nForce4 Ultra Roundup: Charting the Mainstream
by Wesley Fink on July 5, 2005 10:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Epox 9NPA+ Ultra: Features and Layout
| Specification | Epox 9NPA+ |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 Ultra (single chip) |
| BUS Speeds | 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Express | 100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Core Voltage | Off, +0.025V to +0.25V in .025V increments (to 1.75V with a 1.5V CPU) |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.5V to 3.1V in 0.1V increments |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V, 1.6V, 1.7V, 1.8V |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1x to 5x in 1x intervals |
| LDT Bus Transfer | 16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8 |
| LDT Voltage | 1.2V, 1.3V, 1..4V, 1.5V |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 5x to 50x in 1x increments |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200 |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x16 PCIe Slots 3 x1 PCIe 3 PCI Slots |
| Onboard SATA | 4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard NVIDIA ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) |
| SATA/IDE RAID | 4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | Gigabit Ethernet PCIe by Vitesse VSC8201 PHY |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC850 8-Channel codec with 6 UAJ audio jacks, CD-in, SPDIF in/out, coaxial and optical SPDIF Out |
| Other Features | AMD X2 Support with MD9N5701 or higher BIOS 2-Digit Diagnostic LED, On-Board Power and Reset Switches |
| BIOS | Award md9n5701 (7/01/2005) |
For quite a while, Epox boards have had the reputation of fast performance at stock speeds. In recent roundups, Epox has also done very well in the overclocking arena. The Epox was our Gold Editor's Choice in the Socket 754 roundup, and was a great all-around performer.
The 9NPA+ continues the Epox tradition of a great feature set at a standout price. The Ultra version sells for about $110, but it is also available as an even cheaper nForce4 4X version, the 9NPA for around $93, and a more expensive 9NPA+ SLI for about $149.
BIOS options and ranges are consistent with a top enthusiast board. Memory voltage extends to a very respectable 3.1V, but it does not reach the levels really needed for OCZ VX or Mushkin Redline. For those high-voltage 2-2-2 memories, you will still need a DFI nForce4 board.
Epox likes to provide Diagnostic LEDs on their boards to assist in troubleshooting, and you will still find the LED display, despite the reasonable price of the motherboard. You will also find a full implementation of NVIDIA nForce4 chipset features, on-board Firewire support, and gigabit LAN supported by the PCIe bus.
Click image to enlarge.
The other less-than-perfect location is the floppy connector at the lower right edge of the board. If you don't care about floppies, then ignore my complaints, but some floppy cables will have a tough time reaching in tall cases. Both IDE connectors are located on the right edge just behind the PCIe slot, so IDE cables have to be very flat under a long card like the top NVIDIAs, or the PCIe will not seat properly.
The rest of the board layout is quite good. All of the SATA connectors clear the big slots easily. The additional on-board connectors are at the bottom edge of the board, away from the slot area. The exception is the location of the CD/Aux in connectors, which are above the big slots. This location is easier to navigate if you use CD-In connectors with your optical drives.
The single chip nForce4 Ultra is cooled with an active fan and heavy heatsink. The nF4 gets hot during the heavy loads of overclocking and Epox provided a solution that seems to work well at keeping the nF4 chip cool during our testing.
Every board in this nForce4 Ultra roundup uses the Realtek ALC850 codec to provide onboard audio, and this includes the Epox. The ALC850 Codec provides four pairs of stereo outputs, with 5-Bit volume controls and multiple stereo and mono inputs, along with flexible mixing, and gain and mute functions. Two 50mW/20ohm headset audio amplifiers are integrated at Front-Out and Surround-Out, and both amplifiers are selectable for Front-Out, Line-In and Mic-In as a Universal Audio Jack.
You can find more information on the ALC850 at Realtek.
Epox provides a full selection of rear I/O ports. These include 6 programmable audio mini jacks plus optical and coaxial SPDIF out connectors to support the Realtek ALC850. The back panel also includes PS2 mouse and keyboard, 1 standard Firewire (IEEE1394a), Parallel port, 1 serial port, 4 USB, and one RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet.
Epox does not offer additional RAID controllers, but the 9NPA+ Ultra does implement the full nForce4 feature set of 10 USB ports, 4 SATA 2/4 IDE, which can be combined in RAID arrays, and an on-chipset hardware firewall.
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yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#33 - Wesley, that's awesome news. Can you post that somewhere more important so buyers know to be on the lookout for it? =)kyparrish - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Good article!I'm seriously considering dumping my DFI S754/NC 3200+ setup for that Epox board and a cheap S939 A64 :)
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#29 and #31 - UPDATE: I have talked with contacts in the Memory Industry and Samsung TCCD is now available again from Samsung. TCCD disappeared for a few months but production didn't really stop. TCC5 is DDR466 and TCCD is DDR500, but both chips come off the same line and are binned for speed grade. Samsung stopped binning for DDR500 grade until recently - and left this job to the memory makers.Recently Samsung has told memory makers they are binning once again for DDR500/TCCD and the TCCD chips are available again. It will take a few weeks for the pipelines to fill but TCCD is not dead. Some companies are staying with TCC5 at a lower cost and binning for the top performance unless the yields start to go down.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#24 - The base nForce4 is sometimes called the nForce4 X4 and runs at 800 HTT, while the Ultra and SLI run at 1000HT. When 1000HT was first introduced we found no real difference in performance at 800HT and 1000HT. What the 1000HT did provide was quite a bit more overclocking headroom. A reader may have an example of where 1000HT outperforms 800HT but the real world difference is negligible.#28 - There are now more than 60 BIOS releases for the DFI nF4, many customized for particular memory types. Only 3 have been posted to their website. For the latest DFI nF4 BIOS a good place to check is www.xtremesystems.org or the BIOS Files Forum at www.bleedinedge.com. There is now a 7/04 BIOS that is reported to be more stable in upper memory ratios (433,466,500) with Rev. E chips.
#29 - You are overstating the TCCD situation. Corsair still sells TCCD, as do several other memory vendors. There is no doubt TCCD is drying up everywhere but Corsair, and that will continue. New TCC5 dimms that are said to perform like TCCD are in process in at least one memory company. We have requested these new TCC5-based dimms and will share our findings as soon as we receive the memory. There are also some new BH5 dimms that we thought were gone forever. We have even seen the new BH5 binned and advertised as DDR500 2-2-2 at higher voltages around 3.3V.
yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Well, while this review -has- convinced me to go with the DFI board over the Chaintech, that is purely due to the audio CPU usage issues of the onboard vs daughterboard. I'm shocked at how much difference that makes.That said, most of the memory testing (and thus most of the review) was meaningless to me (and everyone else who doesn't have access to TCCD memory anymore). =/
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#17 - Thanks for pointing out the errors. They have been corrected. Do you want a job proof reading :-)yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Regarding the tRAS recommendation:Can we petition Anandtech to stop using memory that the consumer can't get anymore? (Namely TCCD-based Plat Rev2.) Go pick up some TCC5 and do your tests with what the consumer is actually going to be receiving so your tests actually mean something.
mongoosesRawesome - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
What BIOS version did you use with the DFI? It reads: "Award 7/01/2005 Release" in your list of features for the DFI, but I could not find that BIOS release on their website.AsiLuc - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Sorry I meant: GA-K8NF9http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Prod...
AsiLuc - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I'd liked to see the Gigabyte GA-K8NP9 reviewed, because it has passive southbridge cooling (silence :) ) and is cheap.