[Salmon Dream]

I am looking to buy a mobo for my new computer. i have heard a lot of good things about this board, like it is a great overclock. is this true? has anyone had excedingly great/awful experinences?

[SickBoy]

A lot of both, from what I hear. Epox has come under a bit of fire recently, there's been a lot of word about their explosion in popularity with the 8K7A and 8KHA+ and that the demand for their stuff has caused quality control to slide. BUT a lot of people still have had perfectly good experiences with Epox boards as of late, so it's a crapshoot...

[Top Hat Theater]

The 8K3A overclocks really well due to having Vcore choices up to 2.2 and Vdimm up to 3.2. The first board I had was a revision 1.1 and it died within a week. The replacement was a 1.2 and it's been running perfectly ever since. I've taken my system up to 12x173 but it can go higher. Basically, if you get a good 8K3A, your mobo is no longer an obstacle when overclocking.

~THT

[repo man11]

I bought mine as a $70.00 refurb from Newegg. It is running great! I've an locked XP1600+ that I'm running at 168 FSB (168x10.5). You'll need a good PSU, my generic 400 watt was crushed by the load. My Hec 350 watt drops down to 4.87 when running FAH, but so far it is stable.

[fdoggiedog]

I've had my 8k3a for about 6 mo. now. The first one I had just quit at the end of the first mo. I got the replacement board i and its been just fine. It overclocks well and has all the features of a great overclocking mobo.

The only thing that I'm not really impressed with is the bandwith of the board. Lots of people running Abit boards at the same speed as me get much higher 3dmark scores and Sandra memory scores. All in all a good board for under 100 usd.

I hope this helps,
fdoggiedog woof woof

[smudged]

Absolutely no problems here with my 8K3a+. I've had about 4 months. I can't really compare it to any of the newer boards coz I have only used this and an older slot A MSI, but I would defiately give it my recommendation. I have had it boot at 195 FSB (x8).

I think my board is a revision 1.2

Actually when I come to look at the revision number printed on the board I remember the only things that get on my nerves.

1: the power connector on the mobo is placed to the left of the CPU socket, which can be a pain. You need to route the wiring carefully to avoid having it pushing onto and putting pressure on the H/S esp. an oversized cooler like the ALPHA, DX7 etc.

2: the USB headers are very far back on the bottom left of the board next to the fifth PCI slot. This is OK if you are using the 2 socket USB backing plate provided, but if you don't want to lose a PCI slot and have a can be w/ front USB it can a pain getting the connections wired properly.

Just two superficial problems for an otherwise excellent board!

[eggward]

hey, i have a Rev 1.0 8k3a. any problems with this revision?

[Top Hat Theater]

not that I've heard however, I don't think it has 6 channel sound as an option. Anyone confirm this?

~THT

[up2Tim]

Originally posted by Top Hat Theater
not that I've heard however, I don't think it has 6 channel sound as an option. Anyone confirm this?

~THT

Yep, that's the difference.

[up2Tim]

Originally posted by Salmon Dream
I am looking to buy a mobo for my new computer. i have heard a lot of good things about this board, like it is a great overclock. is this true? has anyone had excedingly great/awful experinences?

Everyone will have different experience depending on their setup but one thing is for sure--Epox has great support. If you have a problem they will respond. I sent them an email on a Sunday afternoon and didn't expect an answer for a couple days (especially since it was Sunday) but I went back in a couple hours and there was a response--a personal response (you know, it wasn't one of those automated responses) and they worked me through it.

I really grown to like those people at Epox.

And it's pretty hard to beat their price on top of it all.

You won't be disapointed.

Edit: one last thought

don't use a geforce 3 TI200 with the 8k3a+ and get a good PSU that has better than 180W on the combined 3V/5V

[Top Hat Theater]

lol, I did both of those...had a GF3 Ti200 AND a weak PSU with my 8K3A+...replaced 'em with the Antec TruPower 550 and a Ti4600

~THT

[up2Tim]

Ya, I already had the PSU thing figured out because I had a 8KHA+ (and still have) and tried to run an Enermax on it. Tried the mod but it didn't help so I got a Sparkle.

I had some probs w/ my 8K3A+ and ended up being the Gforce3 TI200. I tried all supposed solutions and got a TI4600 and put the TI200 back in my 8KHA+.

I'm pretty sure the TI200 issue is a VIA/AMD/Nvidia related problem and not Epox. I didn't bother Epox with that problem because there was enough info available in the forums to figure it out.

I didn't mind because it gave me a good excuse to upgrade my video card .

Patience is a virtue