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- Date:
- Sunday , August 31, 2003
- Author:
- Keith Dugger
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
EPoX 8KRA2+
EPoX adds to their product line with the new 8KRA2+, wielding a VIA KT600 chipset. Will this new motherboard satisfy the enthusiast and step ahead of the nForce2-dominated AMD market?
Introduction
EPoX is recognized as a manufacturer willing to accommodate the enthusiast user, and with NVIDIA's nForce2 chipset getting most of the attention in the AMD consumer market, EPoX stirs things up by introducing the 8KRA2+ and harnessing the capabilities of the VIA KT600 chipset. With Intel’s Canterwood still going strong and AMD turning their focus on the Athlon64 and Opteron processors, it is good to know that this year alone EPoX has released multiple new Socket A motherboards to support the enthusiast community.
The 8KRA2+ comes with many of the expected features and offers both SATA and PATA RAID. It has 400MHz FSB and DDR-400 (single channel) support, AGP 8X, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, 100Mb LAN, two SATA connectors (VIA controller supporting RAIDs 0, 1, and JBOD), and four ATA-133 connectors (two off the Highpoint controller that support RAIDs 0, 1, 0+1, and JBOD and two off the VIA Southbridge).
Main Specifications Overview:
Processor | AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron |
Chipset | VIA Apollo KT600 Chipset + VIA VT8237 |
Max FSB | 400MHz |
BIOS | Award/Phoenix BIOS v6.0 |
Memory | 3 x DDR SDRAM PC3200, 3GB max. |
Expansion Slots | AGP: 1, 8x/4x (1.5v), PCI: 6, 32-bit |
Onboard IDE | 2 x E/IDE Ultra DMA/133, 2 x S-ATA headers |
USB | 4 onboard, 4 optional. USB 2.0 |
AGP | AGP 8x |
Sound | Realtek ALC655 6-channel full-duplex integrated sound |
Network | 1 x VIA Tahoe VIA VT6103 Physical Layer / Transceiver |
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
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Board Layout
The motherboard box is a standard issue EPoX box. The color scheme and artwork are interesting, but the focus here is what is inside, not outside.
Included in the 8KRA2+ box are 2 SATA drive cables, 2 SATA power adapters, 2 80-wire ATA133 cables (including a pull-tab), a standard floppy cable, 1 Game Port Bracket, 1 IEEE 1394 Bracket, and a Back Panel I/O Shield. Additionally, EPoX included a comprehensive motherboard manual, a 6 language rapid installation guide (one of the 6 languages is still not English), SATA Host Controller and Highpoint RAID Controller manuals, a Magic Flash and USDM (Unified System Diagnostic Manager) manual, and a driver CD. The included CD contains the SATA, sound, NIC, and chipset drivers as well as Norton Ghost 7.0, PC-cillin 2002, Magic Flash, and USDM installations. Two floppies were thrown in to cover the driver needs of the SATA RAID and Highpoint RAID controllers.
At first glance, the 8KRA2+ board looks very similar to the 8RDA3+ reviewed here. However, there are subtle differences (aside from the chipset). EPoX moved the DIMM slots closer to the CPU socket by approximately one inch, reintroducing the often over-dramatized AGP slot/DIMM contention issues. I praised EPoX for engineering around this issue on the nForce2 board, but I simply cannot understand why they chose to implement the slot placement this way on the 8KRA2+.
Another design miss is the choice not to include the preferred four-hole mounts around the CPU socket. I understand that AMD removed this requirement from their motherboard specification, but this is the best mounting solution for watercooling and without it watercooling is, at best, limited. Again, the 8RDA3+ included these mounting holes.
All other component placement is near perfect.
The capacitors EPoX used on the 8KRA2+ are from Sanyo (Worldwide) and GSC.
The clearances around the CPU socket are good. A very minor concern is the row of capacitors run across the top side of the CPU socket area. These did not pose a problem with my SLK-800 HSF, but possibly could with a larger HSF. This probably isn’t much of an issue considering the missing mounting holes will rule out some of the larger HSFs anyway.
Just to the upper left of the CPU socket is the system-monitored 3-pin HSF connector (labeled JCPU_FAN) and left of that is the ATX power connector. There is an additional 3-pin fan connector (JPWR_FAN) near the ATX power connector.
The two yellow jumpers at the top of the AGP slot are JCK1 and JCK2, which allow the setting of FSB speeds. Available settings are By BIOS (default), 133MHz, 166MHz, and 200MHz. These are always welcomed (as long as there is a default setting that will allow full BIOS control) in case there are stability or compatibility issues. As a note, if these are set to anything other than default and later changed back to default, the 8KRA2+ will require a Clear CMOS procedure.
At the bottom of the picture, to the right of the AGP slot, is the Northbridge (VIA KT600). EPoX implemented the cross-spring connector method for the Northbridge HS which allows HS removal without pulling the motherboard from the case. Heat is another issue. The HS trying to dissipate heat from the KT600 chipset is not up to the job. During testing the HS was hotter than expected and a fan would be an improvement and a necessity for any enthusiast.
Three DIMM slots are directly below the CPU socket and Northbridge area. We experienced several issues with regard to RAM. In an attempt to find the optimal memory configuration, we tried multiple sticks from Corsair and Kingston of varying size and rating with only minimal luck. For instance, PC4000 would not boot, 1GB in slots 2 and 3 was very unstable. The best stability achieved was by using a single double-sided DIMM in slot 1. A BIOS update proved useful as we were then able to get 512GB total in slots 2 and 3 to survive subsystem testing. The manual has several suggestions that try to mitigate memory problems and suggest that only two slots can be guaranteed when using DDR400.
We’ll evaluate if these issues cause a hit to our test results, but these issues are a definite negative on EPoX.
The VIA Southbridge (VT8237) is in the lower left quarter next to the AGP and PCI slots. Underneath this chip are the two SATA connectors (powered by the Southbridge) and just to the right of the 80 Port Debug LED. The two yellow IDE connectors (IDE 1 and 2) and the black floppy connector round out the bottom edge and are controlled directly by the VT8237. The purple IDE connectors to the left (IDE 3 and 4) get their direction from the Highpoint HPT372 RAID controller. Below these are a 3-pin fan connector (JSYS_FAN) and the front panel connectors.
The CMOS battery and yellow clear CMOS jumper (labeled JCMOS) continue the line of components leading up the left side of the 8KRA2+. Just above JCMOS are the VT6307 controller and the two IEEE 1394 connectors (C1394-1 and C1394-2) it controls. Further to the left are the yellow and blue USB 2.0 connector blocks (CUSB3 and CUSB4).
The 8KRA2+ includes 6 PCI and 1 AGP slot. This is another subtle difference when compared to their nForce2 board as it only included 5 PCI slots, leaving space next to the AGP slot for double-wide graphics cards. Beside PCI slot 6 (far left in picture) is the connector block for the Game Port Bracket. The BIOS chip is relegated to the upper left next to the legacy Winbond I/O controller. On to the right is the S/PDIF pin block (EPoX did not include the actual cable) and the ALC655 driven AC97 audio. Rounding out the components across the top are the front panel audio and CD & AUX-IN connectors as well as the VIA6103 LAN controller (just above the AGP slot).
As a note, the front panel audio connectors are jumpered by default for rear-panel sound. These will need to be removed to allow the front panel cable installation. When using front-panel sound, the line-out jack should support a “normal close” function. This allows you to have sound routed to the front when speakers or headphones are plugged in, but will reroute the sound back to the rear panel when these are unplugged. Also, according to the manual: When using 2-channel audio mode, Mic-In is shared for both the front and rear panel. In 6-channel audio mode, the Mic-In is dedicated for front panel use, and the rear panel Mic-In will switch to Center and Subwoofer support.
PS/2 keyboard and mouse connections begin the component placement on the left of the Back Panel I/O. To the right of these connections are the Parallel port and two serial ports. Next is a short tower housing two USB 2.0 ports followed by the tower including the 10/100 NIC and an additional two USB 2.0 ports. The audio in, audio out, and Mic-In jacks are the final ports on the back panel.