Results from the Epox Epox 8KDA3+

[Jasonxxx]

I really want to hear some feed back from epox owners and hear how well or how bad Epox's NF250 boards are performing..

I'm currently running on an MSI Neo plat @ 2.5ghz....

I have already ordered PC3700EB 512 x 2, but currently have Corsair BH5, and well I would like to see 270mhz - 280mhz range FSB 1:1 stable...

[EDIT] I got the 3700EB and currently running @ 250MHZ 1:1 Stable--- the highest unstable and able to just boot into windows is 263MHZ


I know some of you might say, stay with what you got, but I want a new toy to play with..
I have met a reasonable goal with the Neo plat..(250 x 10 1:1) Until I can figure out the vdimm mod for the Neo Plat I don't think I will ever see that kind of FSB 1:1 w/o using really high latency memory... ( unless that OCZ vdimm Booster works with the Neo plat)

At the end of the year (or ealry next year)I will hopefully move to the FX - 55 and a well known 939 NF-4 performer.....LS Cooled... and w/ SLI 6800 Ultra's... Maybe will have DDR2 800 or SATA2.

[disco_bazoon]

Ya, I'm also really interested in 8KDA3+ results. I want to know is that's the board to go with.
So keep the results coming guys

[S2M]

Mine is coming ton Wednesday

[geneh_00]

Here is an OC result of Jeff on AoAforum.
http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25345


My highest 1:1 on max stock allowed @ v2.80 w/ 948U
(not stable)


4:5 Ratio Async

[Jasonxxx]

Looks good... Thats seems to be the norm on the Neo plat also...

It looks good at stock volts.. It looks like he would be stable at 260mhz and probably a little higher with 3.0v - 3.05v vdimm....

I might try the Epox and see how it stacks up with the same processor and memory between the Neo Plat...

[tylerhskate]

Yo you live in Eugene org? My couston Kelly Metz used to be the newscaster up there do u remember seein her?

[Jasonxxx]

Yes I do....What a small world...

[disco_bazoon]

I have one question regarding the 8KDA3+, can it run raid via the southbridge (ie, the two sata connectors above the agp) ?
Cause on sites like newegg, they only list the raid option for the silicon sata chip.
here:

Onboard SATA/RAID: 2 by nForce3 250Gb, 4 by Sil3114 w/ RAID 0/1/10

Would be weird if it can't run raid via the southbridge :/

[geneh_00]

Originally posted by disco_bazoon
I have one question regarding the 8KDA3+, can it run raid via the southbridge (ie, the two sata connectors above the agp) ?
Cause on sites like newegg, they only list the raid option for the silicon sata chip.
here:

Would be weird if it can't run raid via the southbridge :/

Technically, there isn't a so called "southbridge" on a nF3 250 board. The two SATA connectors above the AGP are NVRAID naturally provided by nF250 chipset.

4 additional SATA connectors are provided by SI 3114 chip via PCI bus.

[eclypse]

I'm getting pretty much fustrated with this board after a weeks use. I've been reluctant to even post about it cause quite frankly i dont even know where to start.

I'll post more on this tomorrow but the one thing thats gona make me send it back is the fact that if i cold boot the system the damn vcore resets back to 1.5v.. and to get it back to 1.7v involves some crap like constantly changing the voltage in the bios over and over every power up and hopefully i can get it back to 1.68-1.7vcore.. I dont know why it does this and i couldnt tell ya how i get it back but that one thing pisses me off to no end! I just cant live with it.. might just be the lastest 6-30 beta bios or something.

Simply put this is one major f'd up board that i wouldnt recommend to anyone thats new to overclocking or volt modding cause of the fact that the thing has a mind of its own when it comes to how it wants to supply voltage to the vcore..

example.. Set the vcore to 1.5 can result in 1.35 voltage on next boot.. Set it at 1.6v will give ya 1.45v.. Though sometimes it will give ya what ya set it to but i couldnt tell ya how heh.. Also, wvwn when ya have it stable and its runing at what ya set it at the vcore will raise .1 on load.. So it boots at say 1.6v but under load it will rise to 1.7v. SOme might say "Hey thats the Cool 'n Quite feature and thats how she works".. Well i have it set to disable so it should be and thats how it works in every bios out there!

Hell i'll tak on lots more later on today if i can put it into words heh.


If anyone out there knows of a good 64 NF250 chipset board out there now that gives you mult adjustment in the bios and desent voltage and will run with 2x 512MB bh-5 ram.. Let me know.

[Reflex1]

after hearing only good stuff about the epox ...now comes this
i hopefully get my epox in today ...after deciding not to get the MSI, hope i don't get too much trouble.

[Dagalidis]

I hope EPOX can do much more than my ABIT K8V PRO ....

[disco_bazoon]

Originally posted by geneh_00
Technically, there isn't a so called "southbridge" on a nF3 250 board. The two SATA connectors above the AGP are NVRAID naturally provided by nF250 chipset.

4 additional SATA connectors are provided by SI 3114 chip via PCI bus.

Ya, I know there's no SB, lol, old habit hard to turn, eh?
So it does have raid through the nvidia chipset aswell? Sweet, that's all I needed to know.

[Reflex1]

i got my Epox in today ...but i need to buy a PSU and memory before i can get started.

need help: im gonna order my mem within a day ...and i think i'm gonna go with BH-6, anyone had problems with 1 Gig of BH-6 with the Epox? (my cpu 3400+ CH is a "CG")

[Jasonxxx]

I would get OCZ 3700EB Memory if I were you... Excellent Memory

[The Runner]

every board has its problems, no board is perfect. EPoX are known for their niggley issues anyhow, the most stable board from what I've seen is the Gigabyte, but it certainly isn't the most overclockable without vmods.

[eclypse]

Originally posted by The Runner
every board has its problems, no board is perfect. EPoX are known for their niggley issues anyhow, the most stable board from what I've seen is the Gigabyte, but it certainly isn't the most overclockable without vmods.

So there is volt mods for this board? Is there mult adjustment in the bios?

[geneh_00]

Originally posted by eclypse
I'm getting pretty much fustrated with this board after a weeks use. I've been reluctant to even post about it cause quite frankly i dont even know where to start.

I'll post more on this tomorrow but the one thing thats gona make me send it back is the fact that if i cold boot the system the damn vcore resets back to 1.5v.. and to get it back to 1.7v involves some crap like constantly changing the voltage in the bios over and over every power up and hopefully i can get it back to 1.68-1.7vcore.. I dont know why it does this and i couldnt tell ya how i get it back but that one thing pisses me off to no end! I just cant live with it.. might just be the lastest 6-30 beta bios or something.

Simply put this is one major f'd up board that i wouldnt recommend to anyone thats new to overclocking or volt modding cause of the fact that the thing has a mind of its own when it comes to how it wants to supply voltage to the vcore..

example.. Set the vcore to 1.5 can result in 1.35 voltage on next boot.. Set it at 1.6v will give ya 1.45v.. Though sometimes it will give ya what ya set it to but i couldnt tell ya how heh.. Also, wvwn when ya have it stable and its runing at what ya set it at the vcore will raise .1 on load.. So it boots at say 1.6v but under load it will rise to 1.7v. SOme might say "Hey thats the Cool 'n Quite feature and thats how she works".. Well i have it set to disable so it should be and thats how it works in every bios out there!

I have the EXACT same problem. This causes great system instability OC or not OC. My 8KDA3+ gives me a huge headache of undervolting. My Vcore is always .1 or greater below whatever I set in BIOS during idle. This problem even persists even I disable CnQ in BIOS. I kinda start to regret getting this EPoX 8KDA3+ instead of MSI K8N NEO or wait for Asus K8N DX.

[eclypse]

Originally posted by eclypse
I'm getting pretty much fustrated with this board after a weeks use. I've been reluctant to even post about it cause quite frankly i dont even know where to start.

I'll post more on this tomorrow but the one thing thats gona make me send it back is the fact that if i cold boot the system the damn vcore resets back to 1.5v.. and to get it back to 1.7v involves some crap like constantly changing the voltage in the bios over and over every power up and hopefully i can get it back to 1.68-1.7vcore.. I dont know why it does this and i couldnt tell ya how i get it back but that one thing pisses me off to no end! I just cant live with it.. might just be the lastest 6-30 beta bios or something.

Simply put this is one major f'd up board that i wouldnt recommend to anyone thats new to overclocking or volt modding cause of the fact that the thing has a mind of its own when it comes to how it wants to supply voltage to the vcore..

example.. Set the vcore to 1.5 can result in 1.35 voltage on next boot.. Set it at 1.6v will give ya 1.45v.. Though sometimes it will give ya what ya set it to but i couldnt tell ya how heh.. Also, wvwn when ya have it stable and its runing at what ya set it at the vcore will raise .1 on load.. So it boots at say 1.6v but under load it will rise to 1.7v. SOme might say "Hey thats the Cool 'n Quite feature and thats how she works".. Well i have it set to disable so it should be and thats how it works in every bios out there!

Hell i'll tak on lots more later on today if i can put it into words heh.


If anyone out there knows of a good 64 NF250 chipset board out there now that gives you mult adjustment in the bios and desent voltage and will run with 2x 512MB bh-5 ram.. Let me know.

Now for the other bugs..


The one thing that is a huge issue but not to the point of "oh my god i gota return this board" is the fact that every time you go into the bios the board looses your CDROM player.. WHat it does is change the properties of the master IDE from auto to none every time.. So if you forget to change that and save you have to go back into the bios again and change it back to auto... Thats a pain!

Now about the vcore voltage.. you could say big deal about the "cool 'n quite" being stuck to enable not being that big a deal but... It will limit your overclocking if your trying to overclock really high.. Like say you need over 1.7v for the system to post.. Well it wont happen.. (though i think volt modding the vcore is the way to go.. i havent done that yet.) Its nice though that it will lower the voltage about .1 durring usage and when ya put a big enough stress on the cpu it will move it up .1. The scarry part i think is when ya do the vcore mod and you set it to 1.7v? Wouldnt it rise to 1.8v on load? Too much heat.

The other beef is kinda what i explained above with the vcore going south on a cold boot.. i have it set at 1.7v to get 2.4-2.5Mhz.. Now on the cold boot it will default back down to 1.5v.. When this happends i'm lucky to get back into the bios. I have to hurry up and lower the overclock so the computer will boot up next cause most likely it will lower down to 1.35vcore.. when that happends i'm lucky to get past the post screen. usually a black screen cause its not getting enough voltage to boot so i can change the vcore. Then the painstaking task of setting the voltage and hoping on next boot it will be correct.. then when it is raise the FSB back to 300+.. oh but make sure to put the master IDE back to auto so it will see your cdrom.. Then on next boot it will say your boot order has changed cause it just found the cdrom.. Hit the F1 to bypass it and finally boot. This is the part that scares me most..

Let say ya do the vcore mod and ya set it to 1.5vcore in the bios and its reprting right for some odd reason at 1.48-1.52v.. Now you turn it off and play with the VR and set it to 1.7v.. Now what happends when this bios farts again on a cold boot to 1.34v and now your vcore with the VR is reporting 1.5v and you doing realize this cause your a newbie and then you adjust the vcore to 1.7v you think and the next post its at 1.9v now and you burn up your CPU? Hell that could happen if the voltage is reporting wrong the first time you put a VR on it.. Strange i know.. Atleast i have watercooling and i know i'll be safe till i notice.. but what about the newbie with the retail H/S?


Hell even worse i seen the 6-24 bios do something even more crazy.. One itme prob when the voltage decided to take a dip i coudlnt post.. So i cold boot the system holding down the "insert" key to default the bios settings.. It posts and i get into the bios.. All of the sudden i check the temps and i see my CPu cooking upwards to 65C!.. I'm like what the hell and i notice the vcore is slowly rising! 1.7v-1.8v.. I freak out and hurry up and set the vcore to 1.5v and save and exit.. Next boot it was back to normal.. I was like holy .. what if i was'nt paying attention or walked out of the room for a beverage or smoke.. I most likely would of had a dead CPU!


*dont wana make this post too long, so i'll post another*

[geneh_00]

Originally posted by eclypse
Now for the other bugs..


The one thing that is a huge issue but not to the point of "oh my god i gota return this board" is the fact that every time you go into the bios the board looses your CDROM player.. WHat it does is change the properties of the master IDE from auto to none every time.. So if you forget to change that and save you have to go back into the bios again and change it back to auto... Thats a pain!

I didn't experience that issue regarding CDROM not being detected. But I have a similiar one with onboard NV SATA BIOS detection when I was playing around with SATA Raid installation. It was a pain to get around this problem, but now it's working fine.

[eclypse]

Now i'm not too picky.. My needs and wants arn't that crazy i think..

I owned a Chaintech ZNF3-150 Zenith board prior and the 2 biggest beefs i have with it prob like most is the fact that i could not use 2x512mb DIMMS.. Hell i couldnt get the system to run 215 FSB with 2 512MB dimms.. I even tried 2x 256 Kingston BH-5 and i could'nt get them both to run 220 FSB. i was thinking at the time it was just that only the 3rd DIMM slot wanted to run and the others wouldnt do over 215.. come later on to find out that the whole NF3 chipset didnt want to run with a gig of ram.

The other prob was that i couldnt stand having to only beable to change the mult in windows and not the bios.. Remembering to change it everytime become a prob and a bothersome! I could'nt get the CG to boot up and set it for me.. tried everything.

Now i could get this system to run @ 2500Mhz via 238x10.5 1/1 or later on 2400Mhz 300HT 238-240FSB 4/5 and i got sandra mem benches at 3700/3700. 24,000+ 3dmark 2k1 which was nice. The highest stable FSB for benching 3dmark was 240FSB and stable over all was 238FSB.. cause of the unlocked PCI bus.

Now i got this new Epox 8KDA3+ board cause i heard it will run with 2x512MB and theres volt mods out for it.. plus most important LOCKS!

So the highest i can get this to run is about 246FSB 5/4 305HT 2445Mhz.. Thats with 2x512MB Corsair XMS platnuim BH-5. at teh lowest mem timings i can of cas2 3,5,2.. The only reason i have that ras setting of 3 is cause that one dimm never liked 2.. I dont mind much cause that same stick is the bad boy that i've never found the bottom end of and its scaled to 250-260+ on other chipsets.. Anyways.. you would think hey, i can get this 246 with 2 sticks i should bea ble to run higher with one... Not! Not even the bad boy stick.. No higher stable speed is attainable.. Not even if i dumb the mem timings to 2.5 3,7,3.. i cant go any higher!

This leads me to think that something is holding this board back! My guess is the HT timings.. THe system will not boot with a mult of 2x above 300HT.. So i'm not sure if i hit the top end i can go with a 3 mult or not but something is up.. The highest vdimm i used is 3.4v and i've done 250-260 with only 3.1v on other boards.

Another strange thing is that i can run 3dmark2k3 at a HTT of 308 and with 3dmark 2k1 it will drop to the desktop right away.. I thin k i have to lower it to 304 i believe to get it to run.

ATM i cant try a 1/1 divider cause my corsair ram is like old and the board reads it at 2700 so it runs it at 166 only.. I have 2x512 Mushkin 3500 Level II dimms in the shop right now getting some new HS put on them.. So it will be a few before i can test this setup at 1/1... which i cant wait for really.. hehe

I'm really torn with this board.. sure its better then the chaintech i had with only 1 512MB dimm and mult adjustments.. In the end the system benches the same if not slower then the chaintech board.


Run down of board + and -

Pluses-

1.) Can run with 2x 512MB Dimms.. just as high as i can get with one fast dimm?

2.) volt mods are a huge plus

3.) vdimm runs off of the +5volt rail.. very nice if you want more then 3.3v

4.) Working AGP and PCI locks

5.) feels really zippy! Nice and responsive.

Minuses-

1.) wierd,strange voltage control.. Outa nowhere on a cold boot the vcore will just drop back to default of 1.3-1.5v

2.) CnQ seems to always be on even if you disconnect it. So your voltage in the bios will be correct at your setting but in windows will lower .1 and under load rise .1.

3.) The board will lose your CDROM/DVDROM player by changing the master IDE from auto to none.. So everytime you enter the bios you must change it back to auto or your board wont see your player... i'm unsure if this happends if you have a IDE HHD on it or not.. or if it happends to the other IDE ports.

4.) Cant use lower then 3x LDT in the 300+ HT range... This may be limiting my overclock.. unsure till i get some other ram.

5.) cant change the LDT voltage.. This 2 might be limiting the overclocking.

6.) after so many beta bios releases.. Will they beable to fix these problems? heh I FREAKIN HOPE TO GOD SO!!



My system specs:

AMD 64 3400+ C0
Epox 8KDA3+ NF3 250 chipset
2x 512MB corsair 3200 Platnuim BH-5
ATI Radeon 9800XT 500/400
Danger den water cooled

[eclypse]

Heres the highest i can get a 3dmark 2k3 with.

[eclypse]

The highest stable speed..

[eclypse]

Originally posted by geneh_00
I didn't experience that issue regarding CDROM not being detected. But I have a similiar one with onboard NV SATA BIOS detection when I was playing around with SATA Raid installation. It was a pain to get around this problem, but now it's working fine.

What bios are you using? I've tried the 5-5<--board shipped with this,6-15,6-24,now the 6-30.. I'm thinking of going back to the 6-15.
I'm hoping that the cold boot vcore prob is just with the 6-30 cause i really dont remember that happening with the 6-15.

[geneh_00]

Originally posted by eclypse
What bios are you using? I've tried the 5-5<--board shipped with this,6-17,6-24,now the 6-30.. I'm thinking of going back to the 6-17.
I'm hoping that the cold boot vcore prob is just with the 6-30 cause i really dont remember that happening with the 6-17.

Using 6-30, I've never had an issue with CD rom detection. Just the cold boot Vcore fluctuation is pissing me off. To make it stable, I had to pump my vcore .05 or .1 higher to compensate the undervolting.