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Epox EP-8NPA SLI
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 29th November 2005
There is a reasonably good complement of expansion slots on the EP-8NPA SLI, with two PCI-Express x16 interconnects with support for NVIDIA's SLI technology. The lanes are always left running at PCI-Express x8 speeds, even if there is only one video card installed. Some may see this as a slight disadvantage, but we don't believe that this is a problem.
In our opinion, the video cards that most consumers are likely to use on this motherboard are never going saturate a PCI-Express x8 interconnect during the lifetime of the board. Along with the two x16 interconnects, there are two PCI-Express x1 connectors and two PCI v2.2 compliant expansion slots.
The rear I/O panel features the standard PS/2 ports, along with legacy Parallel and Serial ports. There are also four USB 2.0 ports, a single Gigabit Ethernet port, SPDIF Out in Coaxial form and three 3.5mm audio jacks. Most nForce4 SLI motherboards utilise Realtek's ALC850 8-channel AC97 audio codec, but Epox has opted to make use of the 6-channel AC97 compliant Realtek ALC655 codec in order to save on production costs a little.
The onboard audio codec is capable of supporting 6-channel audio, yet there are only three audio jacks on the rear I/O panel. Epox has made this possible with the use of jack detection, which is designed for fool-proof audio device installation. The three audio jacks are capable of using a 6-channel speaker setup, along with a simpler two channel line in, microphone in and line out configuration that one comes to expect from three audio jacks.
There are adjustments for the following memory timings and options: Command Rate, CAS, tRCD, tRAS, tRP, tRC, tRFC, tRRD, tWR, tWTR, tREF, Read Preamble, Async Latency, IdleCycle Limit, Dynamic IdleCycle Counter, R/W Queue Bypass Count, Bypass Max and DQS Skew Control.
There is also a range of overclocking settings under the Power BIOS Features menu option. CPU Frequency is adjustable from 200 to 400MHz and the memory frequency (or memory divider) at a selection of values between DDR200 and DDR500, while the PCI-Express clock can be adjusted between 100 and 145MHz. There is also the option for AMD Cool'n'Quiet technology, along with CPU clock ration control and CPU clock ratio adjustment. All Socket 754 Athlon 64 and Sempron CPUs are able to downclock the CPU multiplier below their original value, but not above it.
Finally, there are options to adjust the voltages for memory, CPU and the chipset. The CPU voltage can be configured between -0.200V and +0.350V in relation to the CPUs original core voltage in 0.025V increments. The memory voltage can be adjusted between 2.5V and 3.1V, while the chipset voltage can be changed from 1.5V to 1.8V - both have 0.1V increments. In general, we think the BIOS that Epox has implemented is a pretty good one - there are lots of features and lots of options for configuring memory timings. The only thing that we would have liked to add to the Power BIOS menu would be an option to adjust the HTT voltage.
In our opinion, the video cards that most consumers are likely to use on this motherboard are never going saturate a PCI-Express x8 interconnect during the lifetime of the board. Along with the two x16 interconnects, there are two PCI-Express x1 connectors and two PCI v2.2 compliant expansion slots.
The onboard audio codec is capable of supporting 6-channel audio, yet there are only three audio jacks on the rear I/O panel. Epox has made this possible with the use of jack detection, which is designed for fool-proof audio device installation. The three audio jacks are capable of using a 6-channel speaker setup, along with a simpler two channel line in, microphone in and line out configuration that one comes to expect from three audio jacks.
BIOS:
The board uses a standard Phoenix AwardBIOS. There is typical array of options for configuring the onboard peripherals on the motherboard. There are two menus that are of interest to us in particular. The memory configuration page is located under the Advanced Chipset Features menu option and feautres a comprehensive selection of timings - enough to satisfy any tweaker.There are adjustments for the following memory timings and options: Command Rate, CAS, tRCD, tRAS, tRP, tRC, tRFC, tRRD, tWR, tWTR, tREF, Read Preamble, Async Latency, IdleCycle Limit, Dynamic IdleCycle Counter, R/W Queue Bypass Count, Bypass Max and DQS Skew Control.
There is also a range of overclocking settings under the Power BIOS Features menu option. CPU Frequency is adjustable from 200 to 400MHz and the memory frequency (or memory divider) at a selection of values between DDR200 and DDR500, while the PCI-Express clock can be adjusted between 100 and 145MHz. There is also the option for AMD Cool'n'Quiet technology, along with CPU clock ration control and CPU clock ratio adjustment. All Socket 754 Athlon 64 and Sempron CPUs are able to downclock the CPU multiplier below their original value, but not above it.
Finally, there are options to adjust the voltages for memory, CPU and the chipset. The CPU voltage can be configured between -0.200V and +0.350V in relation to the CPUs original core voltage in 0.025V increments. The memory voltage can be adjusted between 2.5V and 3.1V, while the chipset voltage can be changed from 1.5V to 1.8V - both have 0.1V increments. In general, we think the BIOS that Epox has implemented is a pretty good one - there are lots of features and lots of options for configuring memory timings. The only thing that we would have liked to add to the Power BIOS menu would be an option to adjust the HTT voltage.
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