Epox 8RDA3+/8RGA3+

[ianching]

I was going to upgrade my system but read that 8RDA3+ and 8RGA3+ will be coming out really soon, anyone know when they'll be available? I'm especially interested in the 8RDA3+ w/o the integrated GF4MX. Do they have official support for 400MHz FSB (for the future Barton)?

nVidia claimed that nForce2 is already capable of 400MHz FSB, but god knows if the motherboards will be capable of it! Without the VDD mod, I see that some of the 8RDA+ can't reach 400Mhz even with some decent memory.

I know that current nForce2 can do 400MHz FSB so easily, but then you have to take the risk of not reaching that speed when overclocking. I will probably keep this board for at least a year or so, that's why I want a board which'll be OK for 400MHz FSB, for my next upgrade.

Thanks in advance.

 

[idgaf13]

I read they would be available in April.
Forget which review mentioned the timeframe , but Opteron comes on Aprill 22.
So do they release simultaneously or not ?
I would think not ,to get maximum marketing exposure.

 

[WetWilly]

From the initial specs, I'd really wait for the reviews on these before I'd get one. While these boards will probably have the new revision official 200MHz northbridge, IMHO with the exception of the SerialATA these boards are a step backward from the 8RGA+:

1) First, and it's a big one, they aren't using the MCP-T on either board
2) They're using onboard Agere controllers for the FireWire and Realtek for the second NIC. Since they're not using the MCP-T these devices now sit on the PCI bus. So why the heck aren't they using the MCP-T?
3) No MCP-T means no DSP-accelerated audio; the board supports only "regular" AC97 6-channel audio.

Unless there's some real price break on them, I'd say the 8RDA+ with VDD mod or an 8RGA+ is a better deal.

 

[chibchakan]

I also don't know which to buy...the 8RDA+ which I could buy now for $99 at Newegg or wait till god knows when for the 8RDA3+? Why isn't Epox using the MCP-T? It makes no sense.

 

[WetWilly]

Why isn't Epox using the MCP-T? It makes no sense

I really couldn't believe it when I saw the pre-production board at t-break. But one of the Epox-Europe sites has the 8RDA3+ specs up and they match what t-break posted. It's totally baffling that they'd dump the MCP-T then re-add a FireWire controller and a Realtek 810x LAN controller to replace the MCP-T's 3Com controller. Worse, both controllers are PCI devices which mean they can't take full advantage of Hyper-Transport. Amazing.

 

[Zipp]

I was just about to buy the new ecs board for 66 bucks that was released at newegg but at the last second changed my mind again and went for the Epox 8RDA+ instead. I figured for 30 bucks more...what the hell. It seems to have some nice onboard sound(from reviews) and so I won't bother getting a new sound card like I planned

But now I read that some people are having a few issues reguarding this board being picky about memory. Oh boy,just what I didn't want to hear. We'll see what happens.

My first board I ever bought was an Epox-8KTA2 and that's still running strong over a friends house unlike my shuttle board that replaced the epox that literally just stopped working. I'll give Epox another go.....I'll never go Shuttle again.