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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
75 Comments
View All Comments
arfan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
"So ECS, Foxconn, Biostar - we can only suggest that you need to add features and performance that will make an AMD user want to buy your boards. "Why u think's ECS is bad ???
From your benchmark, ECS is not too bad, their ranking in the middle until top1.
Sorry, if myenglish is so bad.
smn198 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Page 1: "There are no performance differences in the SLI and Ultra chipsets, or even the base nForce4 for that matter. These chipsets differ only in which features are available to the buyer - but they beat with the same heart."I thought the base nForce4 had a 800MHz HT where as the Ultra and SLI have 1GHz. Is that not correct?
Frallan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
For PSU requirements read the mfg websites. Especially the DFI comes with explicit requirements.480W 24pin ATX 2.0+ PSU and from experiance Id have to say that U want a 1st tier PSU on top of that. Anecdotal advices that its possible to run a DFI SLI set up overclocked from a 350W PSU exists but fact remains that a good solid 500W+ ATX 2.0+ PSU will help U with stability.
Calin - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
What I want to ask: does the processor works with four DS DIMMS at 1T command rate at lower frequency? By what you say (that 2T command rate is much slower than 1T command rate), then 1T command rate at 333MHz would be faster than 2T command rate at 400MHz.Vesperan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I love the look of that Epox board. Pity noone imports Epox products into New Zealand any more.GhostlyGhost - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Ermm.. It's "Marvell". With two l's.Heidfirst - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I think that you must have a bad example of the ABIT. A no. of other sites (HardOCP, Hexus etc.) have all been over 300 ref. clock with it.Not to mention that there is also now the non-Fatality AN8 Ultra which is cheaper & yet has better sound & 3.55Vdimm instead of 2.8V on the Fatality ...
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I think the Neo4 should've been included even though it was in the SLI test. Same with the Asus board. Those are really important boards. I'm sure if you add up the Asus and MSI users they would outnumber Biostar + Foxconn + Chaintech + ECS. Iono. just my 2 cents. I dont want to go look at the SLI review and then compare it to this review to see other boards and do a mental benchmark merge to get hte relative performance.You know what we should make? We should make the uber super chart system. Kinda like THG's CPU charts. Just make the interactive system comparation machine. Choose a CPU, a mobo, a gfx card etc. If you bench every component (not every combo), but just CPUs vs CPUs, mobos vs mobos, you can get the relative score and construct a relative table for combinations..... hmm just a thought.
Palek - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
A few mistakes made it into the final article...-------------------------------------------------
Page 7
1. The following bit does not belong in this review. Cut and paste?
"There are absolutely no PCIe slots at all on the Neo4/SLI except for the pair of x16 slots for SLI video. MSI tells us that the 2nd PCIe can function as a PCIe x1 slot if you're not using it for video, but that is it for PCIe. Does this really matter? Right now, it really isn't important, since we had a very hard time even finding a PCIe x1 LAN card for the new PCI Express. It may matter in the future, but by that time, you will likely have moved on to a newer version of whatever chipset is the latest wonder. This is particularly clear when you look at the feature set of the MSI, since it is definitely a cut above the other boards in this roundup."
2. "SPDIG" should be SPDIF, or S/PDIF if you want to be really accurate.
Page 11
1. The title row of the table is incorrect. The motherboard name should read:
"DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra"
2. Link to next page is also incorrect, same as above.
Page 12
1. Title of the page is incorrect, same as above.
2. Title row of the table is incorrect, same as above.
Page 13
1. "SPDIG" round two.
--------------------------------------------------
Also, do guys have any idea why placing the codec on a daughter card reduces CPU overhead? Obviously there is something more going on than just the physical relocation of the chips. Any theories or explanations?
Xenoterranos - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Just a word about the soundblaster Live on the MSI board..."That price tag [200$] may be a bit high for the average gamer who just spent most of his/her savings on a Pentium II / Voodoo2 setup, however if you're going to swallow the cost of an expensive sound card it might as well be the Creative Labs SB Live!"
That was Anandtech back in '99. And you're getting this for free! (well, almost)