Epox 4PEA+ An Exceptional Performer

[Prometheus]

First some features. THe 4PEA+ is the ONLY 845PE board I know with a full dual channel IDE RAID controller on-board (up to 4 Hard Drives in RAID 0, 1, or 0+1) PLUS a full Serial ATA RAID on-board. It also has 6-channel audio, 2 FIREWIRE Ports, 6 USB 2.0, Diagnostic "Post-Code" 2-digit display, the widest range of voltage controls for CPU, Dimm, and AGP, PCI/AGP lock with fine-tuning from 50 to 100MHz, and 10/100 LAN. In other words, it is the most full-featured board I have EVER seen at what is a bargain price for the features. AND in memory settings you also get a choice for CAS 1.5 for those wanting to squeeze all they can out of fast memory. EPOX HAS BROUGHT BACK THE 12V CONNECTOR, and there were therefore no voltage stability issues at all on this 3-phase power supply board.

Physical installation was easy, and in my full-tower case the board layout was about ideal - everything was in the right place. However, when I turned on the machine, the board hung at a "52" post code with my Corsair XMS3200C2 memory. A quick lookup showed 52 is memory related and I knew the memory was good. swapped for another Corsair - same problem. When I finally put in some cheap 333 memory it booted fine - with the cheap stuff. The problem, it turns out, is Epox sets such slow basic boot timings that good Corsair won't even boot at default. Once you go in and set aggressive manual or Turbo timings, save to BIOS, shutdown, and install the Corsair again everything is fine. I tried this with shipping BIOS, the latest release BIOS from 10/30 and the late beta from 12/02 - and had the same problem with Corsair on ALL of them. Epox needs to fix this, but until they do, updating BIOS will bring you back to the same problem if you use the automated install that clears the values with a new flash.

Once I got beyond this first snafu, everything has been smooth as silk with the 4PEA+. The BIOS has any adjustment you could possible want EXCEPT no 3:4 memory ratio with my 533 FSB 2.66. However, it's easy to get to 160 for DDR400 and even 166 - even with this fast CPU - so not a biggie. AND Epox is releasinga new BIOS that adds 3:4 at all settings - it's expected very soon.

Performance is truly excellent and I had no cold boot problems at all. Of course, I am more conservative than most with voltages and refuse to run at anything above 1.7V. I easily got 3.33GHz (166x20) on my 2.66 at 1.625V REAL (1.675V set) with memory at DDR415, 7, 3, 3, 2.

WCPUID at 3.33:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/33wcpu.jpg


Sandra 2003 Arithmetic (CPU):

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/33cpu.jpg


Sandra Memory Bench at 3.33GHz DDR415 7,3,3,2 with vDimm at 2.7V (Standard Buffered Memory) - 6,3,3,2 would not run with stability at DDR415, but 7,3,3,2 is very stable:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/33buf.jpg


And Sandra unbuffered for those who care - timings were set at DDR415 7,3,3,2 even though Sandra 2003 is reporting quite different settings:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/33un.jpg

While DDR415 and 3.33GHz was pretty easy to achieve, I think you can go much higher if you're willing to do more with voltage than I am or have a water-cooling rig.


I always try to settle in a sweet spot with a fairly minor voltage increase and rock solid stability. With the 4PEA+ this was at 160FSB, 1.55V REAL (setting of 1.60V), and my Corsair at 6,3,3,2 DDR400 (spec). AGP was stock 1.5V, vDimm is at 2.6V.

At 3.206GHZ (160x20) at 1.55V:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/pe32cpu.jpg

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/pe32mm.jpg

http://home.rochester.rr.com/hessfink/pe400buf.jpg

Day-in and day-out, I am very comfortable running these last settings with voltages almost a stock setting. The system handles everything I throw at it with absolute stability, and 3DMark2001SE is right at 16,000 as you can see in this compare:

http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=5263837

There is no 845PE board I'm aware of that matches the total feature set of the 4PEA+ at any price. The fact that you can buy the board for about $130 makes it an incredible value. The stock boot issue with Corsair is a real problem which Epox needs to fix fast, but if you are willing to work around that problem this board is very stable, very fast, and with the best feature mix I've seen.

[Rudzer]

Nice overclock you got there m8

[PSUGorilla]

I have the same memory you are using (512X2) and I didn't get a boot issue with it. I did have problems booting, however, when I set the ACPI shutdown temp. above 80C.

EDIT: BTW, there is a new official BIOS for the 4PEA series dated 11/28/02 at www.epox.nl I'm currently using that one. No 3:4 divider though.

[Prometheus]

Originally posted by PSUGorilla
I have the same memory you are using (512X2) and I didn't get a boot issue with it. I did have problems booting, however, when I set the ACPI shutdown temp. above 80C.

EDIT: BTW, there is a new official BIOS for the 4PEA series dated 11/28/02 at www.epox.nl I'm currently using that one. No 3:4 divider though.

This is interesting. My testing was done with a single 512MB XMS3200C2 since it usually performs better than 2 on a 845 board. I went back and installed my 2 512 Corsair and they booted fine at stock. I do know using 2 usually requires slightly slower timings - apparently just slow enough to boot. I was also able to duplicate the single stick Corsair problem.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Netherlands BIOS. The German and Taiwan sites have the 12/02 BIOS - but still no 3:4 mem ratio with 533 chips even though it's claimed.

[PSUGorilla]

I'd test my rig with one stick but I'm too lazy to open the case.

So I wonder if the 12/2 BIOS is really a beta since it is posted on the two sites you mentioned? I can't believe that it claims to have the 3:4 divider but doesn't.

[Drozdov]

glad to hear the excellent results! I picked up the 4PEA+ and a 1.8a C1 chip and im gonna put them in my Vapochill and lets see 3.3ghz!

[r0l0e]

nice review and oc Prometheus. what country is your 2.66 from? i hope to get my 2.66 (still on the shelf ) to oc that high.

[p4spooky]

Wow, this is very encouraging as my 4GEA+ is expected on Monday.

I was looking around www.epox.com.tw (note the .tw at the end) and found a BIOS which has a file name: 4PEA2C04.bin This appears to be most recent BIOS as the file at www.epox.org is 4PEA2C02.bin.

I CANNOT read chinese so I am not sure what it says in the text. Anyone knows chinese here and can confirm?

I am also looking for the 3:4 divider.

[Prometheus]

My 2.66 is a very early Malaysia.

[MyEpoxDied]

Spooky, i flashed the the bios off of the epox.com.tw site, still no 3:4 divider on a 533 cpu

[p4spooky]

EpoxDied: That is too bad. Guess we have to wait/be patient.

[MyEpoxDied]

Looks like it, i've emailed the epox tech support about it, i'll see what they say

[r0l0e]

Originally posted by Prometheus
My 2.66 is a very early Malaysia.

nice, i was thinking you had a chip from south america. mine's from the phil. so i hope mine clocks as good as yours.

i did notice the 4g4a+ at 166fsb scoring a little higher than your P4PE though. are you able to go higher than 166fsb on that xms3200? i couldn't even get a stable 160fsb on the xms sticks. i decided to drop the samsung PC2700 and runs pretty stable at 166fsb.