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EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI


Date
: 06/24/06 – 04:32:13 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer:
EPoX

Price:
$77.99

The Taiwanese company EPoX is back for their eighth motherboard review here at Overclockers Online! They have for us yet another value-oriented board; however, this time it is for the AMD K8 socket 939 platform.

Before we get started on the review, we should get some background information on the board itself. Unlike the majority of s939 boards out there, the
EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI
is not based on the NVIDIA nForce4 chipset. It is instead based on the ULi M1697 chipset which provides a comparable featureset at a lower price; the M1697 even supports SLI, renamed GLI. However, due to NVIDIA's recent acquisition of ULi Electronics, GLI is not officially supported in versions of NVIDIA's ForceWare driver set following 81.98 – not a good thing from the consumer's perspective as this requires the use of "hacked" drivers or unsupported versions, possibly resulting in decreased performance.

No matter the ethics behind NVIDIA's acquisition and control of ULi, let us objectively evaluate EPoX's board and see if it lives up to EPoX's history of producing high quality motherboards at a fraction of the cost of competing products.

Page 2 : Package

Our journey begins from the exterior, the package.

All over the package, the ULi M1697 Power Express chipset is flaunted with the motherboard's model appearing only on a small sticker placed on the box.

The lateral sides of the box are relatively plain, once again advertising the M1697 chipset.

Turing over to the back of the box reveals a wealth of information on the features and specifications.

We will now take a second look at these features in the next section.

Page 3 : Specifications

EPoX's site, though slow at times, was most helpful in providing the features and specifications of the EP-9U1697 GLI.

The specifications are similar to that of a normal nForce4-based board give or take a few exceptions.

For example, the EP-9U1697 GLI is missing a PCI-Express x4 slot, often found in many of its nForce4 counterparts. Also, four SATA ports are missing due to the lack of an independent SATA controller in addition to the chipset; this is usually provided by a Silicon Image chip on nForce4 boards. IEEE 1394 / FireWire, dual GbE ethernet ports, and an 8-channel audio codec are also missing.

However, an upgraded version of the board, the EP-9U1697 GLI-
J
, will feature dual ethernet ports, one capable of speeds up to 1000Mbps provided by a Marvell chip and one capable of speeds up to 100Mbps provided by the M1697 chipset itself as in the case of the plain, non-"J" version of the board that we have today. The "J" version will also feature an ALC850 audio codec.

In any case, the EP-9U1697 GLI is by no means "budget" when it comes to features such as dual PCI-Express x16 slots, four SATA II connectors supporting many flavors of RAID, and support for eight USB 2.0 ports.

Here is a small graphic, courtesy of ULi Electronics, outlining the features of the M1697 chipset:

Further information about the M1697 chipset can be found at its page on ULi's website.

According to ULi, the M1697, being a scalable chipset, can be implemented in many forms including the new Socket M2.

Though the chipset supports many features, the actual availability of features is determined only by the motherboard manufacturer; a prime example of this would be the support of 7.1 channel HD audio – though supported by the chipset, EPoX has implemented only the lower-end 6 channel ALC655 codec.

Speaking of implementation, let's open the package and take a physical look at the contents.

Page 4 : Package Contents

Immediately upon opening the box, I found numerous product guides, 19 of them to be exact! You probably won't find more than one in your retail package though.

All the accessories can be found resting on top of a cardboard flap.

These include a manual, a CD with drivers and software, an I/O shield, an IDE cable, a floppy cable, a SATA data cable, and a SATA power adapter.

Accessories consist of only the bare minimums, possibly to keep the price of the board low. After all, who really uses all the ports and headers on a motherboard?

Note that among the accessories we do not find an SLI bridge, further confirming the rumors that GLI is not officially supported.

Here is the cardboard flap that acts as both a container for the accessories and a protective covering for the motherboard beneath:

Lifting the flap reveals the EP-9U1697 GLI in an anti-static bag.

Before installing and testing the board, let us take a look at the layout.

Page 5 : Layout

Budget boards are often known for horrendous layouts. I'm happy to announce that the EP-9U1697 GLI does not fit that bill.

A quick glance at the board reveals no problems. EPoX is not trying to amuse anyone by using some funky-colored PCB, they have stuck to the standard green. All in all, the board looks like your typical, standard ATX motherboard.

Our closer look of the board begins at the bottom right: the socket and memory slot area.

There is ample space around the socket to accommodate large coolers. However, the DIMM slots are not very spacious. Though color-coded for dual channel, they are too close to each other. Also, the respective dual channel slots should be separated by some space, preferably separated by an empty DIMM slot when using only 2 sticks of RAM.

Below the DIMM slots, we find the primary IDE connector. The 24-pin ATX connector seems to have relocated from its usual spot near the primary IDE connector, as it is usually found here on many motherboards; we will find it later.

Moving to the left brings us to one of the busier areas of the board.

Making an appearance here are the secondary IDE connector, the four SATA II ports in orange, and the chipset covered by a small heatsink/fan.

This area is home to the IT8282M chip that provides voltage and temperature monitoring.

Here is how the M1697 chipset looks under the heatsink/fan:

Further to the left is the floppy drive connector in an awkward orientation. Near it is the LED Debug Display that shows different alphanumeric codes during various stages of booting up and the CPU temperature after that.

Below it are two of my favorite features: onboard power and reset buttons! Enthusiasts will find these convenient when running the motherboard without a case.

To the far left are the front panel connectors including the usual power and reset button, power LED, IDE LED, case speaker, and so forth.

Above that is a fan header. Going further up we find the BIOS chip and battery with the clear CMOS jumper nearby. There is a red-colored two-pin header on the board for a thermal sensor, which is not included.

Finally, we have two USB 2.0 headers in blue and yellow each supporting two connectors for a total of four ports.

The top left of the motherboard is comprised mainly of the expansion slots.

There is a Ghost BIOS sticker on the PCI slots for advertising purposes. Ghost BIOS is the feature that enables BIOS recovery in case of corruption. In the top left, there is an EPoX-branded chip that controls the Ghost BIOS operations.

There are three PCI slots, two PCI-Express x16 slots, and one PCI-Express x1 slot.

The two sets of jumpers each consisting of four jumper blocks are for configuring the PCI-Express x16 slots to act in either x16/x0 mode or x8/x8 mode for GLI. To switch to x8/x8 mode, you would have to move each jumper block from the current position (1-2) to the left (2-3).

Along the top edge of the slots we find yet another chip: the Realtek ALC655 for 6-channel audio.

Looking to the right brings us back to above the socket area.

Here we find the 24-pin and 12-pin ATX power connectors. This is a bad place for these connectors as they will cause a great deal of trouble when trying to route cables, resulting in a messy appearance and decreased thermal performance.

Nestled near the 24-pin connector and the primary PCI-Express x16 slot is the Realtek RTL8201CL PHY chip that provides the 100Mbps LAN feature. Note that there is an empty area for a secondary LAN chip.

To the right of the badly placed connectors tells us that this motherboard has a three-phase MOSFET power conditioning system. There are some motherboards out there with eight-phase power but three-phase power should be stable enough for some overclocking.

Speaking of power, EPoX has used only high quality Sanyo and Teapo capacitors.

Looking at the rear I/O ports of the motherboard offers no surprises; everything looks pretty standard.

That concludes the tour of the motherboard.

Page 6 : Installation

Though I will be testing the motherboard out of the case, I wanted to see whether installation in a regular ATX case would be tough; it wasn't.

I installed the motherboard without a hitch in my Aspire X-Dreamer II case. Even with a large Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro cooler, it was very easy to route all the cables. However, the 24-pin ATX connector's location caused quite a bit of congestion in that area.

The location of all the other slots do not interfere with each other. Even the DIMM slots do not interfere with the PCI-Express x16 slot with a video card installed; this problem plagues even high-end motherboards but it is great that EPoX has taken care of that problem here.

Speaking of the DIMM slots, since I used two sticks of memory in dual-channel mode, I had to place the modules right next to each other. They fit very tightly with less than 5mm of space between the ICs, unprotected by a heatspreader. Users of memory with thick heatspreaders will be out of luck here; either your memory modules will be touching or, worst case, you will be unable to even accommodate two modules in dual-channel mode.

Page 7 : BIOS & Overclocking

EPoX has implemented a BIOS based on the popular Phoenix AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility.

The main screen seems very organized in that it features separate submenus for configuring many options.

Selecting "Standard CMOS Features" brings us to a screen where the date and time can be set:

"Advanced BIOS Features" include further configuration of boot options:

"Advanced Chipset Features" includes important options such as DRAM configuration, which includes advanced memory timings:

Also, there are options for chipset-based power management options and the ability to adjust the frequency of the HyperTransport link, a feature commonly used when overclocking to ensure stability. The options, though listed as frequencies, actually correspond to multipliers of 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, and 1x that are dependent on the HT bus speed (FSB).

The "Integrated Peripherals" submenu allows further drive configuration, namely IDE and SATA drives. RAID options are also set by means of the "Chipset IDE Features" submenu. Onboard devices such as the LAN and ALC655 audio can be enabled or disabled here.

A menu titled "Legacy Devices" controls the floppy controller, serial and parallel ports.

The "Power Management Setup" menu controls common power-saving features. It also enables Wake-On functionality.

There is a submenu controlling advanced options for setting IRQ options. Most users will not need to change these.

The "PC Health Status" menu provides important information about system temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages. You can also enable the system to shutdown the PC when the CPU temperature reaches a certain temperature. The final option enables the P80 onboard LED display to show the CPU temperature.

Fans can be configured further using the "SmartFan" feature.

Finally, we reach the "Power BIOS" screen where we find the overclocking features.

The CPU multiplier can be set in 1-step intervals up to the stock multiplier (if using a multiplier-locked CPU). The CPU speeds are dynamically shown depending on the HT bus speed, a nice touch in my opinion.

Spread Spectrum up to 0.30% is available to reduce electromagnetic interference.

The CPU clock (FSB, HT bus speed) can be set from 200 to 400 in 1-step intervals entered by keying in the desired number. Though the maximum is listed as 400, I was only able to reach a value of
265Mhz
, with all other components running at around stock speeds, before instability set in.

Those not brave enough or too lazy to overclock the old-fashioned way can set a
Turbo multiplier which automatically overclocks all components by a certain percentage. The maximum is 15%.

Memory dividers can also be set here. I would have preferred the memory divider and memory timing options, as well as the HTT link speed option to be implemented in the Power BIOS section. With 5 different manual memory divider options, the EP-9U1697 GLI has more memory options than my Asus A8N-SLI Premium!

Note that the memory speeds are dynamically shown depending on the HT bus speed; this is a great option that eliminates the use of a calculator as is often needed to calculate the effects of employing a memory divider.

Not only that, it allows a higher VCore than the A8N-SLI Premium with a maximum of 1.65V (+0.250V).

VDIMM can be increased up to +0.70V for a maximum of 3.20V.

Chipset voltage can be increased by up to +0.30V for a maximum of 2.40V.

That concludes the full tour of the BIOS.

My overclocking attempts were partly successful. I was able to reach a maximum HT bus speed of 265MHz which resulted in a maximum CPU speed of 2385MHz at 1.40V. This represents a 32.5% overclock. I know my CPU maxes out at 2628MHz as my A8N-SLI Premium can run it at 292×9 at 1.55V. My memory was stable up to 225MHz at 2.6V. However, I chose to run it at the slightly lower speed of 216MHz to allow my CPU to reach its potential. The HTT link speed was stable up to 1125MHz (225×5) but I lowered the speed to 1060MHz (265×4) to ensure maximum stability.

All things considered, overclocking performance is decent but leaves a bit more to be desired. Maybe the HTT bus limit of 265MHz is a bug with the April 14, 2006 BIOS; we will just have to wait for a new BIOS update to find out.

Page 8 : Performance Outline

Tension builds as we approach the benchmarks, the part where the EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI either proves itself a worthy competitor, or goes home crying.

The setup consists of the following:

After Windows XP Professional was installed, all the drivers were updated to the latest versions with the exception being the NVIDIA Forceware drivers, of which I used version 81.98. Then, all the updates were downloaded from Windows Update.

Following the installation of benchmarking software, the CPU was primed on the new motherboard using SP2004 for 24 hours at stock speeds. Then, the CPU and RAM were primed using the Blend mode for another 24 hours.

After a quick defragmentation of the hard drive and a reboot, I ran the benchmarks. They were run three times each with reboots between each run. The results represent the average of the three runs.

The benchmark suite consists of the following:

The EP-9U1697 GLI will be tested twice, at stock speeds and at overclocked speeds. The overclocked speeds were discussed in the previous section.

Let the games begin!

Page 9 : System Benchmarks

First up, we have the Futuremark PCMark04 and PCMark05 results.

At stock speeds, the EP-9U1697 GLI is evenly matched by the A8N-SLI Premium. When overclocked, it easily performs much better.

Next, the Everest Ultimate Edition memory bandwidth tests.

Once again, the EP-9U1697 GLI matches the A8N-SLI Premium.

SiSoft Sandra is next.

The EP-9U1697 GLI scores very slightly below the A8N-SLI Premium at stock speeds; this could be regarded as experimental error as the difference is very, very slight.

ScienceMark 2.0 shows results where the board now scores slightly above the A8N-SLI Premium.

The scores shift in the A8N-SLI Premium's favor once again in SuperPi, but by a very small amount.

The overclocked EP-9U1697 GLI performs admirably well.

The RightMark 3DSound test is next and it evaluates the performance of the audio codec.

The ALC655 codec on the EP-9U1697 GLI is no match for the A8N-SLI Premium's more powerful ALC850 codec. This is especially evident in the more CPU-intensive DirectSound 3D tests where the ALC655 relies more on the CPU, hence the higher usage.

Finally, we have the HD Tach tests which evaluate the onboard SATA controller's performance.

Both boards perform about the same. The burst speed of 217.5MB/s via the EP-9U1697 GLI's SATA II controller is very good. A RAID setup will increase speeds even more.

On to the graphics tests!

Page 10 : Graphics Benchmarks

The Futuremark 3DMark suite is first.

In the newer versions of 3DMark, namely 3DMark05 and 3DMark06, even the stock A8N-SLI Premium outperforms the overclocked EP-9U1697 GLI! I'm not sure what the reason is for this interesting result.

Finally, I ran some time demos of some of my favorite games.

The results clearly show that the EP-9U1697 GLI is a great choice for gaming as it performs as well as the A8N-SLI Premium.

Time to draw up the concluding remarks.

Page 11 : Conclusion

It is not often that we see a lower-priced product compete with a higher-end product; thanks to EPoX and ULi, we have seen it! The ULi M1697 chipset, paired with EPoX's awesome EP-9U1697 GLI board, performs greatly even against the more expensive nForce4 SLI chipset.

Though limited in the accessories department, the EP-9U1697 GLI makes up for it with its low price tag and great performance. The board's layout is not the best but it gets the job done. When it comes to features, EPoX has included a decent selection but has left out some important ones such as IEEE 1394b, some extra SATA ports, and GbE LAN. On the other hand, the M1697 chipset supports GLI but be wary that support for GLI is limited and there are no guarantees that NVIDIA will support this chipset following its recent acquisition of ULi. All in all, the featureset is better than that of your typical "budget board".

Overclockability could be better and I'm hoping it is a BIOS issue that is holding the board back; if a new BIOS update is released that fixes the issue, the value of this already great motherboard will only increase.

If you're willing to assume the risks that come with purchasing a product whose chipset could have limited support in the future, I would happily recommend the
EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI
motherboard to anyone looking for a great value.

Advantages:

Excellent, perfectly competent performance
Good value
Decent featureset
GLI (dual graphics card) support
Great EPoX-specific features (Ghost BIOS, onboard LED)

Disadvantages:

Limited accessories
Slightly bad layout
Low overclockability
Chipset support may be limited in the future

Overclockers Online would like to thank EPoX for making this review possible.