Features and Layout II
The business end when looking at the bottom-left of the board. The MCP (Media and Communications Processor), also known as the Southbridge, is covered by another passive heatsink. EPoX go with the non-T variety and add their own FireWire and second LAN controllers. The 8RDA+'s MCP-T sometimes caused sound distortions when running with either high FSB, high Vdd voltage, or both. This Ultra version of the nForce2 chipset is specifically designed to run at 200FSB with standard (1.6v) Vdd voltage. We're happy to report that sound seemed fine at the now standard 200FSB.
You might be fooled into thinking that the two IDE ports are for RAID purposes. That's not the case here. Much like the original 8RDA+, the 2 standard IDE ports have been pushed down to the bottom of the board. The floppy drive port is even further down. Personally, we favour this method. Tower users may disagree with us. EPoX's excellent debug LCD has also managed to make the transition from 8RDA+ to 8RDA3+. If you don't already know, it goes through a sequence of codes before finally finishing at FF (POST). If it stops at some code before FF, chances are something has gone awry. You can cross-check the suspected error with the manual.
The Silicon Image SATA Link (Sil3112A) is a contentious controller. A 2-port controller that can run up to 2 S-ATA drives either independently, in RAID0, or RAID1. The initial BIOS configuration screen is relatively straightforward:
Two Seagate 120GB S-ATA drives running Master on each port. Setting up a RAID array is easy enough. Pressing 'Create' gives you an option of either Striped (speed) or Mirrored (security). The GUI assumes a 16k block size unless you specify differently. Manual settings include 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k, 64k, and 128k. Everything seems fine until you try to copy files between the S-ATA drives in an OS environment. Using BIOS 1.00.28, we, like many others, received consistent errors when trying to launch copied files. The only resolution appears to be using a different driver that reduces write speeds down to a crawl. Not good. This issue isn't limited to EPoX's boards. Rather, it's a nForce2/Silicon Image SATA problem. We now hear that another manufacturer may have solved this problem. We'll report back here with our own finding. Here's one of the errors reported by 3DMark 2001SE's installer package.
Back to the 8RDA3+. An Agere FW323 is a 3-port Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) single-chip 1394a (FireWire) controller. It's an elegant PCI-based high-speed solution. It's also an all-one-one package as the 8RDA3+ doesn't feature the MCP-T.
Lastly, the CMI9739a CODEC from CMI provides routing for the nForce2's impressive audio. This software CODEC's 6-channel sound and 20-bit S/PDIF output (header to the right of the CODEC) make it a desirable addition to any motherboard. The low, low cost and reasonable performance allow it to go head-to-head with Realtek's ALC650 series. EPoX don't provide the necessary bracket with the bundle, unfortunately.
We've mentioned that the COM ports were now placed directly on the PCB. The two areas that they should occupy will probably be used for dual VGA HD15 intputs. Expect an 8RGA3+ model with integrated GeForce4 pretty soon. The dual LANs are plain to see. As always, the three sound jacks double-up to form 6-channel support.
Can you say features ?
