Epox 8K9A2+ Motherboard Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

Today we're looking at one of Epox's KT400 boards, which we received with much anticipation. The source of this anticipation was an Epox announcement stating this board allows the enduser to change the clock multiplier through BIOS without unlocking your Athlon chip! Initially we took this at face value, but we later revised our opinion after being given some critical feedback. Read ahead to see exactly what we found.

Last week, we reviewed the FIC's AN19E, another KT400 board that earned top marks because of the very ability that caught our attention when we heard of the 8K9A2+: multiplier overclocking. As you may recall from our previous review, the AN19E and Epox's 8K9A have nearly identical layouts. Looking again at the comparison below, you can almost literally superimpose the images of the two boards and not tell one apart from the other. The only difference between the layouts is in the LED diagnostic display on the Epox board.

Am I seeing double?

The reason for this similarity isn't as sinister as it may seem; Epox and FIC collaborated in engineering this board design, and so the two share similarities in features and layout. Later you will see that the FIC and Epox boards do NOT have the same performance results and overclocking tolerance. The Epox also makes this board stand out thanks to some extras like the included rounded IDE and floppy cables.

Epox 8K9A2+ Box Contents