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Epox EP-8RDA+ Motherboard Review

Author: Dennis Garcia

Published: Monday, March 24, 2003

Board Features and Layout cont.

Board Features and Layout cont

Aside from a video card most nForce2 motherboards come with everything that you need to get up and running, The onboard sound is decent, though crackly at times. Onboard Ethernet is an acceptable addition and appears to work quite well. Really the only thing missing is an onboard RAID option though with SerialATA gaining traction it might be best to purchase a full-featured RAID expansion card in either of the two flavors.

Like I mentioned earlier this version of the 8RDA+ is a step better than our previous board and aside from v1.1 in the corner the only other noticeable difference is a green EP-8RDA+ sticker near the memory slots. Curious about what could be under this sticker and rumors of it being a FIC part number I carefully peeled it up. The result wasn't an FIC part number but rather the result of an overabundance of EP-8RDA motherboards in the manufacturing facility.

Epox was decent enough to include connectors for IEEE1394 (Firewire), which is built into the nVidia Southbridge chip. Users that do a lot of DV editing or have a Macintosh in their house will find the Firewire connectors to be very helpful.