epox
4g4a+ |
Approx Price: $175 CDN ($100
US) |
MFG Link: |
Epox 4G4A+ |
Processor |
Intel Pentium4 |
Northbridge |
Intel i845G |
Southbridge |
Intel ICH4 |
Supported FSB |
100/133 MHz |
Form Factor |
ATX |
DIMM Slots |
Three PC1600/2100/2700 |
Max Memory |
2 GB |
Integrated Video |
Yes |
Shared Video Memory |
1,8MB |
IDE |
2 Ultra/100, 2 Ultra/133, 1 Serial
ATA/150 |
AGP |
4x AGP, 1.5V Lock |
PCI |
6 32bit PCI's |
ISA |
None |
CNR/AMR/ACR |
None |
LAN |
10/100 Realtek 8100B |
Audio |
Realtek ALC650 AC'97 |
USB |
6 USB 2.0 |
Power Supply |
Standard ATX |
Misc |
2 Serial, 1 Parallel,
WoL, | |
The Epox 4G4A+ is probably one of the most appealing
motherboards of the bunch. Sporting a jet black PCB, and tons of features that
leave it very well equipped. With on board 10/100 LAN, 5.1 audio (software
codec), and IDE RAID the 4G4A+ has almost all the bases covered.
Based on the i845G chipset, the 4G4A+ includes "Intel
Extreme Graphics" as part of its roster too. If you find onboard graphics
a little weak for your tastes, you can simply pop in a 4x AGP (1.5V lock
though) graphics card and you're set.
With six PCI slots
you shouldn't have any problems upgrading or installing additional devices, and
with the Port80 diagnostics LED's on the motherboard you can problem solve bad
boot ups quickly. I really wish more manufacturers would equip their motherboards
with Port80 LED's. If you're having a problem with your system a simple glance
at the Port80 can usually tell you exactly what's
wrong.
The BIOS on the 4G4A+ is just as feature rich as the actual
hardware on the motherboard. For overclockers sake, the FSB can be tuned from
90-200 MHz in 1 MHz increments and since the board is based on the i845G,
the 3/4th memory divider is present at every FSB. This is very handy when
trying to feed a bandwidth hungry Pentium 4 processor.
VCore adjustments go all the way up to 1.85V,
AGP to 1.9V, and the DIMM voltages as high as 3.2V! Epox have
definitely taken out the need to voltage mod this motherboard!
It is common knowledge that the i845G suffers from the
4 bank memory limitation, meaning that if you populate the sockets
with three double sided DIMM's it will cause the system to blackscreen
and the Port80 to cite a "C1" (memory) error.
The only real complaint we have about the motherboard, is
more to do with the test sample giving the processor less voltage then it
was set to in the BIOS. Even at the default setting of 1.5V, we found the
motherboard was only delivering 1.45V to the processor... When we set the core
voltage to 1.85V, the CPU only got 1.75V. These issues may not be a one off, as
similar problems have been spotted in a few forums around the web.
In terms of overclocking, the 4G4A+ was surprisingly....
not the best. The board would only allow the P4 1.6A to run at a 160
MHz FSB (2.56 GHz) before the system became unstable with a CPU voltage of
1.75V. Mind you, 160MHz is a pretty good speed - but in this round up,
there were boards that came out a little bit better. Usually, we expect the
Epox boards to attain the highest speeds every time, not just most of the
time.
The performance of the 4G4A+ is very good, and with so many
features it's hard to beat really. We're surprised that the 4G4A+ wasn't the
best overclocker of the bunch, but the performance of the motherboard is still
very good. It's a well rounded motherboard and it isn't very expensive
either.