Epox 8KDA3J Thread

[ntman]

Hello everyone. I just got my AMD64 system and chose this epox motherboard for my system. My revision is 2.2. When i got my system parts and installed them and tried to startup the system. Nothing happened. No power. Nothing. I tried everything to get it to power up but no luck. I almost desided to return it but i tried a different power supply to it and magic happened it powered up. The first powersupply that i was trying to get it work was Q-technology 300W and it does support 4-pin 12V. The second power i tried that worked is some Fortron 300W model that also supports 4-pin 12V. Don't really know why the Q-technology (Don't mix it with Q-tec power supply) power did not work because it did work in my other Athlon Xp system and are quite good power supply. Maybe something wrong with the 4-pin 12V line or simply just not enough juice for the system.

Just wanted to inform this thing if someone has similar problem. And if i read correct username Whimpy had some problems to get power into system.

My system is not that power hungry except the processor.

 

[Kayote]

Ok, Im jumping onto the Semrpon (Anand gave it their thumbs up) using this motherboard. So naturally have few questions which beg your advice...

1- I was thinking of reusing the Crucial 2700 RAM 2*256 DIMMs into the new system but someones said that this RAM is too slow and will result in major bottleneck, so I decided to search around and am now tempted to go for 'Crucial PC4000 BallistiX DDR 512MB CL2,5 Non-parity, 2.8V, 32Meg x 64, 184pin'. The main reason I am going for 1 module rather than 2 is to help with OC when the time comes, do u all agree with the choice?

2- Ntman has mentioned having problem with Qtec PSU, is this really so? Ive found 'Q-Tec Power supply ATX 450W Gold PFC Power supply PIII/AMD/P4, Dual Fan (UK)' which Im quite interested in, should I totally steer clear of Qtec? Personally I find it quite hard to believe it could be the problem with all Qtech PSUs...

3- For overclocking purposes, would the AMD fan (that comes with AMD Sempron CPU) be enough?

Cheers
Kay

 

[punkitup]

I ordered this board along with an A64 2800+ (Retail) to use in a build for my wife?s Father. He is 70-some years old and I don?t think we will see him doing any OCing, so that won?t be an issue. He will have 1xSATA HD, 1xDVD/RW and a FD along with 3 or 4 case fans. I am also donating a brand new Sapphire ATI 9800Pro that I have lying around, so he can play Tiger Woods Golf. So, I am thinking that the 430-Watt Antec True Power PSU in this case should be fine. My biggest concern is the 2 sticks of memory (PC3200 @512MB) that I ordered from Newegg; it is Kingmax and can be found here. The $66 price can?t be beat, and it gets excellent user reviews, lets just hope the Board and CPU like it. Anyone think I should be worried from a non-OCing point of view? I will drop a line here with the board revision number and any other comments when I get the thing built.

Peace
James

 

[Ketchup]

Originally posted by: punkitup
I ordered this board along with an A64 2800+ (Retail) to use in a build for my wife?s Father. He is 70-some years old and I don?t think we will see him doing any OCing, so that won?t be an issue. He will have 1xSATA HD, 1xDVD/RW and a FD along with 3 or 4 case fans. I am also donating a brand new Sapphire ATI 9800Pro that I have lying around, so he can play Tiger Woods Golf. So, I am thinking that the 430-Watt Antec True Power PSU in this case should be fine. My biggest concern is the 2 sticks of memory (PC3200 @512MB) that I ordered from Newegg; it is Kingmax and can be found here. The $66 price can?t be beat, and it gets excellent user reviews, lets just hope the Board and CPU like it. Anyone think I should be worried from a non-OCing point of view? I will drop a line here with the board revision number and any other comments when I get the thing built.

Peace
James

If both memory modules are double sided (very likely) the board may only run the memory at DDR333. But if you tighten up the memory timings, this shouldn't be very noticeable at all.

 

[punkitup]

Originally posted by: ketchup79
If both memory modules are double sided (very likely) the board may only run the memory at DDR333. But if you tighten up the memory timings, this shouldn't be very noticeable at all.

Yeah that whole issue has got me peeved. It is apparently not a misprint in the manual as some in this thread have wondered. If you go to the EPoX website they have a supplemental to the manual that can be access through the FAQ for the board; it basically just repeats the whole DS+SS thing. Had I know this I would not have ordered this board. I am amazed however that of the eighteen user reviews over at Newegg no one mentioned this. And between Newegg and EPoX there is no reason this shouldn?t be clearly stated on the item page.

The theme from EPoX was that DD in a second DIMM slot might only work to some unspecified mystery ?level of performance?. The theme from the rest of the posters here has pretty much been, ignore them it worked for me.

But now what you are saying Ketchup79 is adding a new facet to the story. You are saying it will only work to a 2.7GB/sec bandwidth. Please elaborate, is this what your testing has found?

The more I think about it the more pissed I am that if this was an issue, or even a potential issue, it should have been included in the Newegg item page!

Peace
James

 

[punkitup]

Well after doing a bit more (quick) reading I find that this DDR 333 (2.7GB/sec) thing is not specific to this board and is an AMD specification. I guess Newegg and EPoX are off the hook, and I should be chastised for not doing my homework. My only excuse is it?s my first A64 build ever, and my first AMD build in several years. I real wish this were a more prominently stated spec.

Peace
James

 

[skho]

This is a noob question. First here are my stats:

CPU: AMD Sempron 3100+
Hard Drive: Samsung 160GB SATA
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Memory: PNY 512MB DDR3200 (just 1 stick)
OS: Windows XP SP2
and of course the Epox 8KDA3J with the most recent BIOS update on their website.

Everything was working fine when I ran it with a 256 DDR2100. Now everytime I try to shut down or restart my machine it gives me the blue screen of death. And sometimes when I start Windows after the splash screen it gives me the blue screen of death followed by an automatic restart. Under the Power BIOS options I have left everything as default and the AMD Cool N' Quiet setting is set to "AUTO" not "ENABLE". Although I'm not sure if this would matter.

Is anyone else experiencing this error? It seems like a memory timing issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

*NOTE* I have also tried a Kingston 512MB DDR3200 (1 stick) with the same results. The reason I say 1 stick is because on their technical support website it says that there might be issues when using Cool N' Quiet and two sticks. Please help.

 

[punkitup]

Board arrived last Friday. It was revision 2.2 and had a large heatsink with a fan on it for the nVidia chip, unlike the photo at Newegg which simply shows a heatsink. Everything seemed to work fine, I was in a hurry so I built it in about 3-hours and took it over to my father in-law's house, I will go over at another time and see what I can get out of the Kingmax RAM ($66 a stick, still can't believe that deal). By the way the Antec case was assembled in October of this year and the True Power 430 that shipped with it is now badged for 26-Amps on the +12V rail.

Peace
James

 

[Slaimus]

The 8KDA3I also looks interesting. It does not have GBE, but you get an extra PCI slot. The board seems to have one more set of voltage regulators, which leads me to believe that it has 3 phase rather than 2 phase power on the J. Maybe the voltage problems are caused by the 2 phase power.

 

[Chang10is]

Between the 8KDA3I and 8KDA3J, which one do you guys think is a better board? I'm not sure how big of a difference Gigabit ethernet makes vs. "integrated 10/100 lan," and I know nothing about 3 phase vs. 2 phase power.

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: Slaimus
The 8KDA3I also looks interesting. It does not have GBE, but you get an extra PCI slot. The board seems to have one more set of voltage regulators, which leads me to believe that it has 3 phase rather than 2 phase power on the J. Maybe the voltage problems are caused by the 2 phase power.

According to the item description on Epox's page that I just checked, both the 8KDA3I and 8KDA3J have Gigabit ethernet. I'm going to buy one of these boards very soon. Which one of these is better? My main concern is the voltage regulation issue. The 3I has RAID while the 3J does not, but I don't really care about that. I don't think I'd use RAID even if I had that option.

 

[hyunelan2]

Noob warning - sorry, don't hurt me

I recently (about 3 weeks ago) put together a new system I bought from newegg, here's the specs:

Epox 8KDA3J (new revision with fan on nVidia chip)
Athlon 64 3000+ Retail w/ fan and heatsink
1 stick Crucial PC3200 512MB (CT6464Z40B)
ATI Radeon 9600 (not installed, currently running old Ge FX5200)

Anyway, I'm new to the whole overclocking thing. I read up on OCing the 3000+ a little and gave it a go. I turned up the FSB (I think that's what it was) to 220 for a total 0f 2.2GHz. That's all I changed though. Everything seemed to run fine in windows and 3dmark. When I put the system on standby, however, it crashed on recovery and I got a BIOS error warning on boot. I put everything back to normal and am just fine now.

My question is this, what's the proper settings to change for a decent overclock on this board with the A64 3000+? Thanks.

 

[nBn]

I try to build in some my bricks in the wall of "Yepox".
My troubles're dealth with instable work in OS media (with bios version issued after 15.09.04). Overclocking doesn't work correctly however hard me try. MoBo accomlied with A64(2800+CG) up to 2400 rMHz (OverClocked under OS shell) ignored any attempts to start with FSB >250 Mhz (HT multiplifier's varied in range 1-4). Memory subsystem hung up PC at POST if more then 205 MHz bus frequency's achieved (2*512 Patriot PC3700). :disgust: When semptember BIOS 's overflashed RAID utility depicted 4.42 version instead 4.47 in earlier version. Soundpath had some noises in HF-band rather at bios defaults (use 5.1 headphone-set).

At present I use last jan.2005 Bios (with less then 8x ratio support), 240*9=2160(200-mem) 2*160gb NV-SATA raid0 under XPsp2, but bug with raid version remained. I hope that all problem resolved at 1-2 years but the question's "why Epox released such raw and unsolved product, for blowing up long-term trust of consumer?

 

[Avalon]

Bought the 8KDA3j as well. Paired it with a sempy 2800+, but I appear to be hitting a wall at 265FSB. Also, I can't seem to find CPU ratios for this board. Where are they? Also, does anyone know what the difference is between changing the setting "System performance" to fastest from normal does?

*Edit*
Merely changing my TRAS from 10 to 8 allowed me to boot all the way up to 300FSB. Primes very stable at 295FSB, which is nice. However, the vcore fluctuates wildly. At default (1.5v), speedfan reports 1.48v, and when I use the +0.05v setting, which should be 1.55v, I get 1.59v, which is pretty crazy. That's a 0.11v difference from a 0.05v setting. Can't wait to get my DFI tomorrow. This isn't a bad board per say...rather, it overclocks well, but it's just too damn quirky.

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: 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.

I have version 2.2 of this board, and I find it a little noisy for my taste--definitely not appropriate for the silent system I was shooting for. Wish somebody had mentioned something about the noise level in this thread, so I'm saying it now for others thinking about getting it. What's the best solution here? Can somebody recommend a replacement chipset cooler, or is there way to slow down the small fan that comes standard on the board?

 

[DaveBC]

Originally posted by: 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?

The 8kda3j does have raid, I'm running an striped array right now as i type this on an 8kda3j.

 

[arswihart]

Chang10is - unplug the chipset fan, stop suffering, it will be fine

 

[Chang10is]

Originally posted by: arswihart
Chang10is - unplug the chipset fan, stop suffering, it will be fine

Really?? That won't hurt the chipset? I was seriously considering this, but I don't want to risk damaging the board. But if there's really no risk of overheating, I'll do it. Has anybody else done this before without any problems?

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Chang10is

Originally posted by: arswihart
Chang10is - unplug the chipset fan, stop suffering, it will be fine

Really?? That won't hurt the chipset? I was seriously considering this, but I don't want to risk damaging the board. But if there's really no risk of overheating, I'll do it. Has anybody else done this before without any problems?

The DFI board has a passive aluminum cooler on their chipset. I'm sure unpluging the fan on the Epox's chipset fan won't be much of a problem. It only offers a couple CFMs anyway. I doubt it really makes much of a difference.

 

[Zap]

The budget 8KDA3I version of the board also does not have a chipset fan. I have one with an "AX" stepping 2800+. It will POST but is unstable at 300MHz/2.7GHz. Currently seems stable at 278MHz/2.5GHz, though my RAM is running pretty slow since the next higher speed won't POST.

 

[SalientKing]

I bought this board awhile ago, the only complaint I have is the DDR400 issue. If i would have known before hand that it can only handle 1DS and 1SS DDR400 module, i probably would have got a different mobo. That aside, for $75 i spent on it, its very stable. Everything works as its suppose to , sound, sata, ethernet etc.

I recomend this mobo if your putting together a cheap sempron/A64 system.

 

[hyunelan2]

Well, I haven't had the best of luck with this board. My brother and I built identical systems. After about 2 weeks his would not post. He had it RMA'd by Epox which sent him a replacement with a report that the video failed. Shortly after that, the onboard gigabit ethernet port failed on my board. I just through in a NIC and said oh well.

He was without his board about a month. He got the new one and had it less than a week when that board no longer would post. Same issue - probably video. We suspect maybe something was wrong with his video card (Radeon 9550), so we replaced the EPOX board and video card with a Gigabit mobo and Radeon 9600 - no problems since.

I would tell people to spend a few extra dollars and get something other than EPOX from my own experience.