EPoX EP-9NPA3ULTRA

[wireeater]

I just ordered this board yesterday. How well does it perform, any complaints?

I plan on doing a little overclocking, did you all have any problems? I will be using 2x1GB G Skill sticks.

I can't find much information on this board, on the web. Figured I'd take a chance and try it out, great price.

 

[rox1co]

definitely gonna get this mobo

cheappp!!!

also what are 1394 and IEEE connectors? what type of hardware uses it? benefits?

 

[Fallengod]

Thats firewire. Just depends if you ever plan on using anything with firewire.

Its the same mobo as the 9npa+ultra, just lacks firewire, a few layout changes and doesnt have round cables and such included.

 

[Shotgoon]

I got this board a few weeks ago and have been liking it so far but my only problem is I can't control the speeds of my fans! I made sure to turn Kool N Quiet on and tried changing the speed settings in the BIOS, Speedfan AND ThunderProbe. Any other ideas?

My system is overclocked if it matters.

 

[Shotgoon]

Also does anyone know what the 3rd temperature sensor is on this board? It shows betwen 79-85C at all times. I have a feeling it's a bogus sensor.

 

[Fallengod]

First off, Turn cool N quiet. Nobody uses that.

Second, speed fan doesnt work controlling the fans? That seems strange. The fans you are refering to is the CPU fan or other fans connected the motherboard of course right? You arnt trying to controll case fans that are not connected to the motherboard are you? lol. Youd need a fan controller for that.

 

[Shotgoon]

Well, I emailed EPoX about it and aparently the reason I can't control the CPU fan is because the board has a 4 pin connector for the CPU. It's like a normal 3 pin connector for fans but it has an extra pin on one side. The stock AMD cooler only has 3 pins and according to the pin layout in the manual, that 4th pin is for control, while the other 3 are sense, + and -. I just don't quite understand why this board has 4 pins and why it can't control the fans with only 3 pins like other boards.

So, now I have to try to find a CPU cooler with 4 pins!

 

[Fallengod]

Hum....My cpu fan is 3 pin and mobo is 3pin. Its the third wire that is the sensor like you said. Being able to control it shouldnt be an issue. You can control fans with 2 pins. You just cant see their speed. That doesnt make sense. Speedfan should still work.

 

[Shotgoon]

Beats me. Anyway, that's what EPoX told me and I checked the manual before any and they showed what each of the 4 pins did. I think I'll just buy another quieter HSF and stick it in since I couldn't find any good 4 pin ones.

 

[KenNashua]

Just got the 9NPA3ULTRA.

Only one problem: Doesn't post with my 1394 TI TSB12LV23 card. Any suggestions?

 

[TrypleCheeseburger]

Just built a PC for someone using this board, 3200+ venice w/ retail HSF, Gigabyte 6800GS, Antec Smartpower 2.0 500w PSU and 2gb of Corsair XMS (2x1gb) and everything works flawlessly. I didn't try to overclock anything since it's not my personal computer but everything seemed to be rock solid. My only concern was that I didn't know what the best RAM timings would be and what the vcore *should* be so I left everything at default.

I'm still rockin my epox 8RDA+ and AthlonXP 2600+

 

[Katana]

I put together two PCs at work using the 9NPA3 Ultra and have problems with them locking up, I'm guessing due to USB issues. There are 2mp digital video cameras hooked up through usb2.0 that we use for pictures through a micoscope and at least once a day the PCs lock up. This is in a temperature controlled lab so heat isn't an issue and neither are overclocked. Anyone know of a beta bios to fix this as there aren't any bios updates on the Epox website.

Epox 9NPA3 Ultra
Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2GB Corsair PC3200
ATI X1600 Pro
One has an 80GB PATA HDD and the other has an 80GB SATA HDD
NEC 3550A
Antec SmartPower 2.0 500w PSU

 

[Ultralight]

Kantana, might I suggest going over to the 9NPA+Ultra thread and ask your questions there. In seems that both the Ultra and SLi had USB 2.0 problems as well but they came out with a Beta download that seems to have fixed this issue for those boards. I'm sure someone can direct you to whether or not this fix will work for your board as well or least tell you where to find it for your particula board.

 

[Katana]

Yeah, I heard about the update for the 9NPA+ but wasn't sure if it would work with the 9NPA3. I just installed the magicflash utility and checked for an updated bios with it and it found one, dated 3/30/2006. It isn't on the Epox website so I'm not sure what it fixes, by tomorrow I should know if it fixed my problem. Thanks anyway.

 

[Ultralight]

I'd like to know if it indeed fixed your issue. Keep us posted.

 

[Katana]

So far so good, I left both PCs running last night with Prime95 and when I came in this morning they were both fine. Before if I left them running over night they would be frozen in the morning so hopefully the problem was fixed by the bios update.

 

[you2]

Anyone tried the SLI version ?

 

[Shotgoon]

Anyone know what temperature sensor3 is? Speedfan is telling me it's between 75C and 85C! It's not the Northbridge though because I've replaced it with a Zalman passive heatsink and then put a fan directly on it and the temperature range wasn't any different. Is it possible it's just a bad sensor or maybe something else? Does anyone else with this board get different readings for that sensor?

 

[draganjr]

Does the Raid work ok on this board and how about the SATA ports, can we use the first two without any issues when OC'ing?

Thanks.

 

[draganjr]

Is there any modded bios out the for this motherbaord?