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Today on
HotHardware we have another Springdale-based motherboard
to add to the mix. Intel has made some recent comments
about "shutting down" the PAT enhancements being done by
various OEMs on the i865PE. However, today's entry,
the Epox 4PDA2+ Version 2, has slipped under the wire,
with their "Accelerated Memory Mode" (AMM) still a major
part of the package. While we did not have a chance to
sample the earlier version of this board, for the most
part we have heard positive comments about its features
and performance. For the second revision, Epox has tweaked
the AMM a bit, added a few new features like RAID 1.5
support and a SATA hot-plug bracket, and then gave the
board a new color scheme to boot. Let's take our first
look at the second version of this fully capable
motherboard and see what we can find.
CLICK ANY IMAGE FOR
AN ENLARGED VIEW
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Specifications & Features of the Epox 4PDA2+
v2 |
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Epox takes a second look at the 4PDA2+ |
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CPU
SUPPORT
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Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with
Hyper-Threading Technology
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Socket 478 Pentium 4 Processors from 1.7GHz up
to 3.2+GHz
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Supports 800MHz, 533MHz or 400MHz Front Side
Bus
CHIPSET
SYSTEM MEMORY
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Four 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets
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DDR266/333/400 support (DDR400 only with
800MHz FSB CPU)
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Supports 128-bit dual channel memory
architecture
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4GB maximum system RAM (unbuffered)
BIOS
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Flash EEPROM with Award BIOS
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PowerBIOS with Aggressive Memory Mode
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ACPI 2.0 compliant
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S3 (Suspend to DRAM) sleep-state support
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SMBIOS (System Management BIOS) v2.2 compliant
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Supports Power failure recovery
HARDWARE MONITOR
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Monitors CPU temperature and overheat
warning/auto shutdown
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Monitors CPU/1.5V/5VSB/VBAT/3.3V/5V/±12V
voltages
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Read back capability that displays
temperature, voltage and fan speed
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Option to display PC Health during POST
AUDIO FEATURES
ONBOARD LAN
ONBOARD FIREWIRE (1394a)
ACCELERATED GRAPHICS PORT (AGP)
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AGP 3.0 compliant slot
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Supports AGP 8x/4x cards with Fast Write
Transactions
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Only 1.5V AGP cards are supported
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Supports 3.3V AGP card protection
LEGACY I/O CONTROLLER
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Winbond W83627HF LPC I/O Controller with
floppy, printer, game, serial, and SIR
interface
SERIAL ATA/RAID INTERFACES
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ICH5/R supports two Serial ATA (SATA) devices
with up to 150MB/s transfer rate
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ICH5/R supporting RAID 0,1 configurations
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Silicon Image SIL3122A chip supports an
additional two SATA devices
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SIL3122A also supporting RAID 0.1
configurations
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SIL3122A chip supports external storage
connection using bracket
ATA
RAID INTERFACE
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HighPoint Technologies HPT372 RAID Controller
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Two IDE ports supporting up to 4 Ultra-DMA133
devices
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Supports RAID 0,1,0+1, and 1.5 configurations
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RAID 1.5 delivers RAID 0 performance and RAID
1 data security
PCI
IDE INTERFACE
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2
IDE bus master (UDMA33/ATA66/ATA100) IDE ports
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Supports up to four ATAPI devices
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Supports PIO Mode 3,4 Enhanced IDE and ATAPI
CD-ROM
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Bus mastering reduces CPU utilization during
disk transfer
REAR PANEL I/O PORTS
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4
USB 2.0/1.1 ports
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1
DB-9 serial ports
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1
DB-25 parallel port
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1
mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
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1
mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
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3
audio jacks: line-in, line-out, and Mic-in
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1
RJ-45 LAN Port
I/O
CONNECTORS
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2
connectors for 4 additional external USB
2.0/1.1 ports
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3
1394a (FireWire) connectors
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1
front audio connector for external line-out
and Mic-in jacks
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2
internal audio connectors (CD-in and AUX-in)
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1
S/PDIF output connector
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4
IDE connectors
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4
SATA connectors
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1
floppy connector
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1
Game/MIDI connector
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1
Serial Port (COM2) connector
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2
ATX power supply connectors
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3
fan connectors for CPU fan, NB fan, and
chassis fan
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1
80 port debug connector
EXPANSION SLOTS
SPECIAL FEATURES
FORM FACTOR
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Manuals, Software, and included components
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Fully stocked and ready for anything |
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The effort
required to simply remove the inner box from the shell,
was our first hint that there was plenty of good stuff
included with the Epox 4PDA2+. Our first stop was
with the literature and software. There were no less
than four separate manuals, one each to cover the
motherboard setup, IDE RAID configurations, SATA RAID, and
the included Magic Flash and USDM monitoring software.
The RAID and SATA drivers came on two labeled floppy
disks, making installation of a new system that much
easier. The CD came with all of the expected
drivers, as well as Norton Ghost 7 and PC-Cillin 2002.
It's not common practice for us to mention the manual
beyond the fact that it is indeed there, but we wanted to
take a moment and point it out this one time, at least.
The User's Manual that came with the 4PDA2+ was easily one
of the best written and most informative manuals we have
laid our eyes upon. Each motherboard component and
BIOS screen was covered in such detail that even we
learned a few things.
The good news
didn't stop there. Matching the burgundy IDE RAID
ports were two burgundy rounded IDE cables. However,
there were no other IDE cables, matching or not, for use
with the standard IDE ports. Also included was
a floppy cable (strangely, not rounded) and two sets of
Serial ATA data transfer and power cables. To
complete the package, we found a bracket with 2 FireWire
ports, the I/O shield, and another bracket that had a game
port as well as another familiar looking but initially
unrecognizable port on it. Further
investigation led us to discover that this was the SATA
connection for use with external devices. We haven't
seen too many external SATA devices on the market yet
ourselves but it can't hurt to be prepared.
Layout of the 4PDA2+
and BIOS screens
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