Epox throws in the kitchen sink
There were a few things I didn't like about the Epox
4PCA3+ so things are not all rosy.
The large passive aluminum i875P
Northbridge heatsink is located way too close to the back of the
8X AGP slot which will cause problems
for high-end third party heatsinks like the Zalman ZM80A-HP, or even for
some stock heatsinks on the GeForceFX 5900 series videocard.
With the floppy drive connector located at the bottom of
the motherboard, users with taller full tower cases may have problems connecting
the floppy. On that note, the clear CMOS jumper is difficult to reach, being so
close to the floppy drive connector, one will have to use needle nose pliers if
they have problems.
We would
have liked if Epox were to equip their motherboard with a CSA compatible NIC as
well. With a Gigabit NIC running through the PCI bus, things can become
saturated very quickly.
With a
price tag of $245 CDN ($175 US) the 4PCA3+ is priced around the middle
of the pack despite all the on board features. Of course if you have a lot
of IDE drives (like me) then buying the Epxo 4PCA3+ is a lot easier and less
expensive then getting a cheaper i875P mobo and two PCI IDE
controllers.
If you're
interested in learning a bit more about the benefits of the i875P
Canterwood chipset please read our AOpen AX4C Max motherboard review. Up next we take the Epox 4PCA3+ through a quick
round of overclocking to see how it performs...
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