EPoX 9NDA3 S939 nForce3 Ultra

[Steve]

EPoX's 9NDA3+ has been designed to appeal to the largest possible audience. Layout is pretty good in most respects, aided by having only a single chipset bridge. The feature set is also a well-balanced affair. Due attention is paid to ensuring the board isn't just a stripped-down dragster, designed for pure performance. Instead, audio is given a helping hand by Realtek's ALC850 CODEC and dual S/PDIF-out jacks. There's also decent SATA and Gigabit Ethernet support, and the Power BIOS firmly has the enthusiast in mind. However, I'd like to see EPoX offer a greater variety of voltage options, especially with respect to the undervolting DRAM line.

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD05Mjc=

[polhemoth]

...with the 9NDA3+'s two SATA ports.
EPoX has chosen not to implement a further two nForce3-driven SATA ports via an external physical layer.

Um, there are 4 Sata ports on this board.
(You can see them in the pic. )
The two that are not covered by the vid card are NOT LOCKED,
as they are from the Marvell controller.
I found that out the hard, teraful, lost-all-my-data way.
Nice review though.

[EPoX Tech]

That is an unfortunate nature of how the PHY connects into the Hypertransport bus both externally and internally - to lock the bus removes a great deal of performance from all 4 ports.

[Jonny M]

A couple of purple-coloured rounded ATA cables match the colour scheme employed on the 9NDA3+.

They're red

[polhemoth]

EPoX Tech, Thank you so much for clearing that up.
The entire hardware community has been scratching their heads over just exactly WHY the SATA ports aren't locked on so many Nforce & Via boards.
That makes total sense, since the PCI/AGP bus isn't affected by high OC.
Thanks again.

Oh, and my cables are purple.

[EPoX Tech]

The cables are indeed purple, Caged optic nerves are JADEd!!

[Lee H]

Great Review Nforce3 is maturing now into a good platform for the people who don't want SLI/PCI-E etc.

I'm also glad Epox Tech cleared up the locked/unlocked baffler

[gallo81]

Hi to everyone, I'm new on this forum.

EPoX Tech I have read a lot of problems with the LAN, can you talk about it? looses of packages, bad transmition, slow performance.

Thank you.

----------
GALLO

[EPoX Tech]

The LAN (and I'm not pushing the product) is the fastest available solution but I do hear with Gigabit MCP, NF3 250GB, NF3 Ultra of peoples problems with some routers and switches or cabling that isn't quite CAT5E.

The problem doesn't lie with the board or PHY (as far as I can see) and a new X/Y GROUP table may resolve.

[gallo81]

How is that you say that a new X/Y GROUP table may resolve?

I don't understand.

Sorry for my ignorance.

Thank you for your information and help.

GALLO

[gallo81]

Epox Tech I have another doubt.

I have a Leadtek 6800GT and I was looking to buy this mobo (EPoX 9NDA3+).

My doubt is:

Is there any type of incompatibility fit to connect the SATAs (the ones that are between the chipset heatsink and the AGP slot) with the heatsink of 6800 leadteks video cards?

Thank you again.

[polhemoth]

There are no problems with the 6800's.
However, if you want to use those SATA ports,
get a right angle SATA cable like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...104-557&depa=0

It worked for me!