The board is not top in the EPoX's line on the i845PE chipset and it looks
average in comparison with its competitors; it possesses just one distinguishing
component, which is a cooler shining with semitransparent plastic and blue LEDs.
We are testing a preproduction sample.
Accessories:
- Package of the standard design with a handle;
- Documentation:
user manual in English;
- Cables: FDD, 1 SATA, 1 ATA66/100/133, 1
ATA33;
- Bracket with 2 USB ports;
- Bracket for the
rear computer panel;
- CD containing:
- drivers;
-
several system monitoring utilities;
- DirectX 7.0a;
-
Adobe Acrobat Reader;
- Boostek;
- Norton Ghost 7.0;
-
PC-cillin 2002.
The layout has typical drawbacks: IDE RAID and FDD connectors are behind and
audio-ins are in front of the PCI, the cables going to the power supply connector
pass over the CPU cooler, and when a video card is installed it's difficult to
handle the memory modules. It's not difficult to reach the only jumper when the
board is already installed. Its functions are shown on the textolite.
The
4-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 8 capacitors of 3300 uF and
3 of 2200 uF.
The following controllers are integrated:
-
audio controller based on the chipset's capabilities and Avance Logic ALC650 AC'97
codec supporting 5.1 audio systems and having connectors for front audio outputs
and for SPDIF;
- network controller based on the Realtek RTL8100B
chip supporting 10BaseT/100BaseTX;
- IDE RAID controller based on
the HighPoint HPT372 chip supporting RAID 0, 1 and 0+1 on the ATA133 protocol;
-
SATA RAID controller based on the Silicon Image Sil3112ACT144 chip supporting
RAID 0 and 1 on the SATA150 protocol.
The POST procedure is monitored
with two 7-segment LEDs.
Non-unsoldered connectors: FireWire controllers
with connectors and an interface controller and connectors for SD and MS card
readers.
The system monitoring is supported by the Winbond W83627HF-AW
chip. What is controlled:
- processor voltage, memory, AGP bus,
+-5 and +-12 V, VBAT and +5 V Standby
- speed of 3 fans;
- temperatures
of the processor (a built-in sensor) and the board (a built-in sensor).
There
are 3 connectors for adjustable and 1 for unadjustable connection of fans (it's
connected to a fan on the MCH's heatsink).
Brief characteristics of
the board: memory slots - 3 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/ 5 PCI; I/O ports
- 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 6 USB 2.0; dimensions - 305x245 mm.
Adjustment
can be carried out with:
| jumpers and switches |
Jumper to clear up the CMOS |
|
| BIOS based on the AwardBIOS 6.00PG from Phoenix |
Setup of memory timings |
+ |
CAS Latency, Active to Precharge, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge |
| Setup of memory frequency |
+ |
Auto, DDR266, DDR333 |
| Setup of AGP bus |
- |
|
| Setup of PCI bus |
- |
|
| Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses |
+ |
AGP(PCIx2) = Auto, 2/3 FSB, 50-80 MHz in 1MHz steps |
| Manual assignment of interrupts |
+ |
|
| Changeable FSB frequency |
+ |
90-200 MHz in 1, 2, 3 and 5 MHz steps |
| Changeable CPU multiplier |
+ |
x8-x50 |
| Changeable core voltage |
+ |
from -0.1 to+0.35 V in 0.025 V steps |
| Changeable memory voltage |
+ |
up to +0.7 V in 0.1V steps |
| Changeable chipset voltage |
- |
|
| Changeable AGP bus voltage |
+ |
up to +0.7 V in 0.1V steps |
We used the BIOS of 04.12.2002 as the latest
available version.
The abundant features and some unique qualities together
with a considerable overclocking potential and a low price will definitely attract
many users; others can lay their eyes on one of other models of the wide EPOX
line.
Test results:
