Epox 8KDA3J Thread

[scaryclownsarefun]

I was looking at some pics of the Epox 8KDA3j, and the Epox 8KDA3+. Now to outward appearances, they are exactly the same. the same number of capaciters, the same exact design, but on the Epox 8KDA3J, there is no RAID support. now why would they want to redisign the whole thing for the midrange board? they just removed the Nforce 3 250GB raid controller support. there is another difforence though, the one that made me write this post. the Epox 8KDA3J is only $73, while the 8KDA3+ costs about $143. so double the cost for a raid controller? doesn't seem that great.

So my question is: if both motherboards have the same exact design, exept for the raid controller being gone, will the little brother overclock to the same 283MHz FSB that the big brother achieved in anandtech's tests? and if it does, then why would anyone buy the Chaintec VNF3-250?
I nead confirmation, does anyone own this motherboard and a newcastle athlon 64, and if so, how far did you get the FSB to push. try it by itself, turn hypertransport down to 1x, the memory speed really low, and the CPU multiplier really far down (such as 6X) and see how far this thing's FSB can go!

For those of you that want to look at the specs/ pics:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=13-123-220&depa=1 8kda3+
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=13-123-219&depa=1 8kda3j

oh, and how good are the overclocking options in th bios?

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

And also, shouldn't overclocking performance be improved with the integrated RAID controller dissabled?

Whoah, i just read a thread where someone got 325MHz FSB on this thing....

if you have this board could you please tell me if that is true?

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

Come on, does anyone know anything about this board?

 

[slag]

My board is coming today along with a 2800+ A64 processor and heatsink.

I've heard and seen the same things you have. My decision came down between this board and the chaintech value version. The chaintech has many problems with noises coming from the board (screeching, wailing, etc) and the epox has issues with leaky capacitors(ongoing issue) and sometimes the voltage is not correct. I've also heard that the epox can be picky with some memory.

Even so, I think the epox is a better board than the chaintech, so I bought it and it will be here later today.

 

[Ketchup]

I have gotten this board up to 260 fsb with HT at 3 and memory set to 166. It may go higher, but performance with mem at lower ratio isn't too good.

But there are a couple reasons I may be returning this board, and you may not want to buy it. First of all, this board has a definite vcore issue, even with the latest bios (I have tried them all. ) Sometimes it will boot at 1.4 volts, even though the bios is set to 1.55. Now when I set it in the bios to 1.6, it boots at 1.61, but when I get into windows it drops down to 1.56 - 1.58. Makes overclocking kinda difficult. It will run my NC at 2.5, but it doesn't like to cold boot, and it doesn't like to resume from S3. If Epox doesn't get a new bios out soon, back to newegg it goes!

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

ketchup79, when you set the memory ratio lower and rais the FSB higher, you can reach the same memory speed. i was just wondering how high the FSB can go, so i could see how far this board can push a CPU. about the voltage problems, what power supply are you using? some PSU's have horrible fluquations on the 3.3v rail, and may cause this board to have a hard time regulating the voltage.

 

[Ketchup]

I have an Antec TruePower 480. The power supply is not the problem. The problem is that the Epox only uses 2-phase power. I am going to buy an Abit NF8 if it comes out soon, Abits seem to have the best voltage regulation.

 

[Ketchup]

P.S. The CPU runs off the 12v rail and the motherboard off the 5v rail, so I don't see what the 3.3 volt rail would have to do with it anyway.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

does anyone else have any voltage fluxuation problems? does anyone know how much other low cost board (such as the VNF3-250) do with thier CPU voltage?

 

[Ketchup]

Update: Screwy voltages aside, I am now up to 270 HTT with multiplier at 9, HTF set at 3, and Memory at 166 which equals 2.44 GHz and a memory speed of 220, with timings of 3-3-3-10 1T. There is a big difference between 1T and 2T on this board, and since switching between the two only gives me a couple MHz, I would recommend not going 2T with this board (probably with any A64 system for that matter). The CPU vcore is set at 1.65 in the bios, (it reads at 1.64 during POST and while in the bios) but when I open up hardware monitor in windows, it reads 1.568. Not really a huge deal since it seems pretty consistent lately (more consistnent than it was at 1.55) just don't like how it has to be so high during POST. I am going for broke here, so wish me luck. As soon as I run out of FSB I am going to put a small fan on the chipset heatsink, since it does get pretty warm. The fan is a 40mm Delta that does about 5k RPMs. The nice thing about these little fans is that you can barely hear them.

 

[Ketchup]

Just hit 275 and I'm stable so far. Chipset voltage is still at default.

 

[Ketchup]

280 is good. CPU is now at 2.52 GHz and 1.63 vcore.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

Yeah, didn't the Epox 8KDA3+ reach 283MHz FSB? i wonder if this board will be the same.. also, what is your Hypertransport mulitplier? most boards can't get over 1GHz, so make sure you lower it down to something like 3x.

 

[Ketchup]

Well, looks like 280 is all she's do. When I went to 285, it wouldn't POST. Raised the chipset voltage, still wouldn't POST. Got the Delta out, still wouldn't POST. So, 280 isn't a bad number though. I was kinda suprised to run into a brick wall like that, especially since chipset voltage seems to have no effect. Could be a problem with the BIOS. I even tried taking HTT down to 2x, but that also resulted in the board not posting. Still, 280 is a respectable number. What is not respectable is my memory. They do 5:6 up to 270 and had to lower them to 4:6 for 280. In fairness, they do much better one stick at a time. (about 250)

The vcore thing still bugs me, but on the other hand, I don't see a lot of people out there hitting 280 HTT, so this one might be a keeper.

 

[slag]

sounds awesome. My 2800+ is up to 2.4 ghz, 4x htt, 267 mhz fsb.

still trying for faster speeds also

 

[Ketchup]

Wow, that is very good for a 2800. I was tempted to go with a cheaper chip, but I wanted the higher multiplier in case I needed it for overclocking, and didn't want to take the risk of getting a bad overclocking 2800.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

the only difforence between the athlon 64 2800+ and the 3000+ is the mulitplier. they are the same chip, and i believe they have the same HS/ fan as well.... anyway, what was that about the brick wall at 280MHz? did you try and put a fan on the northbridge's chipset cooler? i am planning to watercool, so i hope 280 isn't the bios limit... try this out if you can and post your results.

 

[slag]

my northbridge came stock with a heatsink and fan on it. Actually, it looks like the southbridge due to its location, but I dont see a real northbridge chip near the cpu like I had with my p4 boards.

Btw, I have the 8kda3j version 2.0 board.

 

[Ketchup]

That is pretty cool that you got a rev. 2.0 board slag. Makes me wonder if they released the revision to cure the vcore issue. Are you getting the same vcore problems as me? Could just be that my particular board tops out at 280, but I get the feeling 280 is the BIOS limit. Like I said in my last post, I tried adding the fan, and I tried raising the chipset voltage, but the board wouldn't even POST at 281, and at 280 it was stable enough to run games and benchmarks, without raising the chipset voltage or putting a fan on the chipset.

Scary, what makes you think the 3000 and 2800 are the same? The only difference between any Newcastle is the multiplier, and the speed of the chip when it comes from the fab and the needs of AMD for that time will dictate what speed the chip is set at when it is shipped. I have a 3200, which has an 11x multiplier. The 11 comes in handy because I can run both the CPU and memory at their max speed and 1:1. Currently I am running the mult at 10 and the mem at 5:6, and it is a tick slower than 11x and 1:1.

Of course, that will all change when I get some faster memory.

 

[pumin]

Hi. This board looks interesting. I wanna acheive 2.6Ghz stable (well at least 2.5Ghz) with 2GB of Ram (I may add to 3GB eventually). May someone tell me

- Should I get Athlon 64 3000 or 3200 ? I think 3000 can do it, why pay more for 3200 ?
- What memory (brand/speed) should I get ? Will PC3200 do it ?

As always, I'll go cheaper route.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

i believe that every athlon 64 newcastle chip has the same max overclock with the same heatsink/fan. so if you can get the FSB up to 280, then 9x280=2.52GHz. so that meens that even an athlon 64 2800 will max out with this board. you will have to run out of synch, but from what i have heard 1:1 isn't that important on the athlon 64. I just ordered this mobo and the 2800+ last night, so i will have overclocking results within the week. what is this about the Rev. 2 of this board? are all currently shipping board rev. 2? what does the revision change? how do you check to see if it is a Rev. 2?

 

[Ketchup]

You are probably right about the overclocks. I am using the Thermalright XP90 on my 3200 with a Panaflow Ultra Quiet and am at 2.55 GHz right now. I am curious about the revision 2, as I ordered my board at the beginning of the month and it is revision 1. What I am wondering is, if the revision 2 does not have the vcore glitches my board has, maybe I will ask newegg to swap it for me.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: scaryclownsarefun
i believe that every athlon 64 newcastle chip has the same max overclock with the same heatsink/fan. so if you can get the FSB up to 280, then 9x280=2.52GHz. so that meens that even an athlon 64 2800 will max out with this board. you will have to run out of synch, but from what i have heard 1:1 isn't that important on the athlon 64. I just ordered this mobo and the 2800+ last night, so i will have overclocking results within the week. what is this about the Rev. 2 of this board? are all currently shipping board rev. 2? what does the revision change? how do you check to see if it is a Rev. 2?

it says right on the pcb, ver 2.0.

I cant hit 280 fsb. I can hit 268 or so @ 4x htt, but dropping my memory speed and/or dropping my ht does not do much for me. Its rock solid at 269 fsb, but anything over that is flaky

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: scaryclownsarefun
i believe that every athlon 64 newcastle chip has the same max overclock with the same heatsink/fan. so if you can get the FSB up to 280, then 9x280=2.52GHz. so that meens that even an athlon 64 2800 will max out with this board. you will have to run out of synch, but from what i have heard 1:1 isn't that important on the athlon 64. I just ordered this mobo and the 2800+ last night, so i will have overclocking results within the week. what is this about the Rev. 2 of this board? are all currently shipping board rev. 2? what does the revision change? how do you check to see if it is a Rev. 2?

it says right on the pcb, ver 2.0.

I cant hit 280 fsb. I can hit 268 or so @ 4x htt, but dropping my memory speed and/or dropping my ht does not do much for me. Its rock solid at 269 fsb, but anything over that is flaky

Hmm, sounds like my revision 1 board might become a collector's then.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

so the big questionis... does the Rev. 2 board have stable voltages, and also, does this improve the max overclock?