Are Epox Boards Reliable?

[SpyderX]

Just like the title saids...I want to overclock and I know Epox has the best boards to overclock with, and I'm planning to get the NForce2 board and their's and Asus are the best 2 of the bunch and cost less (although Asus offers more in its deluxe version) I mean it all looks like I should be heading for Epox but are they reliable? I have a Epox board (Nforce2-based, forgot the model #) right now and it's just...."Okay"
Are they really reliable? Any experience, whether pro or con would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Adul]

i been very very pleased with epox support and thier mb reliabiliy

 

[SpyderX]

Just a quick question, has anyone with Epox 8RDA+ had problems with its layout (like having a hard time keeping everything organized and neat so that the wires/cables/etc arent in the way and etc, etc?

 

[Mem]

Simple answer is yes,my friends and I all have Epox boards and we have no stability or reliability problems,however as you know all brands do get RMA returns due to bad boards etc but Epox are generally up there with a low RMA return percentage.

 

[SpyderX]

Originally posted by: Mem
Simple answer is yes,my friends and I all have Epox boards and we have no stability or reliability problems,however as you know all brands do get RMA returns due to bad boards etc but Epox are generally up there with a low RMA return percentage.

Well I know there RMA is going up from these boards because of the long video cards (and since it's really close to the DIMM).....
I forgot where I read that in the thread, in Overclocker's thread somewhere...

 

[Audiofight]

See......some people will tell you that all the Epox boards that they and their friends own are great.

I have the exact opposite story to tell. I have owned 2 Epox motherboards. The first was an 8K7A mobo and it randomly died after 7 months. It didn't overhear b/c I had the system running at 80F.

My friend Cal also had 3 Epox motherboards and all 3 have died within 1 year. He has since moved up to Asus and Abit motherboards to replace them.

The final Epox board I own is an old Slot1 Via Apollo Pro 133a mobo w/ a Celeron 667 in a slocket. If that board goes up, I will just buy a newer socket 370 motherboard, but not another Epox.

I admit that I am re-considering buying one because I keep reading good posts about them and because they look to be one of 3 manufacturers that are going to produce a board with the features I want. The other 2 manu. are MSI and LeadTek. I won't buy a LeadTek mobo b/c it isn't an overclocker's board and the MSI hasn't been reviewed nor the Epox. So I am undecided.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: SpyderX
Just a quick question, has anyone with Epox 8RDA+ had problems with its layout (like having a hard time keeping everything organized and neat so that the wires/cables/etc arent in the way and etc, etc?

Love my 8KHA+ (arguably the best KT266A board ), still have it running nicely in 2nd rig. Epox BIOS have been the best in the last few generations of boards, most flexibility but fewer features (most power users don't mind though, they're control freaks that pick their components anyways ).

I think the 8RDA+ (not 100% sure, but I think I read the same in a review) doesn't quite meet AGP spec b/c of the placement of the DIMM slots. Not a huge issue, but is somewhat annoying if you are running a Ti4200 Turbo, Ti4400, or Ti4600. The dimm locks physically touch the cards b/c of their length, and you can' remove any dimms withouth removing the AGP card. Again, not something that prevents compatibility with the full-sized GF4's, but it was definitely annoying on my 8KHA+. Some have also complained about the placement of the power connector.

Chiz

 

[SpyderX]

Arg, so now I'm just confused over better overclocking board with annoying layout and etc or asus with great overclocking with better layout and functions... HMMM bleh

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: audiofight
See......some people will tell you that all the Epox boards that they and their friends own are great.

I have the exact opposite story to tell. I have owned 2 Epox motherboards. The first was an 8K7A mobo and it randomly died after 7 months. It didn't overhear b/c I had the system running at 80F.

My friend Cal also had 3 Epox motherboards and all 3 have died within 1 year. He has since moved up to Asus and Abit motherboards to replace them.

The final Epox board I own is an old Slot1 Via Apollo Pro 133a mobo w/ a Celeron 667 in a slocket. If that board goes up, I will just buy a newer socket 370 motherboard, but not another Epox.

I admit that I am re-considering buying one because I keep reading good posts about them and because they look to be one of 3 manufacturers that are going to produce a board with the features I want. The other 2 manu. are MSI and LeadTek. I won't buy a LeadTek mobo b/c it isn't an overclocker's board and the MSI hasn't been reviewed nor the Epox. So I am undecided.

No offense my friend...but you do realize it's 2003 right? You are bringing up old boards. The 8K7A had a problematic bi-phase power design that would cause some people problems. Ever since that board, Epox never used that cheap bi-phase design again, and moved to top notch tri-phase setups from then on. The recent Epox boards are all some of the best at delivering clean and stable power to all components of your system.

Now as far as a old slot 1 system...come on...when was that motherboard released? I probably wouldn't have considered Epox then either...however...you must realize times change.

 

[Aiden]

I think its a toss up really.

epox,has better overclockability according to most of the extreme overclockers. the board layout is bad for long video cards due to its location next to the memory slots. Just make sure you put in memory first,and you wont have a problem. also better bios support.


asus has more features, not as good at overclocking on the extreme end apparently due to limited voltage allowences. also,have heard bad things about the support from the company.


Abit apparently runs a close 3rd and is somewhere in between the epox and asus on price. dont really know much about this board.

i went with the epox 8rda+ due to price ,and the fact that i didnt need the serial ata raid,etc etc etc.


as far as the share of problems,id say they are equal. ive seen posts relating to either board<8RDA+ or AN78X dlx> with people having problems.

check out www.amdmb.com for more information.
www.overclockers.com in the forums as well.

 

[AnarchyInTheUS]

When I had an Epox board it was very nice. It had some great features, like Watch Dog. Watch Dog automatically reverted your Bios to that last safest setting if you had a failed overclock. It gave me great performance and I had very little problems with it. However, there were two downsides. Number one, it didnt come with that many little goodies and extras the other manufacturers like to put in. For instance, the C-Box that comes with the Chaintech board. My other problem, was that my motherboard just went dead one day. It was random and inexplicable, and I had decided to go with a different company. Still, it was a good deal and gave great performance when it was running.

 

[SpideyCU]

The vid card won't touch the DIMM retention clips IIRC - it's just that you can't OPEN the clips while the vid card is in place. It's indeed very very close, and people who were careless have knocked off capacitors and such, but it's not like the clip is constantly rubbing up against the video card or anything.

 

[MrC4]

I am running 5 DDR Epox boards right now in my network and they work great!

 

[RaymondY]

Love both of my Epox mobos. Excellent performance and stability. Haven't had a single problem with them

 

[xSauronx]

my epox is oc'ing just great, havent had one problem with the board in any way whatsoever, glad i bought it

 

[Feisters]

I've had an Epox 8K5A2+ for 4 months now. I banged my head on my desk for most of those 4 months because of various problems ranging from non-boots, to not being able to populate all the dimm slots, to not getting a second video card to work in WinXP. Finally, finally, I traced my problems down to a simple, yet unexplainable bios setting; I had USB Keyboard Support enabled and USB Mouse Support enabled in the bios, namely because I had a USB keyboard and mouse. Once I disabled these two settings, and connected a good ol' fashioned PS/2 keyboard, end of problems! I've since been able to populate all my dimm slots with 1 gig of Corsair PC-2700 XMS, and replaced my XP 2200+ with a XP 2600+ (333 FSB version) oc'd to 380 FSB.

Others have had problems with just about any given motherboard. So I guess it all depends on your set-up and situation.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Feisters
I've had an Epox 8K5A2+ for 4 months now. I banged my head on my desk for most of those 4 months because of various problems ranging from non-boots, to not being able to populate all the dimm slots, to not getting a second video card to work in WinXP. Finally, finally, I traced my problems down to a simple, yet unexplainable bios setting; I had USB Keyboard Support enabled and USB Mouse Support enabled in the bios, namely because I had a USB keyboard and mouse. Once I disabled these two settings, and connected a good ol' fashioned PS/2 keyboard, end of problems! I've since been able to populate all my dimm slots with 1 gig of Corsair PC-2700 XMS, and replaced my XP 2200+ with a XP 2600+ (333 FSB version) oc'd to 380 FSB.

Others have had problems with just about any given motherboard. So I guess it all depends on your set-up and situation.

You actually should leave those settings disabled. The whole purpose of those settings is to make a non-USB OS, like DOS or PCDOS, be able to utilize a USB Keyboard and mouse if no regular PS/2 ones are available. It basically makes the OS think the USB keyboard and mouse are PS/2 ones. The only time this should be enabled is if you are booting into a DOS system and you have a USB KB and/or mouse...like for a traditional bios flash or using ghost. Otherwise, you should have both of these disabled. This is why the bios defaults them to disabled...

 

[Feisters]

Thanks for the info. As it was though, I still couldn't get into my raid controller bios setup until I disabled USB keyboard and connected a PS/2 keyboard. If I leave the USB keyboard connected I can get into the system bios, but not the HP372 raid setup (Ctrl-H).

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: Feisters
I've had an Epox 8K5A2+ for 4 months now. I banged my head on my desk for most of those 4 months because of various problems ranging from non-boots, to not being able to populate all the dimm slots, to not getting a second video card to work in WinXP. Finally, finally, I traced my problems down to a simple, yet unexplainable bios setting; I had USB Keyboard Support enabled and USB Mouse Support enabled in the bios, namely because I had a USB keyboard and mouse. Once I disabled these two settings, and connected a good ol' fashioned PS/2 keyboard, end of problems! I've since been able to populate all my dimm slots with 1 gig of Corsair PC-2700 XMS, and replaced my XP 2200+ with a XP 2600+ (333 FSB version) oc'd to 380 FSB.

Others have had problems with just about any given motherboard. So I guess it all depends on your set-up and situation.

You actually should leave those settings disabled. The whole purpose of those settings is to make a non-USB OS, like DOS or PCDOS, be able to utilize a USB Keyboard and mouse if no regular PS/2 ones are available. It basically makes the OS think the USB keyboard and mouse are PS/2 ones. The only time this should be enabled is if you are booting into a DOS system and you have a USB KB and/or mouse...like for a traditional bios flash or using ghost. Otherwise, you should have both of these disabled. This is why the bios defaults them to disabled...

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: Feisters
I've had an Epox 8K5A2+ for 4 months now. I banged my head on my desk for most of those 4 months because of various problems ranging from non-boots, to not being able to populate all the dimm slots, to not getting a second video card to work in WinXP. Finally, finally, I traced my problems down to a simple, yet unexplainable bios setting; I had USB Keyboard Support enabled and USB Mouse Support enabled in the bios, namely because I had a USB keyboard and mouse. Once I disabled these two settings, and connected a good ol' fashioned PS/2 keyboard, end of problems! I've since been able to populate all my dimm slots with 1 gig of Corsair PC-2700 XMS, and replaced my XP 2200+ with a XP 2600+ (333 FSB version) oc'd to 380 FSB.

Others have had problems with just about any given motherboard. So I guess it all depends on your set-up and situation.

You actually should leave those settings disabled. The whole purpose of those settings is to make a non-USB OS, like DOS or PCDOS, be able to utilize a USB Keyboard and mouse if no regular PS/2 ones are available. It basically makes the OS think the USB keyboard and mouse are PS/2 ones. The only time this should be enabled is if you are booting into a DOS system and you have a USB KB and/or mouse...like for a traditional bios flash or using ghost. Otherwise, you should have both of these disabled. This is why the bios defaults them to disabled...

Strangely enough, the release notes for the 1/17 BIOS mention that it's now enabled by default!

1/17/2003 - 269KB
Patch `Memory Frequency` item always be changed as default when entering the Chipset Features item. Fix QAPLUS "NPU" test fail. Added Magic health support. Fixed SMBus loss SUBSystemID after S3 resume. Change `USB keyboard support` default to `Enabled`. Always set memory clock as 100Mhz before BPL. Fixed issue for AMD CPU_CHK tools. PID#21922 - Updated AMD Ahlon XP ratios. Patch incorrect FSB frequency in boot up screen when BIOS Flash. Patch F10 save CMOS hangs 7Fh issue.

from here

 

[Insane3D]

Ahh...that's what I get for not watching for bios updates for my "old" 8K5A2+..hehe. No matter, a second 8RDA+ is on the way to replace that "ancient" motherboard..

 

[Wind]

Originally posted by: Adul
i been very very pleased with epox support and thier mb reliabiliy

Me too.

 

[AMDfreak]

My old Epox MVP3+ is still going strong with a K6-III 400 in it. Gave it to my brother a couple years ago, but back in the day it was my main gaming rig with dual Monster 3D II's.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Ahh...that's what I get for not watching for bios updates for my "old" 8K5A2+..hehe. No matter, a second 8RDA+ is on the way to replace that "ancient" motherboard..

freak

My 8KHA+ is still kickin azz, if the 1002.001 BIOS for my Asus A7N8X-DLX didn't unlock all multis I would be much more upset I didn't get the 8RDA+.

Chiz

 

[KevinMU1]

I've had 4 Epox boards since 1998, and I have loved all of them... two Socket 7 and two Socket A boards, including the recent 8K9A2+, which has been working out really well paired with an XP 2100+. I have this thing loaded to the hilt with peripherals, and it's doing just fine. Not an OCer, so I can't comment on that, but I have found the stability and reliability of these boards to be fantastic over the past 4 and a half years. I can't recommend them more highly. You get a great product at a great price, and the feature sets are some of the richest in the industry. Although I'm not sure when I'll be buying a SATA drive, but my new board has it.

The MVP3G2 that I bought is currently running as a server, 3 years later, and is handling that just fine. Amazing what you can do with a 400 mhz processor as a linux server.

And as for the old 8K7A... yeah, that board sucked hardcore and I'm sorry that the world had to suffer through that plight. Times have changed, though, leave that board behind... throw it out or something and move on.

PM me if it'll help...

 

[oldfart]

Dont forget us Intel guys like Epox too. 4BDA2+ has been just great!