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Overclocking the Epox 4PDA2+
V2 |
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Like taking candy from a baby |
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WCPUID
at Stock Speed and Overclocked
Overclocking
the Epox 4PDA2+ V2 was as pleasurable an
experience as we can recall. True,
after spending much time tinkering
around with the last batch of Springdale
boards, we had immediate expectations
about where we wanted to go and how to
get there. Luckily for us, Epox
must have had the same expectations
because they have provided the necessary
means to do so. As we covered
earlier, the voltage choices for the CPU
and DRAM are extensive, allowing us to
stabilize the system when raising the
front side bus. As we raised the
FSB, we had to change the memory divider
in order to keep the RAM happy, but
noticed after a few failed attempts that
the DRAM speed reported during the POST
operations did not correctly reflect the
divider we had chosen. For
example, at a FSB of 235MHz and using
the memory ratio of 5:4, we expected the
DRAM speed to clock in at 376MHz
(235/5=47*4=188*2=376), but the actual
speed was reported as 470MHz, which
meant that a 1:1 ratio was still being
applied. In the BIOS, we "relaxed"
the AMM setting from "Max" to "Turbo",
after which we were able to get the
correct DRAM speeds. Other than
this one hiccup, it was smooth sailing
up into the 280's for the FSB, with the
CPU voltage requiring 1.75V to get the
system testable. We reached the
wall at 281MHz as highest obtainable
speed (3.372GHz on our P4C 2.4 GHz
CPU), any higher and Windows would not
complete loading.
Since
Comanche 4 scales so well with CPU and
Memory differences, we thought we would
at least provide one quick check of the
performance gained by overclocking the
system. At a stock speed of
201.44MHz for the FSB, we had attained
52.84 fps, but after overclocking to
281MHz FSB (3372MHz CPU speed), we
jumped up to 69.85 fps, a jump of 17
frames. That's a performance boost
of 32% over stock speeds. The Epox
4PDA2+ V2 is a powerful board at stock
speed, yet still shows it has more
horsepower under the hood.
At the
conclusion of the Springdale Showdown
review, we were confident in our
choice of the Asus P4P800 Deluxe as
the top board, awarding it the coveted
Editor's Choice, but Epox has
definitely raised our eyebrows with
the second version of the 4PDA2+.
First, care has been taken to produce
a board that's very pleasing to the
eye, with a good layout of the
components. The set of features
onboard included everything that one
could hope for with IDE RAID, SATA
RAID, FireWire, and even a helpful
Diagnostic LED. Complementing
the color scheme of the board is a
bundle with matching rounded IDE
cables, extra brackets with FireWire
and even external SATA ports, and some
of the most comprehensive user's
manuals that we have ever read.
Aside from
these, mostly aesthetic attributes,
came the performance and stability
that only a top-notch board can
provide. Throughout the course
of testing, we did not encounter any
issues with the running on any
benchmarks even while overclocking the
system. Epox's engineers have
done a wonderful job with their
implementation of a memory enhancement
called "Accelerated Memory Mode".
The memory benchmarks in both Sandra
and PCMark 2002 showed that the Epox
AMM was almost on par with the well
known Game Accelerator Technology from
Abit as well as Asus' Hyper Path.
Overclocking the system was also a
breeze, and the 281MHz FSB was one of
the highest stable overclock speeds we
have obtained with the i865PE (second
to the Asus P4P800's 285MHz.) We
will stop short of declaring a new
champion in the Springdale realm, but
offer that the Epox 4PDA2+ V2
motherboard should share the "throne"
with the Asus P4P800 Deluxe, awarding
it a
9.5
on the HotHardware Heat Meter, as well
as an Editor's Choice Award!
Overclocking
Results and the Final Rating
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