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What is your opinion on the EPOX 8K3A KT333CE ?

its very new so not to many people have it yet 🙂

but its very similar to the 8kha+... just has the newer via chipset


the reviews seem to show it being a very nice board
 
BTW, Boonesmi, nice ta see you again! 🙂 Remember you used to help me out a lot last year? Oh, and by the way, I did end up getting the Epox 8K7A. It runs beautiful. My full system consists of:

Epox 8K7A
1.4 Athlon Tbird
512 Crucial PC2100 RAM
30gig Maxtor HD 7200rpm
Gainward Geforce3 64
19' Hittachi Monitor (had it before from old system)
Sound Blaster Live 5.1
CD-RW
zip drive
Monsoon Flat Panel Speakers
Intellimouse Explorer

😀
 
Just got the Epox 8K3A from Accesmicro ($102). Added XP 1700+. Have FSB at 140 , system reads XP1800+. Is running fine. Also bought their Samsung PC2700 (5NS) DDR.
Will be taking it up in steps.
Unlocking is in the future only if board adjustments run out.
 
Increased to 302 FSB, 1659 system bus. Temp is 50C. No problems.
Will run this speed for a day and increase again tomorrow.
 
Board does fine with 300fsb. Temps in mid 50's using AMD fan for 1700+. Would rather see temps in the 40's. Not a gamer and not into watercooling. Samsung PC2700 memory also showing no problems.
No change in voltage.
Hate to say this but very hard to tell the difference between this and my old ECS KS5A with a 1.33 T-bird(266 FSB), although the Sisoft benchmarcks are way higher.
Pleased so far, only 3 days old. For $500 what's to complain?

Epox 8K3A
XP1700+ @1.65
256MB PC2700
40GB WD 7200rpm
DVD-CD
ATi Rage 128 Pro 32MB
Diamond supra Fax Modem
300W ps in Generic case/2 cooling fans

Cooling suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
There have been many reports of the temperature reading in error.
I wouldn't worry at this point, but the simplest way to test temp is to raise core voltage and overclock until errors.

Hold off on getting the 8k3a at this time.
The version shipping is version 1.0.
This is NOT the board shown in reviews! They all used v1.1.
Version 1.0 seems to score slower, has the temperature error, has only 2 channel audio, and no USB 2.0.
Epox has stated that the v1.1 should start shipping in a couple weeks.
Don't know what changes will be, except should score higher, fixed temperature, and 6 channel audio.
 
About the temperature, does the v1.0 have the ability to read from the on-chip XP thermal diode? Does it have the safety circuit to shut down the system? If not, will the v1.1 board have these features? I ask because I have notoriously bad luck with computer fans dying on me.
 
No version of the 8k3a will monitor the internal diode in the XP CPU's.
But, it does have temperature monitors on the motherboard, and you can have it shut down when temp gets too high.

Another bad thing about current version that I just noticed.
It only has 2 USB ports, with cable to add 2 more. 4 total max. All USB v1.1, not 2.0.
No other USB headers like previous models that had extra headers for front USB, or 6 total possible.
 
How do I tell which version of the board I have? I am assuming it is version 1 because the front of the manual says 8K3A 1+.

I just put my system together Friday. I am using the AMD 2000+ 1.67 GHz processor with a Vantek cooler. The system seems to be running hotter than I would like. It averages about 57 degrees Cel. I am getting random re-boots which I am guessing are from the temp reaching 60 degrees somtimes. I pushed the rollback temp up to 62 degrees and have not had a re-boot yet. (Fingers crossed). Anybody have any ideas on keeping this bad boy cool? Possibly a better cooler than the Vantek.
Leon.
 
Well I just figured out by going to the EPOX web page that my BIOS date is March 12th and that there has been two revisions since then. I am going to flash my BOIS soon and hope that fixes my crazy reboot problem.
With everyting running at stock I figure it should be stable. I know others have overclocked the 2000+ chip with no problems. It would be nice If I could just get it to run stable out of the box.
 
Lysimachus,
I have the 8K3A+ and I think overall it is pretty decent board at most. Don't
get me wrong, I like the overclocking options, dividers, etc. I give it around
an 8 out 10. Simply because at the start-up the DMI Pool Data takes forever
to boot into WinXP Pro. So I believe it could be a BIOS related problem, I
have no idea!

As of right now my 8K3A+ is OC'ed at 1.62Ghz @ 1.82V. I had it stable
around 1.67Ghz. Overall the board is excellent at overclocking!

However, I recommend a powerful HSF for OCing! I paid around $112 shipped
from CnetPC.com last week!

Oooohh another note the difference between the 8K3A and 8K3A+ is that the
8K3A+ has onboard RAID. If you have high intenions of setting up a RAID array
the 8K3A+ would be the better solution. Either one should fit the bill!

CreeDiddy
 
Still have not flashed the BIOS yet. But I was able to get the system stable by turning my 4 Bank Interleave to Disable. I have not tried 2 Bank yet, but with it disabled I have had two days of stable running.
Anyone know what this setting does anyway?
Right now I only have one stick of 256 MB. PC 2100 in the system.
 
I have the 8k3a+ and I can run my unlocked t'bird 1.1 at 7 x 166mhz and its very stable. I currently have an 1800xp in their and it seems to be a nice mobo.
 
I think it`s an excellent board,it may not have all the features like USB 2.0 etc but makes up for it in stability etc,just saw this review today,



<< EPoX did a great job with the EP-8K3A and the EP-8K3A+. Both boards offer an excellent platform for any poweruser/tweaker/overclocker out there who wants to get the most out of his box! Besides the lack of USB 2.0 and the few layout flaws, these boards have everything you could wish for!! Personally I would opt for the "plus" version as it comes with the addition USB bracket, giving you 2 more USB ports, the onboard RAID controller, the 6-channel sound and the diagnostic LED. Either way you go is great, but the "plus" just increases the fun-factor 🙂.

If it isn't obvious by now, let me announce that this board is carrying our O² Power Award home ... this is the best socket A motherboard currently available! >>





link .
 
That review is just one more in the long line of bad and wrong reviews.
You would think that someone doing a review would at least look and get his facts right?
The difference between the EP-8K3A and the EP-8K3A+ is the "+" has Raid. That is basically it!
Neither board has more than 4 USB ports. (there is talk that they will include a USB 2.0 PCI addon card later)
Only the early revision 1.1 and late revision 1.2 have 6 channel audio.
Most of the boards shipping have been revision 1.0.
Review sites have been sent Revision 1.1 and 1.2 boards, so what they are reviewing is not what you are getting.

I think Epox makes the best boards, but this time they screwed up royally.

Anyone thinking of getting one of these should check out these two forums:

AMDMB.com Epox motherboards
Alliance for the advancement of the overclocking arts, Epox motherboards

Those two forums explain everything you could want to know about the board.
Basically it boils down to this.
Epox has one of the best KT233A motherboards around. 8kha+. But, it does not have Raid even though it has "+" designation.
It easily overclocks high, with many (including myself), able to hit 200MHz fsb (400DDR).
Like most other manufacturers today, they included 6 USB ports. (only 4 in the 8k3a).
We expected that same kind of performance with the new 8k3a KT333CE board.
Didn't happen.
Actually, at same clocked FSB speeds, the 8kha+ (KT233A) is slightly faster than the 8k3a(+) KT333CE.
There is a long growing list of troubles and issues with the 8k3a(+). Just take a look in the forums listed above.

If you don't need Raid, and have even a KT133A chipset, it would be best to wait for KT400 to show up in a few weeks.
If you must buy a board today, and don't need Raid, the 8kha+ (KT233A) is probably the best choice. Solid mature chipset.
If you like to experiment, and must have the latest regardless of if it has performance flaws, then get any board, including 8k3a+.
But it seems that if you need Raid, and want the best performance, I'm sorry to say that it looks like Abit is the current best choice.
 
Finally got my system running stable. Must have been one of my manual settings in the BIOS that screwed things up. I first flashed to the latest 2328 BIOS but that did not solve my random reboot problems. So I returned all my BIOS settings to default then set the DRAM settings to EPOX's reccomended "Turbo" settings and everything is rock solid now. Overclocked my video card next and got a 3DMark 2001 score of 8135 which is 1000 points higher than my previous test. Also my cpu temp is now 10C. cooler at 50C. It was runnning around 60C. before. It also seems to have solved my NVidia driver problem in Win XP. I would always have a box pop up to tell me that my video card drivers had caused an error and ask if I wanted to send to Microsoft. After a dozen restarts now I have not had the box pop up once.
So I am now a happy camper.
 
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