Introduction
EPoX 8K9A2+ KT400 Motherboard
With the recent emergence of a new breed of AMD Athlon XP processors, ones that have traversed the 2GHz barrier with comparative ease thanks to a core redesign, there's a little more excitement in the Socket A platform. The newer processors have helped AMD's premium processor to gain some sort of parity with Intel's Northwood-based Pentium 4.
VIA, once the darling of AMD, now face a rather stern challenge from NVIDIA's all-singing, all-dancing new S462 chipset in the nForce2. Our brief look at it showed that it probably will be the chipset for the consumer interested in the least trade-off between performance and features.
The trouble with the nForce2 is its lack of availability. Almost every motherboard manufacturer will have at least one model in their range, but until it hits the mainstream, VIA's KT400 warhorse still is the preferred solution. It has the benefit of a comparatively long evolution time and is available right here, right now.
Whilst not adding a great deal over the successful KT333 variant, the KT400 is a small step in the right direction. EPoX, quite naturally, decided that a KT400 motherboard was in order. So, without further ado, let's introduce EPoX's latest socket A motherboard. The rather unimaginatively titled 8K9A2+ is that board. Let's now see what it's all about.
