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Massive 10 Motherboard i845E/G Roundup
Massive 10 Motherboard i845E/G Roundup - PCSTATS
Traditionally, Intel chipsets have always been the fastest and most stable for Intel processors; just consider the venerable i440BX, i815E or even the i850E.
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Various Oct 23 2002   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Various

Epox 4G4A+

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.

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Contents of Article: Various
 Pg 1.  Massive 10 Motherboard i845E/G Roundup
 Pg 2.  The i845E, i845G and the new ICH4
 Pg 3.  Epox 4BEAV
 Pg 4.  Iwill P4GS
 Pg 5.  — Epox 4G4A+
 Pg 6.  Albatron PX845EPro
 Pg 7.  Abit BD7II-RAID
 Pg 8.  Abit BG7
 Pg 9.  Iwill P4ES
 Pg 10.  Abit IT7-MAX
 Pg 11.  Soltek SL-85DR2
 Pg 12.  ECS L4IBAE
 Pg 13.  Benchmarks: Bapco Sysmark 2002
 Pg 14.  Benchmarks: Winstone 2001
 Pg 15.  Benchmarks: Winbench 99
 Pg 16.  Benchmarks: Sisoft Sandra 2002
 Pg 17.  Benchmarks: PCMark 2002
 Pg 18.  Benchmarks: 3DMark2001SE
 Pg 19.  Benchmarks: QIII Arena
 Pg 20.  Best Value / Overclocking Motherboards
 Pg 21.  Best Overall Motherboard

 
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