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EPoX 4G4A+ Intel 845G


Date
: 06/26/02 – 02:55:09 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: EPoX
Price: $200

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Intel released a new 845 based Pentium4 chipset, the Intel Brookdale 845G. This chipset not only officially supports the Pentium4 with a 533MHz front side bus, it also comes with the integrated Intel Extreme Graphics video card. EPoX is one of the very first manufacturers to release a truckload of motherboards based upon this new chipset, and of course Overclockers Online is very happy to review the top-end version of this new collection. The board that was tortured in this review is called
EPoX EP-4G4a+
, and it is EPoX' top of the bill Pentium4 motherboard. As the review will show, the board comes with several extra features and a very high level of stability and overclockability!! If you care to find out how stable and how high I got to overclock this bad boy, just keep on reading because you will be amazed.

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

- For Pentium® 4 processors Socket 478, supports 533 MHz. FSB
- Intel 845G Chipset + ICH 4
- Intel Extreme graphics VGA integrated
- 1 Floppy drive controller – 2 serial ports – 1 parallel port
- 6 PCI slots – 1 AGP (for AGP 4X 1.5V graphics card only) – 1 CNR slot for Communication Riser card
- 2 standard IDE ports for ATA-100, backwards compatible with ATA-33/66
- Highpoint HPT 372 ATA-133 RAID controller. Supports RAID 0/1 0+1
- 3 DDR memory slots, for PC2100 memory, 2 GB max. supported
- USB 2.0 ports, 4 onboard. 2 optional by USB cable
- Onboard sound, 6 channel by realtek ALC650
- P80P Diagnostic LEDs
- Onboard LAN, by realtek. Fast 10/100 UTP
- …

Like I said, the 4G4A+ not only supports the 400MHz FSB Pentium4 processors, it also knows how to handle the latest 533MHz FSB solutions. The heart of the motherboard is Intel's very own Intel 845G Chipset along with the ICH4 controller. Apart from that, the chipset also has a built-in video card called "Intel Extreme Graphics", which is a interesting option for the non-gamer computer enthusiast. To give you an idea on the gaming performance, I was able to get around 18FPS in 3D Mark 2001SE (1024x768x32-bit). In a windows environment, performance was excellent and the image quality was good too.

Of course, 6 PCI slots are populating the motherboard, accompanied by an AGP slot and a CNR slot to install one of those cheap modem cards. IDE expansion is not a problem either as there are two UDMA100 ports onboard (Intel won't go UDMA133 because they are concentrating on serial ATA), supporting up to four IDE devices. If that isnt enough, there is the onboard RAID controller made by High Point. This sweety supports UDMA133, can run your drives as regular hard drives or in a RAID0 / RAID1 / RAID0+1 setup and supports up to four hard drives. Put two and two together and you can install a total of eight IDE devices!!

To accommodate your memory needs, EPoX equips the 4G4A+ with three DDR memory slots, supporting up to 2GB of RAM. Be aware of the fact that the second and the third memory slot are sharing their memory banks. This means that if you install a double sided RAM module in DIMM2, DIMM3 will be unusable. With USB 2.0 becoming the new standard, EPoX is delivering not one, not two, not three but
four
onboard USB 2.0 ports and another two through an optional USB bracket! Isn't that sweet? You bet!

In case you still need to buy a soundcard, please hold of your purchase until you heard the onboard solution because this realtek ALC650 based onboard soundcard features 6-channel output!! This will be more than sufficient for the gamers out there, and probably also for the occasional music playing … As usual, hardcore audiophiles should get an add-on card with more features.

Troubleshooting the 4G4A+ is easy as well, because the board comes with a P80P diagnostic LED display that immediately reveals where your hardware problem is situated … No more swapping cards, testing three brands of memory, … just read the code, fix the problem and of you go :). I'm happy to see more and more manufacturers are deciding to install such a diagnostic device onto their motherboards because it really makes life easier.

So what do we got: onboard video, onboard sound, onboard RAID, … what's missing? Indeed, onboard LAN! Don't panic, because there is an onboard NIC as well! It is based upon Realtek's technology and it supports both 10 and 100 Mbit connections.

Ok so the 4G4A+ has a truckload of features, that much is clear … but what about the layout???

Page 3 : Layout

Layout

To start off, let's take a look at the CPU socket. I was able to install the the P4 Vantec heatsink and the Thermalright one as well, but you must be aware of the fact that there are quite a bit capacitators sitting very close to the CPU socket. If the heatsink is not wider than the plastic retention system, you will not encounter any problems what so ever, but if you want to go extreme, you might run into problems as there are six medium size mofets sitting on the left side and one on the right side.

The ATX power connector is installed on the left-bottom side of the CPU socket, sitting vertically. I would have preferred to see the power connector at the top right of the board, but there are worse ways to install it, so it'll do.

The IDE connectors are placed vertically, parallel with the memory slots. Both the RAID connectors and the floppy connector are installed horizontally at the bottom right side of the board, which is ok as long as you don't use a full tower with your drives at the top of the case (if that is the situation you will need fairly long cables …).

The memory slots are installed pretty good, but unfortunately the AGP card is just blocking the first memory slot.

Fan headers are installed pretty intelligent: one to the left of the CPU socket to supply power to your CPU cooling fan, one to the right of the memory slots to supply power to a top case fan or an additional CPU fan perhaps, and the last one at the bottom of the board, right next to the CNR slot. I would have preferred to have that last one on the outer right side, because a front intake fan will have a hard time reaching this connector (unless it comes with a long wire).

Note that the AGP slot comes with a AGP retention mechanism to keep your video card locked in place when your traveling to LAN parties ;).

Page 4 : BIOS

BIOS

EPoX has a good reputation when it comes to BIOS' and that's the case with the 4G4A+ as well. All the usual stuff is available and more: memory tweaks, overclocking options, … you name it. Overclockers will be happy to hear that the DDR voltage can be increased up to 3.2V in 0.1V increments and the CPU voltage can go all the way up to 1.85V in 0.025V increments. If that won't satisfy your needs, let me tell you that the front side bus can be increased in 1MHz increments starting at 100MHz and ending at 255MHz … This means that DDR-333 memory is no problem for this baby ;).

Die hard overclockers who tend to get the most out of their video cards will be thrilled to hear that not only the CPU and DDR memory voltage can be adjusted, also the AGP voltage can be altered! Settings between 1.5V and 1.9V (0.1V increments) are available to make sure you are getting the most out of it.

All of the above combined result in a great overclockers motherboard, which will become clear in the "Overclocking" section …

Page 5 : Overclocking

Overclocking

As I mentioned, the 4G4A+ comes with all the overclocking tweaks you could ask for!! So what was I able to score with this beauty?? In order to test overclockability, I decided to install a Pentium4 1.6A processor, which is the overclockers dream the way things are now … Low multiplier, same core as the much higher clocked processors, … what more could you ask for?

I was able to run my CPU at
2.61GHz
with the EPoX 4G4A+ … That's right … this is a 1.01GHz overclock! Now, I can hear you think: "he used a watercooling setup along with some TEC's!" … WRONG! The CPU is being chilled by a fairly standard aluminum Vantec P4 heatsink. Imagine what this puppy will do when I apply some liquid cooling to it huh?
Also note that the highest speed I could get from this processor on any other board was 2.4GHz, with the exact same hardware configuration (besides the motherboard).

I was able to get the processor to load windows at 2.7GHz, but it would fail as soon as CPU load would reach 100%. The reason for this is heat, which will probably be eliminated as soon as I install some watercooling, so expect this saga to continue soon!

All in all, the EPoX 4G4A+ has shown itself as a true overclockers dream with great potential and extreme stability! I ran loops of 3D Mark hours and hours, combined with RC5 and Prime95. Not a single hick-up took place. Need I say more?

Page 6 : Testing

Testing

First, a quick look at the test box:

- EPoX 4G4A+ motherboard
- Intel Pentium4 1.6A CPU
- 256 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR memory
- VisionTek GeForce 3 video card
- Accton NIC
- Windows XP Professional + latest drivers

Quake 3

Demo 001

Torture Demo

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001

16-BIT

32-BIT

MadOnion's 3D Mark 2001SE

16-BIT

32-BIT

Sisoft Sandra Memory Benchmark

Page 7 : Conclusion

Conclusion

With the benchmarks completed, the end of this review comes in sight. The only thing for me left to do, is write a conclusion about my thoughts on the EPoX 4G4A+. Frankly, this board is exactly what I expect from a sweet Pentium4 motherboard. It has some minor set-backs, but to be honest every motherboard out there has something that bugs me :). EPoX did a great job with the 4G4A+ as it comes with everything onboard (unless you play games or are a real audio-freak, you'll need an additional video and sound card) and offers great overclocking options and supreme stability. The board comes with the HighPoint RAID controller, offers 6-channel sound, onboard LAN, four USB 2.0 ports and it has one of those sweet diagnostic LED displays. The only missing onboard device is a pair of FireWire ports … Nevertheless, for me, this board is a true winner and I have no trouble advising you to go out and buy it in case your are in need of a good Pentium4 motherboard.