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The box follows Epox's new and now familiar
gloss on matt design with a simple but eye-catching
grahic and it was damned refreshing to find a total
absence of any form of futuristic transport, humanoid
life forms or heavy duty weaponry splashed across
the front. The PC is growing up and though none of
us wants a drab box I think the days of pre-teen inspired
sci-fi style box fronts are numbered, at least I hope
they are.
And things remained equally interesting
with the box cracked open. I've got kind of used to
Epox offering the bare essentials and nothing more
so to find a pair of rounded cables nestled inside
was a bit of a shock. Of course being Epox they didn't
extend this generosity to the FDD cable which remains
of the distinctly unglamorous ribbon variety but Epox
boards traditionally have a very good price point
so we should perhaps cut them a little slack. Again
they refuse to be sucked into the trend for retina
burning colours with a subtle, powder blue silicone
rubber shroud on the rounded cables.
Epox are not exactly known for eccentric
board designs and the 4PDA2+ does nothing to break
the trend. The look is one of no-nonsense efficiency
rather than outrageous showing off though if past
experiences are anything to go on we should perhaps
be expecting a wolf in lamb's clothing.
Considering the sheer weight of features
onboard the 4PDA2+ is well laid out with no major
gripes as far as I'm concerned. The location of IDE
3 and 4 make the use of full length cards in the first
two PCI slots difficult but this aside I think best
use has been made of the real estate available. If
you take a look to the left of the socket you'll notice
Epox have gone with a four phase power arrangement.
Click for a larger image
Click for a larger image
The edge connectors are nothing out
of the ordinary though that gap where COM2 used to
live gives a few clues that there's an integrated
graphics version in the pipeline as that's probably
where the VGA connector would be placed. Personally
I'd have liked to see that gap filled with a hard-wired
IEEE1494 port or two but these things are a lot easier
for me to suggest than they are for manufacturers
to implement at a reasonable price.
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