EPoX 4BDA2+ (i845D)

By Dmitry Mayorov
and Sergei Pikalov

i845D chipset

Boards from this company are always of high quality, have a good performance level, rich capabilities, a lot of settings and a relatively low price.

Accessories:

Package: a standard design;
Documentation: a user manual in English;
Cables: 1 ATA66/100, 1 ATA 33 and 1 FDD;
Mounting for a cooler with a plastic plate onto the back side;
CD with software including:

drivers;
system monitoring programs;
Boostek for changing a FSB frequency from Windows;
Adobe Acrobat Reader;
Norton Ghost 6.03;
PC-Cillin 2000.

The layout is not the best: IDE connectors are behind the PCI slots (though there are only two memory slots and that the board is quite big), and it can be difficult to reach if full-size expansion slots are installed in these slots. The AGP connector has a clip which prevents video cards from falling out. It's not difficult to reach switches and jumpers.

The 3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 11 capacitors of 2200 uF and 3 of 3300 uF (it's not unnecessary as they board is meant for overclockers).

The following controllers are integrated: an audio one based on the chipset's capabilities and Avance Logic codec (ALC201A); IDE RAID controller on the HighPoint HPT372 with ATA 33/66/100/133 modes and RAID 0 (striping), 1 (mirroring) and 0+1 (striping + mirroring) support. There are also two 7-segment LEDs which monitor the POST procedure.

Non-unsoldered connectors: none.

The system monitoring is supported by the Winbond W83627HF-AW. Processor and battery voltage (+/-3.3, +/-5 and +/-12 V), speed of 2 fans and temperatures of the processor (a built-in sensor) and the board (a built-in sensor) can be controlled. There are 2 connectors for adjustable connection of fans and 1 for non-adjustable.

Brief characteristics of the board: memory slots - 2 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/ 6 PCI/ CNR; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 4 USB 1.1; dimensions - 305x245 mm.

Adjustment can be carried out with:

jumpers and switches	Jumper to clear up the CMOS
	Jumper to make possible to start up a computer with a keyboard
	Jumper to choose memory voltage		2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9 V
BIOS based on v6.00PG from Award	Setup of memory timings	+	CAS Latency, Active to Precharge Delay, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge
	Setup of memory frequency	+	DDR200/DDR266
	Setup of AGP bus	+
	Setup of PCI bus	+
	Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses	+	AGP: 2/3 FSB or fixed 66 MHz
	Manual assignment of interrupts	+
	Changeable FSB frequency	+	in 1 MHz steps, 90-166 MHz
	Changeable CPU multiplier	+	x8-x50
	Changeable core voltage	+	-0.1/+0.2 V in 0.025 V steps
	Changeable memory voltage	+	+0.4 V in 0.1 V steps
	Changeable chipset voltage	-
	Changeable AGP bus voltage	-

We used the latest available version of the BIOS 13/11/2001.

The board is quite speedy which makes it a good choice for many especially considering its rich functions and settings and a low price.

Test results: