Mobile Athlon64 3200+ & Epox 8KDA3+

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

I have ordered them today and I need some basic tips for going A64. First of all, there shouldn't be any compability issues with running mobile Athlon64 right??? This board suppose to be overclockable up to 275-300FSB (update bios may be necessary) but do FSB actually do significant performance enhancement over clockspeed (e.g. 280x8 vs 220x11)? Do memory speed/latency have impact on performance? Does changing cpu/memory clock ratio have big performance sacrifice/improvement? And anything you guys can offer me will be helpful, thanx.

Gautam · Jun 17, 2004

I don't think that the ePox supports mobiles. If you can, swap it for an MSI K8N Neo Plat. The HTT by itself doesn't do anything for the performance, and running async doesn't hurt performance at all; it is usually the only way to go.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

Hmmm, I've read a lot of reviewers rating this board as highly recommended, I don't know then. How does MSI K8N differ/better over epox? (other than supporting mobiles)

Gautam · Jun 17, 2004

Funny, I can't seem to find a single review of this board, but found one person who couldn't get a mobile to work with it. The MSI is proven. It gives 1.81v core voltage in the BIOS, and 300MHz HTT in the BIOS. With A64's, most of the overclocking depends on the CPU anyways, so all that you need in a motherboard are options for ratios, etc, especially voltage. There shouldn't be any boards that overclock any better than any others.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

I was reading anandtech forum, and people seems to have problems going over 1.45v vcore with MSI K8N??? Hexus.net/PC Stats/Anandtech/ViperLair have reviews on Epox 8KDA3+ (one gave 7/10 but other 3 gave GOLD or 9-10/10) And also heard about the issue with MSI K8N CPU heatsink mount is glued onto mobo. Any confirmation with incompability of mobile 64-epox even with the newer bios? epox upgraded the bios and improved performance options. But seems like I'll be better off going MSI.

hooah · Jun 17, 2004

I have the MSI K8N and so far its great. I'm running a64 3200+ at 225fsb (2.497Ghz) stock voltage and 230fsb (2.53Ghz) with 1.6V. Board has lots of options in the bios as well as MSI Core Center which allows you to overclock from the desktop (FSB, VCORE, VDIMM and AGP VOLTS). Also shows your vcore, 3.3, 5 and 12V rails and temps. Both the EPOX and MSI are supposed to be great boards.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

Was it easy to take off the CPU Heatsink mount? (if you have)

hooah · Jun 17, 2004

Haven't done it yet. I'm using the stock AMD cooler until I get the little brass nipples and backplate needed from Zalman so I can use my 7000CU. Doesn't look to hard though.

WA2 · Jun 17, 2004

They review of the boards over at Anand showed the Epox on top, aso sais the MSI was much more limmited on overclocking then all of the other boards. I would stick with the Epox.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

WA2 said:
They review of the boards over at Anand showed the Epox on top, aso sais the MSI was much more limmited on overclocking then all of the other boards. I would stick with the Epox.

Shoot, I just called mwave and they told me it does not support mobiles. Maybe I can go retail Athlon64 (just maybe). But yes, that was the reason for me to pick epox.

hooah · Jun 17, 2004

Just one thing to be aware of, the MSI K8N NEO is having some temperature reading problems with newcastle cores until MSI fixes it in their bios updates. Says my CPU is 71c idle but a temp probe says its actually 39c.

Other people are having same problem in MSI forum:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?threadid=52224&sid=

WA2 · Jun 17, 2004

Also, dont forget about the limmited bus of the Epox..300 compared to 350 for the Epox.

Where di you purchase the 2 items from? I was going to go Newegg but they dont have the Epox.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

WA2 said:
Also, dont forget about the limmited bus of the Epox..300 compared to 350 for the Epox.

Where di you purchase the 2 items from? I was going to go Newegg but they dont have the Epox.

Mwave and CensusPC have them. CensusPC has the power pack which is the one I ordered.

CandymanCan · Jun 17, 2004

Here is a nice review for the Epox, they got 290htt. I cant decide on the MSI or the Epox, i like the MSI because it looks awsome overclocks better then anything iv seen, fully supports mobiles but the built in sound card on it is horrible. Also the ATX powerplug on the board is i na terrible posistion, in my case itll be located underneeth the metal bracket where the Floppy disk's and other things are located.

The epox board is ugly as hell but overclocks almost as good as the MSI board, im not sure if it supports mobiles and it has a much better built in sound card.

http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=80052

Also WA2 is correct, the MSI bios is limited to 300 and thats why we havent see nanything beyond 300 in reviews, the Epox board goes to 350, but i have yet to see a Epox reach 300

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

CandymanCan said:
Here is a nice review for the Epox, they got 290htt. I cant decide on the MSI or the Epox, i like the MSI because it looks awsome overclocks better then anything iv seen, fully supports mobiles but the built in sound card on it is horrible. Also the ATX powerplug on the board is i na terrible posistion, in my case itll be located underneeth the metal bracket where the Floppy disk's and other things are located.

The epox board is ugly as hell but overclocks almost as good as the MSI board, im not sure if it supports mobiles and it has a much better built in sound card.

http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=80052

Also WA2 is correct, the MSI bios is limited to 300 and thats why we havent see nanything beyond 300 in reviews, the Epox board goes to 350, but i have yet to see a Epox reach 300

Well from what I've heard, epox does not support mobiles, but it definitely overclocks better than MSI.

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

WA2 said:
Also, dont forget about the limmited bus of the Epox..300 compared to 350 for the Epox.

Where di you purchase the 2 items from? I was going to go Newegg but they dont have the Epox.

what cpu are you going to run with?

WA2 · Jun 17, 2004

Epox overcloks better then the MSI. Read more then one review on it.

oc_byagi: I will be running a 3200+

Not sure if I want Newcastle or Clawhammer, though.

CandymanCan · Jun 17, 2004

WA2 said:
Epox overcloks better then the MSI. Read more then one review on it.

oc_byagi: I will be running a 3200+ Not sure if I want Newcastle or Clawhammer, though.

I have read about 3 or so and the MSI on all reached 300, and the epox got in 290's.

This website alone has over 5 reviews for it from diff people.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/Products/epox_EP8KDA3plus/

oc_byagi · Jun 17, 2004

well Anandtech and ViperLair both reports Epox to have overclocked the best so far with Athlon64. I don't know if 3 people reached 300fsb were reviewers or consumers but if it was a consumer, they can simply LN2 or Pelt A64 to get to 300fsb. If it were reviewers, I'd like to see the links.

Gautam · Jun 17, 2004

Boards don't oc differently, and Anand is clueless. Even my first-gen K8N pro can hit a 320MHz HTT. If it can, then any other board can. The HTT is a function of the processor anyways, there's no reason why a board would limit that.

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