Introduction
It has been a long while since we last looked at an EPoX motherboard and we thought it's about time we review a product from one of the most well-known manufacturer for its overclocking prowess. EPoX has been in the industry for quite a while and they have built quite a reputation for themselves with boards that featured some of the best overclocking tweaks - with some even rivaling ABIT. While it's a board built for the enthusiasts, EPoX boards also appeal to the mass consumers simply because its features were adequate and are often priced attractively.
The EP-4PCA3+ is the Intel 875P offering from the folks at EPoX and it comes with its own set of unique features targeted at the power user. Probably the most fascinating aspect of the board is in its vast Ultra ATA-133 support which proudly boast to be the industry's only 875P board with IDE RAID 5.
The EPoX EP-4PCA3+ comes with the usual 1 AGP and 5 PCI configuration with built-in audio and Gigabit LAN support. We'll look into those features in detail in the next page but before we do that, let's look at the technical specifications in the table below.
The EP-4PCA3+ comes with 5 PCI slots and 1 AGP 8X slot.
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The rear I/O layout.
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EPoX EP-4PCA3+ Technical Specifications
| Processor |
- Socket 478 for Intel® Pentium 4 / Celeron processors
- Intel® Celeron Processors 1.7GHz - 2.0GHz or higher (400MHz FSB)
- Intel® Pentium 4 Processors 2.4GHz - 3.06GHz or higher (533MHz FSB)
- Intel® Pentium 4 Processors 2.4GHz - 3.2GHz or higher (800MHz FSB)
- Supports processors at 400 / 533 / 800MHz front side bus
- Supports processors with Hyper-Threading technology
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| Chipset |
- Intel 875P Memory Controller Hub
- AGP 4x/8x slot (1.5V only) with fast write capability
- Supports 533/800MHz Intel NetBurst micro-architecture bus
- Supports up to 4GB of DDR333 or DDR400 SDRAM memory
- Supports single/dual channel memory configuration
- Supports ECC memory
- Intel ICH5R I/O Controller Hub
- Eight high-speed USB 2.0 ports
- 2x Serial ATA/150 ports
- Supports SATA RAID 0
- Dual channel Ultra ATA/100 IDE bus master controller
- PCI bus mastering v2.3
- I/O APIC
- Supports both ACPI and legacy APM power management
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| Cache memory |
- CPU Built-in 128KB L2 cache for Celeron
- CPU Built-in 512KB (Northwood) L2 cache for Pentium 4
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| System memory |
- 4x 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM
- Supports up to 4GB of unbuffered and non-registered single/double-sided
DDR333/400 SDRAM memory
- Supports 2.5V DDR SDRAM
- Supports ECC type DRAM integrity mode
- Supports dual channel DDR400 / DDR333 memory configuration
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| PCI IDE |
- 2x Ultra ATA-66/100 IDE ports integrated in ICH5R (up to 4 devices)
- Support for PIO, Ultra DMA-33, Ultra ATA-66/100 IDE operating
modes
- 2x Serial ATA/150 ports supported by ICH5R
- Up to 150MB/s transfer speeds
- Supports software RAID 0
- 4x Ultra ATA-133 IDE ports (powered by HighPoint HPT374 controller)
- Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1 and JBOD configuration
- Supports up to eight Ultra ATA-133 devices
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| I/O Interface |
- 1x floppy port (360KB - 2.88MB)
- 2x serial port
- 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP)
- PS/2 Keyboard
- PS/2 Mouse
- 8x USB 2.0 ports (4x rear and 4x front by cable)
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45) LAN jack (powered by Broadcom BCM5705)
- Audio connectors (Line In, Line Out and MIC In) - supported by CMI9739A
audio codec
- 3x fan headers
- 1x S/PDIF in/out header
- 1x Game/MIDI header
- 1x WOL (Wake on LAN)
- 1x IrDA header for SIR
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| Expansion slots |
- 5x 32-bit master PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant (supports 3.3V and 5V
PCI bus interface)
- 1x AGP Pro 4x/8x slot (0.8V/1.5V only)
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| Power Management |
- Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) v2.0
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| Form Factor |
- ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm x 24.5cm
- Fits into regular ATX case
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| BIOS |
- 4Mbit (512KB) Flash EEPROM
- Award/Phoenix Flash BIOS with PnP, ACPI, SMBIOS 2.2, and S3 support
- Multi-boot on ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, SCSI, SATA, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4
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In the package, you'll find the following items:-
The EP-4PCA3+ motherboard
User's manual
HPT374 RAID controller manual
Magic Flash & USDM user's manual
Driver CD and HighPoint driver diskettes
Game port bracket
I/O shield
Floppy drive cable
2x Ultra ATA-133 rounded IDE cable
2x SATA data cable
2x SATA power cable
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