes a front side bus issue with any frequency between 134-165MHz.</p> <p>Okay, what in the box? Epox includes 1 ATA133 cable, 1 ATA33 cable, and 1 floppy cable. A short multilanguage manual without English, and a HPT372 manual accompanied Epox main manual. There was also a floppy diskette with the HPT372 drivers, a driver and utility CD, and a Image Writer utility CD. Epox also included Norton Ghost and InnoculatIt's PCCillian on the driver and utility CD. I'm glad that Epox included the HPT372 floppy, as I've seen some companies that don't.</p> <p>The BIOS is the jewel of this board. The FSB selection goes all the way up to 255MHz, the CPU core (Vcore) up to 2.2 volts, and the DIMM voltage (VDimm) up to 3.2 Volts. The only thing that's missing it the AGP voltage (Vagp). It is listed in the manual, but not in the BIOS. Hopefully Epox will update the BIOS to include this in the future. There are a load of memory tweaks available for the geek wanting the last drop of performance from his memory. People have been reporting FSB's of over 200MHz with this board, which is simply amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have memory capable of nearly that speed, but I'll show you what I can hit later on. The BIOS is definitely a good one for enthusiasts.</p>
<p><b>Test setup</b></p> <p>Epox 8K3A+ with 2403 beta BIOS --Athlon T-Bird 1.4GHz, default speed --256MB PC2100 (Samsung chips) --Maxtor 20GB ATA100 7200RPM --Maxtor 40GB ATA100 5400RPM --Toshiba 12x DVD --Samsung 48x CD-ROM --Gainward GeForce3 clocked 250/571 core/memory --Hercules Fortissimo II --D-Link DFE 538TX+ --Lucent 2-port IEEE adapter --Sparkle 350 watt power supply --Gainward 21.81 drivers --Fortissimo II 4.10 drivers --Windows XP Professional</p> <p>Tests used: SiSoft Sandra 2002, AMD's N-Bench, Science Mark, CliBench 0.7, Quake 3: Arena Demo 1.11, and Mad Onion's 3DMark 2000 v 1.1.</p> <p>The BIOS settings were all left at the default memory timings, meaning the lowest values in this case.</p> <p><b>Sandra 2002</b></p> <p>While Sandra isn't the greatest benchmark, it does give us a quick and dirty score.</p> <p><b>CPU Benchmark</b></p> <p>As you can see, the CPU is well within a margin of error here. It's still fast, even at 'only' 1.4GHz.</p> <p><b>CPU Multimedia</b></p> <p>The CPU is a bit slower than a Pentium 4 2.0GHz, which shows that AMD's architecture is still a force to be reckoned with.</p> <p><b>Memory Benchmark</b></p> <p>Even with a CAS setting of 2.5 the KT333 is slightly faster than the KT266A chipset at CAS 2. Not surprisingly, the i850/Rambus combination wins out here.</p> <p><b>3D Mark 2000</b></p> <p>These are the highest scores I have personally witnessed in this benchmark. 3D Mark 2000 is a much better benchmark for a motherboard review than 3D mark 2001, because it loves memory bandwith more than the 2001 version. The KT333 is the biggest factor here, as I have not tweaked a single thing on this board for these benchmarks.</p> <p>640x480x16</p> <p>800x600x16</p> <p>As you can see, there's not a large difference between the scores here.</p> <p><b>Quake 3</b></p> <p>Again, not a real big difference between the resolutions. I don't really like Quake 3, but it's a good real world benchmark--the only reason I include it in testing.</p> <p><b>AMD N-Bench</b></p> <p>This is a nifty video card benchmarking program from AMD (surely you jest). While this is a motherboard test, we can't ignore the impact they make on graphical scenarios. Also, this is an excuse to have this handy for future use (I hope). Anyway, other than yapping about it, I can't say much about the score. I guess it looks fine...</p>
<p><b>Science Mark</b></p> <p>These are what can be expected of a 1.4GHz T-Bird Athlon. While I didn't have it in the picture, the Science Mark score was 122.78.</p> <p>These scores are very similar to what I had with the AOpen AK77 Pro (KT266) <i>with it overclocked!</i> especially in the memory department. Remember, this is at stock speeds and timings. The results between the KT333 and KT266<b>A</b> chipsets would undoubtedly be less pronounced, according to the information I've seen in other reviews on KT333 boards.</p> <p><b>Overclocking</b></p> <p>I was pretty much limited by the memory I had, and thus topped out my FSB at 151MHz, CAS2 in Normal timings. While the stick was Samsung chips rated for DDR333 @ CAS 2.5, I feel that while I could've dropped my multiplier, I wouldn't have been able to up the FSB enough to compensate for the loss. The options are amazing, even though I didn't get to make much use of them. I ended up running the CPU @ 10.5x 151 for a speed of 1.585GHz. I'd have liked to hit the 1.6GHz mark, but my chip doesn't seem capable of doing that without a watercooling setup. I have seen people hitting 200MHz FSB's with this board, though an AGP divider issue seems to have a problem with air-cooled systems hitting between 195-200+ range. Hopefully this will be addressed in a future BIOS update. I'd also like to mention again that I am using a BETA BIOS dated April 3, 2002, which addresses the FSB issue with any frequency between 134-165MHz.</p> <p><b>Final Words</b></p> <p>Well, this is my first Epox motherboard, and it's quite an impressive one at that. This is a relatively cheap motherboard, running $120-$130 with shipping on-line and is well rounded in the features. I felt Epox has left out certain extra's like Firewire (IEEE1394) and LAN to keep this board ready for overclocking. A newer version of the board, dubbed the 8K3A2, will have USB 2.0 onboard, among other things. The HighPoint controller is a pleasure to work with, though I'd watch out if you use or plan on using rounded cables. While there are issues that need to be addressed (no AGP voltage adjustment), Epox has gotten one thing down: Stability. This board was stable throughout all the testing, and only crashed with excessive overclocking. The only real downer to this board that cannot be easily remedied is it's layout. The worst part of the layout is the location of the IDE ports. For full-tower users, I would be especially wary of this board, everyone else, it doesn't matter. If Epox keeps up on tweaking out the BIOS, this will be an even better board than it is now, and it's a very solid one currently. If you're in the market for a KT333 board, this is one of the best deals you can have. For overclockers, this offers a lot of headroom and tweaks to keep them busy. I am proud to recommend the 8K3A+ to an overclocker with a little patience.</p> <p><b>The Good</b></p> <p>6 PCI slots --No AMR/CNR/ACR slots --HighPoint HPT372 RAID --ATA133 support --AGP retention clip --Vcore up to 2.2V --FSB options up to 255MHz!</p> <p><b>The Bad</b></p> <p>AGP card too close to DIMM slots --IDE controllers at bottom of board --no AGP voltage control</p> <p>Rating: 4.5 out of 5</p>
