Introduction.

Epox have consistently managed to create some of the best Socket A motherbaords over the past year and a half. During this period we have seen some superb boards such as the EP-8K3A, EP-8KHA and EP-8KHA+. All of these boards have offered superb performance for their respective chipsets (VIA KT133A, KT266 and KT266A) coupled to excellent stability. Given this heritage Epox have naturally gained high expectations from the PC enthusiast community when a new Socket A chipset is due for release.

The vast majority of Socket A boards over the past two years (yes, it is nearly two years since the KT133 appeared) have been based upon VIA chipsets. The Socket A market has allowed VIA to create a degree of credibility for itself which it had difficulty gaining during the troublesome Super Socket 7 days. The best Socket A chipsets to date from VIA have been the KT133A and KT266A. Now we have the follow up to the hugely successful KT266A in the form of the new KT333.

The KT333 essentially builds upon the KT266A to incorporate support for the new PC-2700 DDR SDRAM memory standard. PC-2700 takes DDR SDRAM up from the 133 MHz operating speed of PC-2100 to an increased speed of 166 MHz. Don’t let the name of the chipset fool you into thinking that AMD have increased the front side bus speed of the AMD Athlon XP up to 166 MHz (333 DDR), it is still held at the current 133 MHz (266 DDR) level. As far as we know AMD have not got any plans to increase the front side bus speed of the Athlon XP.

Given these expectations we were very keen to put this board through its paces in this review. More importantly we wanted to see how Epox have managed to enhance this board over and above the EP-8KHA+.

To find out how the EP-8K3A performed, read on...

VIA KT333.

Essentially the VIA KT266A is an enhancement of the KT333 chipset with an improved memory controller that supports PC-2700 DDR SDRAM. Like the KT266A, the KT333 features support for 133 MHz Front Side Bus operation (266 DDR), 3 GB of PC-2700 SDRAM and AGP 4X.

The South Bridge controller is the VIA VT233 chip which features support for U/DMA 133 Hard Drive support and also support for up to 4 USB devices to be attached. The 686B also provides support for an AC97 audio codec, a feature which is becoming increasingly popular with many new motherboard designs.

Specifications.