Epox MVP3G2 Super7 ATX

The Bad

Performance or stability?  That is the question, and for some users the answer is performance while others will swear by a stable system any day of the year.  While some users have a tolerance for occasional crashes, others lose their train of thought at the hint of one.   So here's an interesting point that you have to be the final decision maker on:   in order to obtain the stability the G2 boasted, Epox made a few "tweaks" to the configuration of the motherboard normally contained within the BIOS but mysteriously absent from the G2's BIOS setup.  What these tweaks resulted in was an overall increase in stability across the board, but at the sacrifice of a considerable amount of performance, placing the G2 at a much lower level than its competitor, the Tyan Trinity S1598.  

The issue has to deal with the memory sensitivity of the MVP3 chipset and larger problems brought out by the combination of MVP3 motherboards and cheaper quality SDRAM DIMMs.  A "work-around" was Epox's method, the overall raising of the memory timings in order to promote a more stable, albeit slower operating motherboard.  As of now there is no solution to reverse the precautions Epox has forced upon all G2 owners other than to flash your BIOS with that of an older release for the MVP3G-M that didn't take this workaround into account. 

A topic somewhat related to this issue seems to be the presence of two different North Bridge chips on MVP3 based motherboards.  Although we couldn't get a straight answer from VIA on the issue, they did confirm that there are two versions of the MVP3 North Bridge out on the market with one being an older chip than the other.  While they wouldn't confirm which chip was older nor would they shed any light onto the performance differences (if any) between the two, we can assume that something is up due to the reluctance of VIA to talk about the issue.  We'll continue investigating and provide you all with an update as soon as we know more about the issues at hand. 

Other than performance, there are a couple items on our Super7 wish-list that have yet to be filled by any motherboard manufacturer, Epox included.  A fully jumperless setup configuration would be a definite plus, however it still has yet to be done by anyone.

The prohibitive location of the floppy disk connector on the motherboard doesn't help users that want to install full length PCI cards, and it would have been more intelligent to relocate it to a more out of the way location.  Speaking of layout, the positioning of the Socket-7 interface can interfere with the installation of some devices in drive bays that extend over that area in extremely cramped cases.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com