EPoX 4PDA5+ Review - Conclusion
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The EPoX 4PDA5+ is an excellent motherboard that comes with some nifty features. Although it is bundled with an ICH4 southbridge instead of the more recent ICH5/ICH5R southbridges, EPoX has tuned this motherboard with an i865PE northbridge to find a winner in terms of performance. The 4PDA5+ was consistent in outperforming my Soltek 86SPE-L motherboard. At stock settings, I was able to shave 40 seconds off some disk tests using WinRAR. The memory subsystem, probably due to the Aggressive Memory Mode settings, performed extremely well too.
This board wasn't lacking in features per se, but it did have some limitations. It only accommodates for 6 USB ports, and with 4 on the back panel, the supplied back plate cannot be used if your case has USB ports. Also, it does not support FireWire ports. The motherboard is laid out well, in such a manner that there is plenty of airflow and connectors are easily accessible. The memory banks are too close to the AGP slot for my taste, and that will become a problem with some of the absolutely massive video cards out there. I didn't like where the CD Audio connector was located, either. A quarter of an inch of extra space for the CD Audio pins and the nearby capacitor would have made a huge difference.
What about price? In Canada, NCIX.com does not carry this motherboard, but at the time of writing, Newegg does for $108 USD. Considering that the ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe is going for $122 US, this motherboard does carry some extra bang for your buck.
The 4PDA5+ overclocks well, but be prepared to invest some time into it. I wasn't able to see how far it could go -- an excuse to buy some upgrades and invest in water cooling. I am curious to see how it does with better RAM.
Highs
Performs well, wasn't able to tap it out by overclocking
Provides some nice extras
Lots of room for expansion
Lows
No FireWire, can be limiting for those with lots of USB 2 devices
A few minor layout complaints
Couldn't get soft CMOS reset working properly
In the end, I can't help but recommend this board. It works for the newbie and the power user. There are levels of control for both. It supports a lot of things and comes with some nice extras. I think EPoX has a winner on their hands.
I'd like to thank EPoX for providing a 4PDA5+ to review and you for stopping by Dev Hardware for the look at the EPoX 4PDA5+. If you have any comments, questions, flames, props, or just feel like expressing yourself about the contents of this review, feel free to stop by the Dev Hardware forums and speak your mind.
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