Is it a good choice to buy EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra ?

[TheSleeper]

I am buidling my config and gonna buy this saturday......

For me,

DFI is very good but quite picky about ram/power plus it's gonna release a new ultra board this coming oct...I have no time to wait for it
MSI.....good reputation in hong kong but seems very bad name here....
epox...seems very high performance/cost

I'd like to know if it's ok to use kingston ram ? is there any incompatibility issue about ram for this board ?

I am also gonna buy Antec SPII 500W; is it enough to push my system to work ?

thanks all
your advice and recommendation are sincerely appreciated ~~

almost 5 years I didn't renew my pc, I am quite nervous to buy something wrong

 

[bozack]

I have been running one for a little over a month now and it has been great esp for the price.

Works with some free crucial memory I got and seems very stable, I only use a 420w powersupply with three drives, a 6800gt and a sound card so your 500W I would think is more than enough....

I also considered the DFI but figured the added expense and the selectiveness with parts just wasn't worth it for me.

good luck

 

[Yourself]

My board has been rock solid since I set it up(about 3-4 months). Here is my setup:

3200+ Winchester at 2.65ghz(295x9)
2x1GB OCZ
7800 GTX

All that is running on an Enermax 535w PSU. Like I said no hiccups and a painfree setup...

Hope that helps...


Self

 

[TheSleeper]

thanks all you guys helping me

my direction is clear now and I'm gonna own it today

GG

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: TheSleeper
thanks all you guys helping me

my direction is clear now and I'm gonna own it today

GG

What prevents you from getting a board from a well known manufacturer? Buying epox is like buying from PC chips...

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: TheSleeper
thanks all you guys helping me

my direction is clear now and I'm gonna own it today

GG

What prevents you from getting a board from a well known manufacturer? Buying epox is like buying from PC chips...

Excuse me? They've been a better brand for a long time. Unlike the DFI crap everyone around here loves all the sudden.

 

[sixth]

I have to agree with Megatomic, i just got my Epox board and wow, they include everything in the package, the board is SWEET. It has some AMAZING user freindly items such as the display on the board that tells the codes for a bad boot etc. Plus the blue leds to let you know whats going on. The entire board/package is incredible. i had no issues, thank good ness no more MSI crap, when you comapare the two boards there is no comparsion, i am VERY happy with my EPox, and i think its FAR FAR from a PC Chips motherboard!

goodluck!

 

[Thehubb]

I dont doubt that its a good board but ive been having problems with install. It may not be the mobo that is the problem but it definitely isn't a pain free install.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: TheSleeper
thanks all you guys helping me

my direction is clear now and I'm gonna own it today

GG

What prevents you from getting a board from a well known manufacturer? Buying epox is like buying from PC chips...

Excuse me? They've been a better brand for a long time. Unlike the DFI crap everyone around here loves all the sudden.

Excuse me? I smell brand loyalty here, from both of you.

Have you looked at their history of exploding caps? Regardless, EPoX currently has one of the best boards out there on the market right now: 9NPA+Ultra...

Don't judge a peice of hardware based on a company's history. Hardware has the habit of being fickle. Failures crop up, successes happen.

Just beucase DFI is relatively a newcomer into the enthusiast market doesn't mean that they're crap. Currently their board is an overclocking champ.

To hell with brand loyalty. If you haven't learned it already, listen. A company that's good now can be a peice of sh-it in the future. A company that has less than mediocre products now could ultimately be a most-wanted in the future.

Hey uhh, listen. Sorry if I sounded rude or harsh in this post, I can also be accused of this as well. Hell, it happens. I was just trying to get my point across.

Just remember that with hardware: it's the present, not the past, that matters.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
.

Just remember that with hardware: it's the present, not the past, that matters.

-The Pentium Guy

I just wanted to re-emphasize this for everyone.
If you're overclocking go for the DFi. If you're on a budget go for the Epox. If you're not overclocking & want something that's stable & easy to use...ask someone else because I don't know, but my MSi Neo4-F was stable & easy to use?

 

[Megatomic]

The last EPoX I owned was an 8RDA+ way back in the early days of the NF2. The last DFI I owned was an NF2 Infinity whatever it was called. 2 dead on arrival boards was all it took for me to swear DFI off like the plague. The EPoX died a slow death after being used for over a year as an overclocking testbed that would have made any board cry.

The only brand loyalty I have is towards AMD. I am as fickle with mobos as I am with graphics cards.

 

[Kraptor]

I have the SLI version of the board. I was thinking about DFI or this board, since they are both priced almost the same in Europe but I opped for Epox cuase it has a 3 year warranty while DFI had only 1. Sadly I made a bad decision, cause so far I am not very pleased with the board. I had some serious problems with it. First when I upgraded my motherboard BIOS I always encoutnered some serious crashes, even when I ran everything on stock settings. This just happend with the new BIOSes, had no probs with the release BIOS.

Also had problems with the SATA chips boths with nvidia and SI. For some reason I couldnt install XP when I had my RAId 0 setup on the nvidia SATA controllers. With SI had no such a problem, but one time the SI chip couldnt find one of my disk at boot up. First I thought that one of my disk diead but when I plugged the SATA cable out then back in then everything was fine again. Also I am not very satisfied with the SI SATA performance. I used to have a Abit IC7 with Intel onboard SATA, also had a RAID 0 with the same disks and managed to get some much better performance with that board then Epox. Here some Hdtach pictures of the 2 setup.

Abit IC 7 Intel SATA Raid 0
Epox 9npa+ SLI SI SATA Raid 0

Sofar I am not very pleased with the overall peformance.

Here is my setup

Venice 3500+
Epox 9Npa+ SLI
1Gig Geil ONE TCCD
MSI 7800GTX
600W Enermax PSU


Ive sent email about my problem to Epox but so far havent received any answers from them.

 

[imported_goku]

To be absolutely honest, my brand loyalty is towards Abit and ASUS. I'd consider boards from MSI and I DFI but I've had little to nill experience with those brands. I simply hate epox because of their crappy boards from the past and all the complaints I've read about their boards. I've seriously only had problems with my system when I had a crappy PSU, when I upgraded, my system became rock solid stable, overclocked, at 3.5GHZ from 2.8.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Get a Fatal1ty mobo then? That's what I'm getting now.