EPoX 4PCA3+ (i875P) Info, News, & Reviews

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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I would like to start an Un-Official 4PCA3+ motherboard thread until such time that the Moderators deem it worthy of its own Official Thread as they have done for other recent motherboards. As soon as reviews start cropping up concerning this board I will post links to them here.

Official EPoX 4PCA3+ Specifications (EPoX.Org)
More Specifications (EPoX.nl)
4PCA3+ Motherboard Manual
Image of EPoX 4PCA3+
Hi-Res Image of EPoX 4PCA3+ (Zip'd)
EP-4PCA3+ BIOS - First Release - Dated 4/14/2003

Reviews:
VR-Zone Hardware Review
OC Workbench Review
Obengware Review - Not English, maybe Bahasa Indonesia?
Digital Daily

Intel i875P Chipset Spec
- Supporting 400/533/800MHz FSB for Celeron NetBurst and Pentium 4 processors
- Dual Channel DDR memory support for increased performance
- Supports ECC memory
- Supports Performance Acceleration Technology TURBO mode for highest possible performance
- AGP 8x for 1.5v graphics cards
- Supports Hyperthreading
- Supports SATA on chip
- Supports Gigabit Ethernet from MCH

Motherboard Spec
- 5 x PCI slots
- 1 x AGP 8 x Slot colour coded purple
- 4 x DDR400 (ECC option) DIMM slots
- Onboard HPT374 RAID for upto 8 pure IDE devices in RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 or JBOD mode
- 1 Floppy drive controller - 2 serial ports - 1 parallel port
- 2 standard IDE ports for ATA-100, backwards compatible with ATA-33/66
- 4 USB 2.0 ports
- Onboard sound, 6 channel Supports Digital SPDIF
- Standard ATX format 305 x 245mm
- Onboard Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet
- Onboard Serial ATA support for 2 drives
- Onboard P80P diagnostics LED
- Multiphase power solution for increased stability

Power BIOS features
- Fully adjustable Voltage scheme
- Fully adjustable Frequency scheme
- Magic Flash for web BIOS update
- Magic Screen for custom boot display
- Magic Health for quick reading of vital measurements at POST

Based on my previous experience with EPoX motherboards, this one should be no different in its excellence or overclockability!

techfuzz
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,558
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As long as it overclocks better than the 4G4A+, it may end up on my wishlist as well.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
10,207
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All the 845G's were crummy overclockers, not just the 4G4A. It was actually one of the better ones. EPoX had the best 845D board, Never heard much about the EPoX 845E, the 4PEA is a great board. We shall see.
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: oldfart
All the 845G's were crummy overclockers, not just the 4G4A. It was actually one of the better ones. EPoX had the best 845D board, Never heard much about the EPoX 845E, the 4PEA is a great board. We shall see.
I was seriously considering buying the 4PEA board recently, but I'm glad I held off for an 875P board. Based on what I've heard... it should last a good long time upgrade wise. I'm looking for something that will overclock well and I hope the 4PCA3 series does.

techfuzz
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Update: I added the link to the Official EPoX 4PCA3+ Specifications on their website. Still looking around for that first review! Is Evan going to come through for us? If you have something specifically you want Evan to test when reviewing the board, go ahead and post it here.

Update (4/18): Found a link to v1.0 of the BIOS.

techfuzz
 

jaeger66

Banned
Jan 1, 2001
3,852
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I'm glad that Epox has FINALLY figured out where the ATX connector belongs. But no CSA and only 2 SATA ports are big negatives. Nice 4 phase voltage regulation though, like the Abit.
 

Sunfox

Member
Apr 21, 2000
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Correction to specs in first post: I don't see firewire anywhere on the spec pages or in the manual.
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: Sunfox
Correction to specs in first post: I don't see firewire anywhere on the spec pages or in the manual.
Thanks Sunfox, you're right it isn't included on this board. I reformatted the specs today to give a better look at what we'll be getting from it.

techfuzz
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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According to some information I just located on a German website, the EP-4PCA3+ is initially going to cost 199 euro ($220 US) and debut in early May.

techfuzz
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
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81
Originally posted by: jaeger66
I'm glad that Epox has FINALLY figured out where the ATX connector belongs. But no CSA and only 2 SATA ports are big negatives. Nice 4 phase voltage regulation though, like the Abit.
From the VR-Zone Review, Page 1:
This chip has a special dedicated network bus known as CSA that is linked directly to the MCH so it doesn't share the I/O traffic with other PCI components. CSA has twice the bandwidth (2Gbps) of a PCI 32 bus (1Gbps). This will reduce latency and improve network performance especially for Gigabit Ethernet.

And with 6 Parallel ATA ports (allowing 12 IDE devices) is the inclusion of only 2 SATA ports really that big a negative?
 

frangus

Member
Apr 12, 2001
155
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Originally posted by: Megatomic
Originally posted by: jaeger66
I'm glad that Epox has FINALLY figured out where the ATX connector belongs. But no CSA and only 2 SATA ports are big negatives. Nice 4 phase voltage regulation though, like the Abit.
From the VR-Zone Review, Page 1:
This chip has a special dedicated network bus known as CSA that is linked directly to the MCH so it doesn't share the I/O traffic with other PCI components. CSA has twice the bandwidth (2Gbps) of a PCI 32 bus (1Gbps). This will reduce latency and improve network performance especially for Gigabit Ethernet.

And with 6 Parallel ATA ports (allowing 12 IDE devices) is the inclusion of only 2 SATA ports really that big a negative?


I thought CSA was currently only supported via Intel network chipsets? Broadcom too? I'm now confused.
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: frangus
I thought CSA was currently only supported via Intel network chipsets? Broadcom too? I'm now confused.
I just shot off an email to EPoX US Tech Support asking them if they're utilizing the CSA or not. I'll let you guys know if/when I hear back from them.

techfuzz
 

jaeger66

Banned
Jan 1, 2001
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Originally posted by: techfuzz
Originally posted by: frangus
I thought CSA was currently only supported via Intel network chipsets? Broadcom too? I'm now confused.
I just shot off an email to EPoX US Tech Support asking them if they're utilizing the CSA or not. I'll let you guys know if/when I hear back from them.

techfuzz

They aren't using CSA, note the diagram in the manual.
 

oldfart

Lifer
Dec 2, 1999
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Unless they update the BIOS to allow more Vcore, + .05 aint gonna cut it for an overclocker. That usually makes up for the typical .025 - .05 undervolt, and thats it.
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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I received confirmation from EPoX Tech Support that the Broadcom chip still utilizes the PCI bus and not the new CSA bus that Intel uses.

techfuzz
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: oldfart
Unless they update the BIOS to allow more Vcore, + .05 aint gonna cut it for an overclocker. That usually makes up for the typical .025 - .05 undervolt, and thats it.
Over at AOA the Epox Technical Support guys said that the VR-Zone review came a little too early and used a early pre-production BIOS which limited the vCore to at most 0.05+. Production or revised BIOS will allow for bigger vCore increases.

techfuzz
 

techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Looks like we're going to have a wait for this one a while longer, I received this email from EPoX yesterday:

Chris

Thank you for your request

The MB has released but there is a shortage issue and we can't bring them in yet
I would say by the end of May we will have it

Thank you
Jason Moh
Product Manager
jason.moh@northgate.com
626-923-6080
626-923-6095 F
http://www.northgate.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Ruegsegger, Christopher M.
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 6:04 AM
To: sales@epox.com
Subject: 4PCA3 series

What is the ETA for the just announced EP-4PCA3 series of motherboards?

techfuzz