3DVelocity would like to thank Epox-UK and especially Andrew Cotterill for their help and courtesy in providing this motherboard for review.

The Specs :

Supports Socket A Processors. AMD Athlon & Duron.

VIA Apollo KT26A Chipset

I/O Controller. 1 Floppy drive controller, 1 Parallel port (EPP, ECP), 2 Serial ports.

USB. 2 supported onboard. 4 additional as option.

Award PnP BIOS. Flash upgradeable. 120MB ATAPI floppy drive and ZIP support!

Standard ATX form factor. 305mm x 245mm ATX.

UltraDMA-100 EIDE Controllers. (Up to 4 IDE devices). Backwards compatible with PIO mode 3/4 & UltraDMA-66.

200/266MHz Front Side Bus.

3x DDR-SDRAM Slots for PC2100. 1.5GB max. supported.

PS/2 connectors. 1 PS/2 mouse, 1 PS/2 keyboard.

6 (32-bit) PCI & 1 AGP. AGP supports 1x, 2x and 4x  modes.

 

Extended Functions Supports Hardware Monitoring Function by VT8233 Supports exclusive KBPO (KeyBoard Power On) Supports CPU Vcore/VIO setting via BIOS Supports CPU Clock settings via BIOS Supports STR(Suspend To RAM) power saving Function Supports Wake-On-LAN Function P80P Debug(POST) Card onboard design with LED display

 

Packaging and extras :

Those familiar with Epox will instantly recognise the box. Formed from corrugated plastic, it not only gives it a unique look but it also provides a good deal more protection for the contents. Open the box and you'll find Epox haven't skimped here either. In addition to the usual ATA-100 and floppy cables are an extra ATA-33 IDE cable and a twin port USB cable bringing the total to four.

The manual looks very professional and is pretty comprehensive, to the point it even has a section dedicated to backing up and restoring your hard disk.

Of course backing up and restoring your hard disk is a lot easier with the appropriate software, so in addition to the usual slew of drivers you'd expect to find on the installation CD, you'll also find Norton Ghost. A version of PC-cillin anti-virus software is also on the CD.

 

As you've probably noticed from the specs, the 8KHA+ isn't exactly a small board, indeed if you look at the image below you'll see that it squares up almost identically to the Abit KG7 RAID

Abit KG7 RAID (right) and Epox 8KHA+ (left)

Personally I have no problem with the board's design and layout, but there points that some of you may not like. For a start there's the ATX power connector which is some way from the board's edge. I have the board installed as I type this and I can assure you it was simplicity itself to route the power cables far enough from the CPU to not interfere with the cooling. Another point to note is that the IDE connectors are parallel to the board's edge which effectively rules out the use of full length cards in at least three of the PCI slots. Finally, as is common with just about all boards that ship with six PCI slots, it is impossible to add or remove memory with a reasonably large graphics card installed as the memory retaining lugs foul the card. It was good to see Epox chose to fit an AGP retention mechanism, a minor point but one you'll appreciate if your system tends to get shuffled around a lot.

The back panel connectors are your usual fayre with nothing exciting or out of the ordinary to note.

Clearance around the socket is pretty generous on the whole, but the proximity of that bank of capacitors to the top of the picture may cause some problems if you plan on fitting anything unusually bulky. It did handle our Swiftech MC462A with no sweat however. At the point where you need to lever the HSF retainer into place you can see a gap in the line of capacitors to make this easier. The board also has the four important mounting holes for those who want to strap on more exotic cooling.

Not that you're likely to find a board without this feature these days, the 8KHA+ has the stock thermistor sat centrally in the socket well. This isn't a particularly long legged or flexible device for those who like to bend them up to make contact with the bottom of the CPU, though if anything the board seems to report higher temperatures than a lot of other boards.

 

Page 3, Board Details, Installation and Overclocking