*** Official EPoX 8RDA/+ (nForce2) Thread ***

[mechBgon]

Use the 133/166 setting for JCLK (cap on pins). I can't give you any great justifications but that's what people use

 

[Stephan28]

Well, Me thinks the 100/133 option is for the Duron which runs a 100MHz FSB. I just don't get what the 2nd number is supposed to represent.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[TAL0N]

Originally posted by: Mem
I`ve seen more then ten reviews of the Epox 8RDA+ and Club OC is the first to give the 8DRA+ bad review,as for the software packs they`re nick picking in my books since Epox always have some free software with their boards,whether or not it`s great is besides the point since the motherboard in the end is what you buy it for.

Apparently you missed the review at Sudhian as well as a few others who couldn't completely recommend the 8RDA+.

Our stability tests are designed to stress a motherboard and test its ability to remain stable under harsher conditions than are normally imposed by testing. Our Epox board, unfortunately, was schizophrenic from the beginning....

Periodically (and without warning) the board would die at reboot and absolutely refuse to POST for a period of time ranging from several minutes to as long as two hours....

Is the 8RDA+ a good board? Sometimes. It overclocks well and when it runs, it runs great. Is it a board we'd recommend? Not really. While our problems with the board are likely to be isolated, our difficulties obtaining customer service may not be, and we're not willing to recommend a board when we aren't sure the company that manufactured it will stand behind its end users.

I'm not knocking EPOX or this board specifically, many people are extremely happy with it, have done amazing overclocks and are running 100% stable. Unfortunately others are frustrated by myserious crashes, instability at rated speeds, and BIOS corruption issues. I'm only pointing out that as with anything YMMV.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: SeekingTao
Can we talk about the FIC AU11 here as it is designed by Epox/FIC and 99% identical? I am buying it instead of the Epox 8RDA+.

Nevermind, I went ahead and bought the 8RDA+ from NewEgg instead. I can't wait to receive it.

 

[Shimmishim]

Here's a great way to do the vdd mod to the 8rda+ w/o having to soldering stuff
here it is

if this is a repost, i apologize

if anyone happens to have any of these smd grabbers ( i don't want to order 20 bucks worth of these from that website) for sale, please shoot some PM's at me...

OR...

if 4 other people are interested in this, let me know.. i can order 5 sets ( 5 blacks and 5 reds) = ~$20.00 and can split the cost with you guys.

thanks!

 

[Stephan28]

Onto the cooling issues:

If you got the 8RDA+ you might want to remove the northbridge heatsink first thing, and replace the stock phase-change thermal pad with some Arctic Silver 3 (do a test fit, it takes a lot to fill the gap because the northbridge is a little recessed in the center). Personally, I opted to upgrade the northbridge cooling to one of these. I have a low-profile heatsink that will go nicely on the southbridge too (there are pinholes around the SB for attaching heatsinks with spring pins too).

1st of all just so I and everyone else is aware.....Does changing out the stock Northbridge Heatsink void the Epox warranty? I realize that it is a "mod" but just wanted to be sure.

Is there a fan/heatsink combination out there that will plug and play? I read something about the vantec iceberg cooler somewhere.

Will the same unit fit both the North and the South Bridge?

What are the recommendations for the CPU as far as cooling goes. I am planning on using a ThermalTake Volcano 7+

 

[Shimmishim]

i think the most common coolers being used are the thermalright slk-800(a) or 900

 

[cowdog]

Originally posted by: Stephan28
Onto the cooling issues:

If you got the 8RDA+ you might want to remove the northbridge heatsink first thing, and replace the stock phase-change thermal pad with some Arctic Silver 3 (do a test fit, it takes a lot to fill the gap because the northbridge is a little recessed in the center). Personally, I opted to upgrade the northbridge cooling to one of these. I have a low-profile heatsink that will go nicely on the southbridge too (there are pinholes around the SB for attaching heatsinks with spring pins too).

1st of all just so I and everyone else is aware.....Does changing out the stock Northbridge Heatsink void the Epox warranty? I realize that it is a "mod" but just wanted to be sure.

Is there a fan/heatsink combination out there that will plug and play? I read something about the vantec iceberg cooler somewhere.

Will the same unit fit both the North and the South Bridge?

What are the recommendations for the CPU as far as cooling goes. I am planning on using a ThermalTake Volcano 7+

I don't know the "official" answer, but I don't see how changing out that little pathetic sticky pad under the stock nb heatsink with ASIII or something would void the warranty. Using the sticky pad, my stock nb heatsink would get mildly warm. After yanking the sticky off and using ASIII, the nb was much warmer, meaning (I assume) the heatsink was now doing its job. I later put on a Vantec Iceberq. Very easy install.

As far as the sb, some people have remounted the stock nb heatsink there. There are 2 mounting holes. But you will need to trim the heatsink just a bit on one side. On my sb, I put on one of the little copper heat sinks that came with the Iceberq. The other area that people are passively and actively cooling is the mophsets (spelling??, remembering how to spell that bewilders me). There are pictures out there on one of the "unofficial" 8RDA faq sites. Somewhere I also saw some thermal imaging pictures of the 8RDA+, which is interesting for thinking about additional cooling, or not.

For the cpu, I am using the SLK-800 with a YS Tech variable speed fan. If I were buying now I would consider the SLK-900 because it uses the four mounting holes. The SLK-800 can move around a bit with the clip mounts. I think the SLK-900 would be rock solid. Also, you could put a larger fan on the SLK-900 -- more air flow, lower rpms, maybe? I really like the YS Tech variable speed fan.

 

[SpideyCU]

Originally posted by: cowdog
mophsets (spelling??, remembering how to spell that bewilders me).

That's because it's not a word, it's an acronym. MOSFET - metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor. Personally I think it'd just be easier if people referred to them as the "power transistors".

If there's an improvement even using the same passive northbridge cooler just by slapping down some AS3 instead of the thermal pad that's there, I might do it. Normally I'm not crazy about doing things like the VDD mod to push the motherboard, but, this is pretty tame by comparison.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm pretty sure my warranty's void since I used my Dremel and some sanding discs and levelled off my northbridge a tad before putting on one of these. BTW you can also get a gold-tone version of this from Newegg: link

A note about the southbridge: I was all set to put my stock northbridge heatsink on my southbridge until I noticed that this would prevent the use of a longer PCI card in several slots (my SCSI card, for instance). I rummaged around and found the heatsink that comes with a Globalwin FAC08 I'd bought a long time ago, and hey, its pin spacing matched This seems to be working out really well and it's short enough that it doesn't interfere with a normal 32-bit PCI card (a 64-bit card's tail section might still interfere).

 

[webley]

On my 8RDA+, I've been getting lots of BSODs with the following:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

lots of 0x0000008E and references to Nvidia drivers.

Internet Explorer and Win Media Player crash too. The common issue I'm seeing is illegal address use by lots of programs. My ram is fine (tested lots or it all same) and I reduced it to one stick only. I installed (and reinstalled) the NVidia NF2 drivers (2.00) and the detonator drivers 41.09 in safe mode. I removed the page file and that didn't help. IRQ conflicts are resolved. Many people have these errors or other boards but I've not heard of it on the 8RDA+.


Has anyone else had this problem on the 8RDA+? I'm using common equipment XP2100+, Crucial PC2700, etc so I wonder if I should return the 8RDA+ since I just bought it.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm pretty sure my warranty's void since I used my Dremel and some sanding discs and levelled off my northbridge a tad before putting on one of these. BTW you can also get a gold-tone version of this from Newegg: link

A note about the southbridge: I was all set to put my stock northbridge heatsink on my southbridge until I noticed that this would prevent the use of a longer PCI card in several slots (my SCSI card, for instance). I rummaged around and found the heatsink that comes with a Globalwin FAC08 I'd bought a long time ago, and hey, its pin spacing matched This seems to be working out really well and it's short enough that it doesn't interfere with a normal 32-bit PCI card (a 64-bit card's tail section might still interfere).

Does the SB chip get hot enough to warrant a cooler even when not overclocking? I only plan to overclock the FSB to 166 on my Tbred "B" 2100+. Will I need to add a cooler to the SB first?

 

[Mem]

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Those sort of problems are normally software driver related,so try a different Nvidia driver like 40.72 drivers,I too had it happen to me and it was a Nvidia driver that I was using at the time on my old VIA board.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: SeekingTao

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm pretty sure my warranty's void since I used my Dremel and some sanding discs and levelled off my northbridge a tad before putting on one of these. BTW you can also get a gold-tone version of this from Newegg: link

A note about the southbridge: I was all set to put my stock northbridge heatsink on my southbridge until I noticed that this would prevent the use of a longer PCI card in several slots (my SCSI card, for instance). I rummaged around and found the heatsink that comes with a Globalwin FAC08 I'd bought a long time ago, and hey, its pin spacing matched This seems to be working out really well and it's short enough that it doesn't interfere with a normal 32-bit PCI card (a 64-bit card's tail section might still interfere).

Does the SB chip get hot enough to warrant a cooler even when not overclocking? I only plan to overclock the FSB to 166 on my Tbred "B" 2100+. Will I need to add a cooler to the SB first?

nope, you don't

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim

nope, you don't

Excellent. Thanks.

 

[Killrose]

There is a new 8RDA bios posted on Epox's site.

 

[webley]

Those sort of problems are normally software driver related,so try a different Nvidia driver like 40.72 drivers,I too had it happen to me and it was a Nvidia driver that I was using at the time on my old VIA board. Thanks Mem I'll give it a try.


The new bios bios 3/05 is up as Killrose mentioned. I just flashed it.

 

[Wag]

Got my FIC AU11 today. It says REV 1.1. I heard there was a 1.2? Oh well.

Nice packaging- comes with software too- Norton's Ghost, Firewall and Anti-Virus.

Not bad for $96 shipped.

 

[Iron Woode]

I got my 8RDA+ today. Rev 1.1. What are the revisions out there?

 

[Stephan28]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
I got my 8RDA+ today. Rev 1.1. What are the revisions out there?

Best of my knowledge there are two versions. 1.0 & 1.1. No major changes were made. Memory clips smaller as not to damage large AGP cards and better mosfets were used.

Mine is 1.1

Good site for general information

 

[Killrose]

The Epox Tech over at AMD motherboards said that 1.1 is the most current rev.

 

[Megatomic]

Here's a potentially dumb question:

Is it necessary/beneficial to install drivers from Realtek for audio and LAN if you use the onboard sound/LAN features of the 8RDA+? I am clueless to driver install procedures for this board (I have been using VIA chipsets for 2 years now).

Thanks for any advice and linkage. I am already a member of nforcersHQ forums and have bookmarked 8rdafaq.com btw...

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: SeekingTao

Originally posted by: mechBgon
I'm pretty sure my warranty's void since I used my Dremel and some sanding discs and levelled off my northbridge a tad before putting on one of these. BTW you can also get a gold-tone version of this from Newegg: link

A note about the southbridge: I was all set to put my stock northbridge heatsink on my southbridge until I noticed that this would prevent the use of a longer PCI card in several slots (my SCSI card, for instance). I rummaged around and found the heatsink that comes with a Globalwin FAC08 I'd bought a long time ago, and hey, its pin spacing matched This seems to be working out really well and it's short enough that it doesn't interfere with a normal 32-bit PCI card (a 64-bit card's tail section might still interfere).

Does the SB chip get hot enough to warrant a cooler even when not overclocking? I only plan to overclock the FSB to 166 on my Tbred "B" 2100+. Will I need to add a cooler to the SB first?

For the record, my southbridge got quite hot, as in, too hot to leave my finger on it for an indefinite period. Is it out of spec? Probably not, but keeping its temperature lower can't hurt

 

[Wag]

As long as we have a thread on it-

Does anyone know where to find the front case Firewire kit? The cheapest place I found was here (actually the only place with the correct headers for the motherboard- I'm not even sure if they are right) Front Case Firewire for Raidmax/SkyHawk case.
$6/ea, not too bad, but shipping is $8.50.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: TAL0N
Apparently you missed the review at Sudhian as well as a few others who couldn't completely recommend the 8RDA+.

Our stability tests are designed to stress a motherboard and test its ability to remain stable under harsher conditions than are normally imposed by testing. Our Epox board, unfortunately, was schizophrenic from the beginning....

Periodically (and without warning) the board would die at reboot and absolutely refuse to POST for a period of time ranging from several minutes to as long as two hours....

They had a faulty board, and they pass judgement on the 8RDA+ for that! There is no reason why it should be crashing like that. For a review site, they should have known that they had a faulty board from the first time it did that.

The other site (Club Overclocker) penalized the 8RDA+ because it didn't come with bundled games (that's video cards that come with game bundles, not motherboards). They also unfairly penalized it in the final scores: Stability 6.0/10 . Why, because they needed to Vdd mod to exceed 200 MHz FSB? They already said it was better than their other NF2 board. Value 7.0? Why, because other more expensive boards have S-ATA which many of us don't need yet?