Epox 8HDA3+

The 8HDA3+ looks like a no-nonsense motherboard thanks to its traditional-looking green printed cicuit board (PCB) and plain beige PCI slots.

It is not as basic as it appears though, as it is the only motherboard in this group test with two Lan ports, one of which is of the Gigabit Lan variety. The other is a standard 10/100 port, but this combination allows you to connect two PCs directly without using a network switch.

Epox has placed the Via K8T800 northbridge very near to the processor. This may help to reduce the signal delay between the two chips, but, elsewhere on the 8HDA3+, this approach of squeezing components closely together is a rather unwelcome trend.

The Cmos reset jumper is located between the Cmos battery and secondary Sata slot. Overclockers may need to make regular use of this jumper ð the more large-fingered of whom may find it difficult to grasp. The AGP slot is also positioned fairly closely to 8HDA3+?s two Dimm sockets, so elongated graphics cards are likely to obscure its memory modules.

On the upside, there are six Sata slots, four of which are dedicated to offering Raid configurations. Epox has also included an external Sata slot. External Sata devices aren't common, but this is an unusual and welcome addition.

If your normal routine of upgrading or building PCs involves hours of error tracking, you'll be pleased with the inclusion of a debug port that displays hexadecimal error codes that are clearly referenced in the well-written and comprehensive user manual.

At £97, the 8HDA3+ is fairly expensive and some may take issue with the fact that it only supports a maximum 2GB of memory. To its credit though, it offers onboard 5.1-channel sound, anti-virus software and a copy of the useful Norton Ghost disk cloning utility.

Contact: Epox 01908 561 888
www.epox.com