Mega Test: 14 Boards with KT266A and nForce 420D

Epox EP-8KHA+ - Overclocking On Shaky Ground

The Epox EP-8KHA+ is every AMD fan's best buddy.

Board revision: 2.0

BIOS version- 8KHI1B02

Retail packaging for the Epox board.

The Epox board is all the rage with particularly ambitious AMD users. The reason is simple - it's an ideal CPU for overclocking Athlon XP processors. And that's not all - you can also change the voltage settings for both your RAM and the CPU core. The only caveat is that the maximum core voltage is set to 1.85 volts at the factory, making it necessary to modify the board itself if you want to set the voltage any higher. If you credit the reports of some users, this board makes insane clock speeds beyond the 2000 MHz sound barrier possible. Unfortunately though, according to all the field tests we performed at our THG lab in Munich, these claims turned out to be a load of bunk. On the bright side, we were able to hit a clock speed of 1666 MHz using the Epox and an unlocked AMD Athlon XP 1900+ (equivalent to the "2000+" rating). We found it very useful that the Epox has an integrated Port 80 card that gives error messages as early as during booting by using two 7-segment displays. The six PCI slots and the clip for the AGP slot were real plusses. The board is the leader of the pack in performance, and takes the gold in several benchmarks.

Integrated port-80 card on the Epox.