Epox 9NDA3+: A New Socket 939
by Wesley Fink on October 25, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
BIOS: Epox 9NDA3+
Epox uses the familiar Award BIOS, so navigation will be familiar for most users.
Most of the options of interest to overclockers are contained in the Power BIOS Menu. This includes CPU speed, AGP speed, HT ratios, CPU ratios, and CPU/DIMM/AGP/Chipset voltage.
The only real enthusiast settings not found in Power BIOS are the DRAM timings, which are in a submenu under the Advanced Chipset Features.
The CPU can be adjusted over a speed range from 200MHz to 400MHz in 1MHz increments. This is a much better than normal range of CPU speeds
AGP can be fixed at any frequency from 66 to 100, but most users will probably leave it at 66 or 67.
The Epox offers HyperTransport adjustments to 5X (1000 HT).
Memory Voltage can be adjusted to 2.8V, which is adequate, but nothing that will excite overclockers. A range of 3.0V to 3.2V would have been much more useful for those who push the performance of their system.
The other part of high FSB clocking is CPU ratios or multipliers. The 9NDA3+ provides a wide range of 8 to 25X, but adjustments are in whole multipliers only. Keep in mind that while all Athlon 64 chips can be downclocked with lower ratios, only the FX chips are completely unlocked and can be set to higher than stock ratios. We confirmed that the ratios do work as they should on the Epox board.
vCore is surprisingly limited and coarse compared to past Epox designs. There are only 4 settings for vCore in +.05, +.10, +.15, and +.20. This is the most useful adjustment range for air overclocking, but finer controls would have been appreciated. The range will be considered too limited for users of water or phase-change cooling.
AGP voltage adjustment covers a broad range to 1.8V. This adjustment usually makes very little difference in overclocking.
Chipset voltage adjustments from 1.6V to 1.75V in useful .05V increments are provided in the Epox. This is very useful when trying to reach extreme overclocks on the nF3 Ultra chipset.
Many of the most used adjustments are in Power BIOS, so the Advanced Chipset menu is mainly DRAM Timings, HT Ratios, AGP aperture size, and shadowing control.
The nForce3 Ultra supports many integrated features. Most of these are controlled in the Integrated Peripherals menu. This includes an IDE Function Setup submenu where setup and adjustments are made to the nVidia RAID for SATA and IDE drives.
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TrogdorJW - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
Wes (#23) - I'm not 100% positive, but I'm almost sure that UT2K3/UT2K4 are DX8.1 in terms of the 3D code, but they require DX9 in order to run. Sort of like how Doom 3 is an OGL game but requires DX9 for input/output functions. AFAIK, no Unreal engine game has shipped with DX9 features, but that will probably change soon.You could even make the argument that most of the UT engine is still DX7, with only a few DX8 additions. What does that mean? That pixel and vertex shaders are not absolutely necessary to get great graphics. Useful? Yes. Required? Nope. :)
AtaStrumf - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
I had 2 Epox nForce 2 Ultra 400 boards (got a new one after I RMA-ed the first one) and not one worked perfectly. That was reason enough for me to stay clear of Epox boards from that moment on. After reading tihs review, it seems that they still send out unfinished/not properly tested products, so I sugest to all to pick some other brand, because something is systematicly wrong at Epox. They are just not a good choice for the enthusiast anymore.ABIT seems to have improved a bit though, but I don't garantee anything.
NedFlanders - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
any new info on the FSB for the ep-9nda3+ when using 4 sticks? Epox's website has no owner's manual for this board on ANY of their worldwide websites. No BIOSs either.Wesley Fink - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
#22 -My UT2004 package says "DirectX version 9.0b or higher required." The website says DirectX 8.1. If someone can provide a definitive answer and a link I will change the category.
CrystalBay - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
Hi Wes, I'm just curious why UT2k4 is considered a DX9 benchmark ?Bonesdad - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
I think the review was quite good. I did not get the sense that this is a "positive" review or even a wholly "negative" review. I think you did an admirable job of giving readers your observations and letting them make the final purchase decision. Which is the goal of a good review.Based on current information about this board, I will skip it too. I'll stick with my 8RDA+ until the field is more populated with 939s.
NedFlanders - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
my Epox 9kda3+ is en route. The whole reason why i waited for 939 was to use all of my RAM sticks (4). Should I just return this thing un-opened to newegg or is there the potential that i can run 4 256 hyperX's at 400?Thanksdidilyanks
Gholam - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
Does Cool'n'Quiet work on this board with four DIMMs? Because 8KDA3+ has this annoying problem with Cool'n'Quiet not working with two or three DIMMs present...ksherman - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
Thanks for changing the article title Wesley! Now its more representative of the review ;)LocutusX - Monday, October 25, 2004 - link
This board seems like "too little, too late". Still, I think AT has done a good job on this review as it has indicated where most of the problem areas lie so people can decide for themselves if its an important issue or not. As for me, I`d skip this one.