Epox 8KHA+

Questions/Comments/Rants/Raves/Slags/Bribes in here please

 

Hummm funky box

 

I just was a bit dumbfounded about the PSU experience! pretty cwazy init?

Anyway it was a nice detailed review and I am considering an epox for my next mobo too!

 

those RAMsinks are expensive here... boo hoo hoo

oh yeah... tried a micro core on it?

 

I reccomend the QuietPC one!



http://bit-tech.net/article/53/9

 

I am having (kinda similar) weird PSU problems with an A7V266-E atm, Koolvin what PSU are you using with your Asus by any chance?

I have a 340w Chieftec one but it wont even boot the thing no fans spinning, no beeps, nothing. The green LED on the motherboard lights up, so it does have standby power, but it wont boot up at all. The power and reset buttons are all on properly, and i have even tried shorting the pins with a screwdriver to ensure the case switch isnt dodgy.

RTT has tested all the new kit (A7V266-E, Unlocked XP1500 and 256Mb Crucial DDR) and it worked with his enermax, and all my other components (Gf2 MX, NIC, SB5.1, HDDs etc) work fine in my current machine, but my PSU doesnt want to work it at all.

Weird thing is that this PSU will run my Pentium 3 500 no problems at all, the only different components being the mobo/cpu/memory, so I think that this PSU isnt providing enough amps on the 5v line to boot it.

Just thought I would raise this cos of the strangeness you had with the Epox and a PSU, similar thing perhaps? My PSU should be enough but its not

Any suggestions and ideas before I send the PSU back to Tekheads? Me and RTT reckon the PSU aint good enough or its knackered, similar to the PSU problems detailed in the review.

 

if your +5v output is low it will cause all kinds of errors, as this rail provides he cpu with juice!

My old psu powered my p3 800, AMD duron, amd 1.33 but my 1.4 never even posted at 1.4 only 1000 untill I changed the PSU - I am using a Quiet PSU:

http://bit-tech.net/article/53/10

 

The Chieftec 340W PSU is a good one, with a true combined power of 315W (many 300W rated supplies have a true combined power of around 170W). I have no problems using the chieftec 340 with a KT7A (3 phase power), with 5 PCI slots filled, a heavily overclocked GF3Ti200, 142FSB on the board, TBird 1.4GHz @ 1.633, 5 case fans, etc, etc, etc. If that's not a heavy load....

Maybe the DDR route is good, as suggested, from KT133, or similar, but at the moment I am perfectly happy with my SDR KT133A based system. I get memory bandwidth figures of 590/649 in Sandra (142 CAS 2), and I know this is better than some of the cheap DDR boards. Certainly I don't feel my system is held back by being SDR, as it is as quick to do anything (and quicker at some) as my dad's new machine (XP 1800+, KR7A, 1GB DDR). Of course, if I was buying now, I would buy DDR (My dad's machine was built on my recommendations, and was built around what I'd buy for myself (except the matrox graphics card....). I don't feel the need to upgrade for now though....

<edit> my dad uses the chieftec 340W as well, and it works fine with the KR7A-R

 

ta people

hmm well my new stuff wont even boot at all, no fans spinning or anything, the 5v must be so low cos the athlons sucking the power like mad(unlike the p3) that it wont work at all

I reckon my PSU is duff , so strange the enermax wil power it but the Chieftec one wont

ta for your advice anyhow

 

Great Review hazerooooooooni!!

I heard that there were problems with PSUs, and in particular it was the 5V line that was the problem.... Also I heard that the Enermax 431W was suspect on this board due to its 5V line being slightly low

Do you have a readout of the 5V line from MBM or even the bios, with the enermax, cos I am considering this board as an upgrade, but held back due to a rumour I heard about the Enermax not liking the Epox (or the other way round... my brain is having a week off )

I do overclock, so I need a good 5V line as normal.... at the moment my Enermax reads 4.85V (thats at full load with the FSB @ 137 and the VCore at 1.80V, with the core clock at 1.5+Ghz)... Thats on a KT7A-R....

If you could let me know on your 5V reading please it would be appreciated.... as I am seriously considering this board soon

Cheers

Biggie

 

I had an 8KHA+ and didn't like it at all. While all looks good from the box, and performance is pretty good, I had no end of problems with that 5v line. Using an Enermax PSU I consistently only got around 4.6v. Highly annoying I can assure you, with reboots common! In fact, random reboots seemed to be common place anyway (maybe a later bios may have solved this). Still, I'd had enough so got myself a Soyo K7V Dragon+ and haven't looked back since. In my mind, far superior to the Epox in every way!

 

What are the potentials for overclocking with it tho?? I may just stick with ABit and go KR7-R... Sorry for being dumb, but do you know of any good reviews from an overclocking point of view on this board? I mean the Soyo btw

Cheers

Biggie

 

Very nice review Haz. I've had my eye on the Epox 8KHA+ for quite some time based on the overclocking and performance features on the board. I've also heard some good reviews for the MSI K7T226 Pro 2 motherboard. Does the Epox board support the new USB standard for version 2.0?

 

No USB 2 support Can't say it really bothers me thought, don't have any USB 2 devices ! My 5v line is currently at 5.03 with the Enermax I don't know whether I just got lucky, I have heard of other people with Enermax/Epox issues

 

i didnt get a funky box with my 8k7a just some blue cardboard boring-ness with epox written all over it

dimm1 will be closest coz most people will use dimm1 primarily as its the first one. the closer the dimm the shorter the circuits = less resistance = more speeeeeed



theyve alsoe made the colors nicer on the ports!!, since the 8k7a, anyway... hehe

gotta agree with Haz about the AGP clip, very useful, as sometimes when i move my PC, my gfx card likes to unseat itself, but since using the clip, havent had the un-seating problem

also, i can say that Epox-Tech is very good. i b0rked my BIOS on my epox and i emailed EPox for a new chip, and i had a reply from emails that i sent within 2 minutes...

buy with confidence with epox, methinks

 

Not true sorry Rich - the northbridge controls the ram access and timings and the relative distance differences and speed that electrons travel is so negligable its not worth considering.

 

I think Tom's hardware had a good review from this perspective. I have also seen others that rate the Soyo above the Epox. Various tests have shown a higher FSB on the Soyo and other excellent overclocks. The soyo, like the Epox supports FSB by 1MHz increments, Multiplier and voltage adjustment, and the system monitor is also pretty good! I think www.ocprices.com had a review as well, but I can't quite remember!

 

just to add to the PSU front my enermax is curerntly at 4.88 v on the 5v line

oh it just jumped to 5.05v ... anyway the current max/min has been: 4.81 to 5.05 ....

Dunno if thats a problem or not anyway .....

 

IMHO Enermax psu regulation is pants as are the flimsy gold plated connectors they use. Like most companies they have cut corners to reduce costs and ended up with a second rate product

 

Hmmm..

I always thought that Enermax PSU's were regarded as high quality. I haven't had to many issues described here with the 5v line. Has anyone had any experience with the ICute PSU's which are based out of Taiwan.