CeBIT: EPoX EP-8K3A

Pressemitteilung EP-8K3A series – the next successor of EPoX VIA KT chipset motherboard The new motherboards with support for AMD SocketA processors and DDR333 memory feature the new VIA Apollo KT333 chipset Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C. – March 4th, 2002 – The EP-8K3A and EP-8K3A+ from EPoX feature VIA’s new KT333 chipset with DDR333 memory support. The SocketA motherboards support the AMD Athlon XP family of processors from 1500+ currently up to 2000+, AMD Athlon processors from 600 MHz up to 1.4 GHz and AMD Duron processors up to 1.3 GHz. With these new boards, EPoX continues the development of powerful high performance platforms for AMD processors. Important Hardware Feature: The motherboards in the EP-8K3A series operate with a 133MHz FSB (front side bus) and offer along with the Apollo KT333 chipset a stable, high performance platform for demanding high-end users and power-hungry gamers. With three DIMM slots supporting PC2700 DDR SDRAM the boards provide room for up to 3 GB or RAM. The EP-8K3A and EP-8K3A+ provide the expansion capabilities of six PCI and one AGP 4x slot. It also features a Highpoint IDE RAID controller HPT372, enabling the connection of further IDE devices on the motherboard. Like the IDE ports delivered with the VIA Chipset, the IDE RAID controller supports UDMA/133 and supports RAID level 0, 1 and 0+1. Moreover, to enhance the multimedia quality, 8K3A series features optional Realtek ALC650 AC’97 audio codec that supports 6-channel audio and users could enjoy the high audio quality without paying high cost for hardware sound peripherals to. Everything you need in BIOS The standard ATX dimensions of 305 mm x 245 mm provide standard support for AMD Duron, Athlon und Athlon XP SocketA processors with 100 or 133 MHz FSB with a minimum speed of 600 MHz. To optimize the system power, the multiplier, the kernel- and I/O-voltage of the CPU as well as the voltage of the AGP-ports can be adjusted in the BIOS. This allows for easy overclocking - now a standard feature on most EPoX products. For the performance hungry user, wanting to push the processor beyond the bounders of its stated performance level, the integrated debug function in the form of a P.O.S.T card will prove to be a valuable diagnostic tool. Two seven-segment-LED’s display the P.O.S.T. codes delivered from the BIOS during booting in hexadecimal notation. For additional system protection, EPoX adds a watch dog timer to EP-8K3A series. The watch dog operates if the mainboard shows any irregularities during the post procedure. The system will reset automatically, and the settings of host clock and CPU ratio are restored to the default value. Otherwise if the motherboard passes the postcode 26h, it will be detected as “boot success” and the watch dog timer is disabled until the next boot-up. To optimise the system performance and enhance the stability, KT333 chipset supports 1/5 divider. While the CPU Clock is over 166MHz, the PCI speed can be set to 33MHz. The delivery of EP-8K3A and EP-8K3A+ from EPoX is planned for calendar week 10, so the new models will be available on the market right after the CeBIT fair in Hanover.