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EPoX 8KTA3+ Motherboard


Date
: 05/17/01 – 01:26:33 PM

Author
:

Category
: Motherboard

Manufacturer: EPoX
Price: $200

Introduction

The past few months the socket A platform quickly became the most popular platform around. The AMD cpu’s are screaming but in order to get a good and solid base you will be needing a good solid motherboard to install your socket A cpu on. This is where EPoX comes into play! EPoX has gained popularity at high speed over the last few months, mainly because they are responsible for one of the best KT133A boards available. The board I am refering to is called
EPoX 8KTA3+
and it is loaded with features, options, gadgets and more! Now that I got you interested in the 8KTA3+, lets see what this puppy has to offer shall we?

Under the hood – The specifications

First, lets see what EPoX has to say about the 8KTA3+ socket A board:

Supports Socket A Processors.
-AMD Athlon & Duron.
VIA Apollo KT133A AGPset.
I/O Controller.
-1 Floppy drive controller,
-1 Parallel port (EPP, ECP),
-2 Serial ports.
USB.
-2 supported onboard. 2 additional as option.
Award PnP BIOS. Flash upgradeable.
-120MB ATAPI floppy drive and ZIP support!
Standard ATX form factor.
-305mm x 245mm ATX.
UltraDMA-100 EIDE Controllers. (Up to 4 IDE devices).
-Backwards compatible with PIO mode 3/4 & UltraDMA-33/66.
-Extra IDE Port by HPT370/Ultra DMA 66/100 & IDE RAID x 2 (Up to 4 Devices)
4x DIMM Slots for SDRAM.
-1.5GB max. supported.
PS/2 connectors.
-1 PS/2 mouse, 1 PS/2 keyboard.
6 (32-bit) PCI, 1 ISA, & 1 AGP.
-AGP supports 1x, 2x and 4xmodes.
Built-in AC97 Digital Audio (by VT82C686B) :
-Dual full-duplex Direct Sound channels
-H/W Sound Blaster Pro for DOS legacy compatibility
-FM synthesis for legacy compatibility
-Supports game and MIDI port
-Extended Functions for Greater Value!
Supports exclusive USDM(Unified System Diagnostic Manager) and Hardware Monitoring Function by VT82C686B.
Supports exclusive KBPO (KeyBoard Power On)
Supports Wake-On-LAN Function
Supports CPU Vcore & VIO settings via BIOS
Supports CPU Clock (1 or 2 increment) & Multiplier settings via BIOS
Supports AGP power (voltage) setting via BIOS
P80P Debug (POST) Card onboard design with LED display

Designed with VIA’s KT133A chipset, the EP-8KTA3+ is a high quality motherboard built by EPoX in the industry standard ATX format. In addition to the AGP interface for high performance graphics, this board offers six industry standard PCI, one ISA, one 4x compatible AGP expansion buses as well as many other advanced system and BIOS features.

For full feature system designs, the Apollo KT133 is paired with the VIA VT82C686B super south bridge. Highly advanced, the EP-8KTA3+ combines integrated AC-97 audio support for SoundBlaster Pro and FM synthesis legacy audio, super I/O, and hardware monitoring capabilities. Two bus mastering ATA 33/66/100 EIDE ports are provided plus a floppy disk port supporting two drives of any industry standard capacity including 2.88MB as well as 1.44MB and lower capacity types. In addition an IrDa infrared port allows the connection of
remote devices.

As you can see from the speclist, the 8KTA3+ is ‘LOADED’ with features. Apart from the 6 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot and 1 AGP slot, the boards also comes with 2 onboard USB ports plus two optional USB boards, onboard RAID (with the 8KTA3+), a diagnose system, overclocking options, onboard sound, all the necessary cables, a very well written manual and, although this has nothing to do with the board, a very cool looking box!

EPoX has two versions of this board: the 8KTA3 and the 8KTA3+. The only difference between the two versions is that the 8KTA3+ comes with onboard RAID for which the Highpoint HPT370 controller is used (the same one as on the Abit KT7A-RAID). Our sample featured the onboard RAID controller so we could hook up to 8 IDE devices onto this board.

A feature we miss on most KT133A boards is the presence of 4 DIMM slots. Abit, Asus, MSI, … they all install 3 DIMM’s onto their boards, but EPoX has decided to install 4 of them :p. The reason why most manufacturers prefer to install 3 DIMM’s is because the VIA KT133A chipset only supports 1.5GB ram. If you have 4 DIMM’s, it would be possible to install 4 256MB sticks … but that won’t work mates :(.

The last 2 DIMM sockets share their bus. The KT133A chipset supports up to 6 memory banks. So with the EPoX you could use two double sided sticks and two single sided sticks. On all the other boards one of the single sided sticks would be left out … so in SOME ways the extra DIMM socket can help you out :). The downside on those 4 sockets is that they are at the same height as the AGP card which means that you will have a hard time installing/removing memory when the videocard is in place.

Like I said earlier, the 8KTA3+ comes with a fully tweakable BIOS that lets you change the multiplier (if you unlocked your cpu), up the front side bus to a maximum of 166MHz (!!), increase core voltage up to 1.85v, tweak memory settings like CAS, memory interleave, … The only downside on the BIOS is the lack of 1MHz steps in the FSB selections. For the low budget users or peeps who don’t play games very often, EPoX installed a onboard soundcard on the 8KTA3+. Don’t expect miracles from it, but for the occasional windows sounds and even a cd/mp3 from time to time this onboard sound will do just fine. If you are an audiophile or hardcore gamer I would suggest getting an add-on card like the Creative Soundblaster Live! or equivalent.

One of the most inventive features that comes with the board is the onboard diagnostic LED system. Two hex-digits show you a certain value which guides you through the entire boot process of the system. If there is a problem, for example the cpu is not seated correctly, than this system will give you a code. With that code in mind, you take a look in the manual and you get a solution for your problem right away :). I really liked this feature as it comes in handy and saves a lot of time diagnosting all the hardware when there is a problem! Way to go EPoX!

The layout of the 8KTA3+ is a tad different from what we are used to! More specifically the IDE ports. They are mounted horizontally which is better for airflow as you can guide the cable very closely to the motherboard. One small downside on the layout are the colors of the IDE channels. Both the RAID channels and the normal ones are in the same color so it is hard to tell the difference (there is none except for the small IDE1/2/3/4 notice next to it).

There is plenty of room around the cpu socket to house the biggest coolers around: the MC462A from Swiftech, the CORE from Overclockers Hideout and also the pain-in-the-ass-to-install ThermalTake Super Orb.

Did I mention that the 8KTA3+ comes with a videocard holding spring? No this ain’t a hitech device … it is a simple plastic locking mechanism that makes sure your GeForce3 ain’t moving ;p.

Enough blabbering about the specs … lets look at the overclocking potential!

Overclocking the 8KTA3+

As you saw (or should I say read?) the EPoX 8KTA3+ comes with a fully customizable BIOS that gives you a lot of overclocking options.

The core voltage can be upped in 0.05v increments up to 1.85v max. This should be sufficient for most overclocking attempts. If you want to mod your motherboard to supply more voltage, that is fine by me but please take in mind that you will need very good cooling (e.g. watercooling) to be able to get rid of the extra heat. Like you can see in the pics, I used the Overclockers Hideout Blizzard watercooler (reviewed here) to keep the rig at 32 degrees celcius full load!

EPoX also lets you play with the I/O voltage that is supplied to the memory and the AGP card, but unlike the Abit KT7A/E board which can go all the way up to 3.9v, the EPoX is limited to 3.75v. This could limit the overclocking attempts as some users need +3.75v I/O voltage to get their ram stable …

To test the overclocking potential of the 8KTA3+, I used a 1.33GHz Athlon ‘TBird’ with an AXIA core. I was able to get it all the way up to 1.55GHz at 1.85v. I used a multiplier of 10x, which means the front side bus made it up to 155MHz rockstable! My definition of rockstalbe equals running Prime95, RC5, Hot CPU tester and 3D Mark for a long period of time. The system also worked at 160MHz FSB, but sometimes I would get 3D problems so I think there is a problem with the videocard at that speed … If the system survives that, I declare it stable. I got the system to post at 166MHz, but unfortunately Win2K would not load. My prime suspect is the 42MHZ PCI bus
that is overkill for my PCI cards … too bad … but this has nothing to do with the motherboard, it is just a limitation in the current overall design of motherboards.

So how does this board perform in real life circumstances? Some benchmarks will most likely supply us with the desired answers ;) … so lets get on with the show!

Taking it for a spin – Benchmarking

Before we start showing you stats, numbers, results and other mathematical crap, lets see what the test system had onboard.

Test system

- AMD 1.2GHz TBird Athlon
- EPoX 8KTA3+ Socket A motherboard
- 256MB OCZ PC166 CAS2 RAM
- Hercules GeForce GTS Ultra
- Western Digital 20GB UDMA100 7200rpm hdd
- Windows 2000 + SP1 + SP2 + VIA 4.31 + Detonator 6.50

Sisoft Sandra CPU Test

Sisoft Sandra Multimedia CPU Test

Sisoft Sandra Memory Test

Distributed RC5 Short Benchmark

ZD CPU Mark 99

ZD FPU Mark 99

The benchmarks ain’t lying! This board is cruising along just fine, showing of its power in the above benchmarks. The memory scores at
155MHz and 160MHz FSB are very good and the CPU tests show that the TBird can keep up pace with the P4 pretty well! The performance is up to pair with other KT133A based motherboards like the Abit KT7A, MSI K7T Turbo, Asus A7V133, …

The RC5 tests clearly shows that the Athlon is one hell of a cruncher and you can see that the FSB does not matter in RC5 because only the raw cpu power is important here.

I decided against including 3D Mark scores because this is not a videocard test but a mainboard test. The results are just as you would expect from a GTS Ultra card, with small difference between 1.33GHz, 1.52GHz and 1.55GHz. I believe the reason for this is that the GTS is running at its full capacity at 1.33GHz already … so increasing cpu speed won’t add much …

Conclusion – The final verdict

EPoX clearly has a winner in their hands with the 8KTA3+. It has all the features a true poweruser could ask for, has a clean layout and showed topnotch stability through all testing and torturing! Apart from the minor ‘hickups’ like the lack of 1MHz increments in the FSB selection and the limitation of 3.75v for the I/O voltage, I really think that anyone who buys this board will be 100% satisfied.

Good

- Sweet layout
- Stability
- Features (diagnostic led, RAID, tweakable BIOS, …)
- Overclocks well

Bad

- IDE connector colors
- No 1MHz increments in FSB selection
- Only 3.75v for I/O voltage