MichaelD
Lifer
Linky
Well, I'm an Epox fan. I own three of their boards and until recently, didn't strongly consider buying anything else. That said; they screwed up with this one. Some highs and lows, according to yours truly. YOMV.
Lows
Uses the MCP instead of the superior MCP-T southbridge. Why? The "T" is way superior. Now I need a PCI soundcard!
No onboard serial ports, though they do supply one on a PCI slot add-in bracket. My UPS uses a serial connection; why should I lose a PCI slot to use it? They could've just left them "there"; the area is EMPTY (they didn't put anything else there)
The HSF on the northbridge is angled diagonally, infringing on CPU HSF area. Duh, it's supposed to be an OCers board.
Memory slots block videocard area, requiring videocard removal to add/remove memory (no excuse these days..old issue!)
No SATA support at all! These days...no SATA support? You gotta be kidding me!
No IDE RAID. No SATA support; maybe they'll make up for it a little? Nope. It's cheap and easy to implement, lots of open space on the PCB, but noooooooo.
No onboard video. Not that I'd use it, but with all the stuff they took away and left OUT, you'd think they'd "make up for it" somehow.
Highs
Official 400FSB support
Active NB cooling, passive HS on southbridge.
Retains the four holes around the CPU socket, though this gain is offset by the N.B. diagonal-funky HSF
Dual on-board NICs (nice, but not a biggie, IMO)
ATX connector placement and IDE connector placement is good
Seems to perform on-par with other "Second Gen" NF2 boards. *feh*
MichaelD's Opinion
I'll pass on this one. Epox, pull your head out of your @ss. This board is no good!
Well, I'm an Epox fan. I own three of their boards and until recently, didn't strongly consider buying anything else. That said; they screwed up with this one. Some highs and lows, according to yours truly. YOMV.
Lows
Uses the MCP instead of the superior MCP-T southbridge. Why? The "T" is way superior. Now I need a PCI soundcard!
No onboard serial ports, though they do supply one on a PCI slot add-in bracket. My UPS uses a serial connection; why should I lose a PCI slot to use it? They could've just left them "there"; the area is EMPTY (they didn't put anything else there)
The HSF on the northbridge is angled diagonally, infringing on CPU HSF area. Duh, it's supposed to be an OCers board.
Memory slots block videocard area, requiring videocard removal to add/remove memory (no excuse these days..old issue!)
No SATA support at all! These days...no SATA support? You gotta be kidding me!
No IDE RAID. No SATA support; maybe they'll make up for it a little? Nope. It's cheap and easy to implement, lots of open space on the PCB, but noooooooo.
No onboard video. Not that I'd use it, but with all the stuff they took away and left OUT, you'd think they'd "make up for it" somehow.
Highs
Official 400FSB support
Active NB cooling, passive HS on southbridge.
Retains the four holes around the CPU socket, though this gain is offset by the N.B. diagonal-funky HSF
Dual on-board NICs (nice, but not a biggie, IMO)
ATX connector placement and IDE connector placement is good
Seems to perform on-par with other "Second Gen" NF2 boards. *feh*
MichaelD's Opinion
I'll pass on this one. Epox, pull your head out of your @ss. This board is no good!
