Specifications and bundle
Processors
- Supports Socket A (Socket 462) for AMD® Athlon™ / Athlon XP / Barton / Duron™ processor
- Supports up to a XP3200+ processor (Thoroughbred and Barton compatible)
- Support for 200 / 266FSB / 333FSB / 400FSB processors.
- Northbridge: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP (Ultra 400)
- Southbridge: NVIDIA nForce2 MCP
- 3 x 184pin DDR DIMM slots
- DDR200 / DDR266 / DDR333 / DDR400 support @ 2.5v
- 3GB maximum system RAM (non-ECC), 2GB for DDR400
- Dual DDR architecture combines 2 independent 64-bit memory controllers
- Dual DDR provides up to 6.4GB/s of buffered system bandwidth
- One AGP 8/4x AGP compliant
- 5x 32-bit PCI 33MHz slots
- 1 Floppy port supports 2 FDD
- 1 Parallel port
- 1 iRDA connector
- PS/2 Keyboard
- PS/2 Mouse
- 3 Audio Jacks (NVIDIA APU via CMI9739A)
- 6 x USB 2.0 connectors from MCP SB (4 on-board + 2 by an additional bracket, not supplied)
- Headers for 3 FireWire ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports
- An IDE controller on the NForce2 MCP chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66/ operation modes
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices
- NVIDIA 6-channel sound via CMI 9739A 6-channel CODEC.
- Supports real time software AC3 encoding and S/PDIF-Out
- NVIDIA 10/100 LAN via Realtek RTL8201LB physical interface.
- Second 10/100 LAN from Realtek RTL8101L single-chip controller
- FireWire support (3x 1394a) via Agere FW323A single-chip controller
- EPoX PowerBIOS
- FSB speeds of 100MHz - 250MHz in 1MHz stepless increments
- 1.4 - 2.2v Vcore adjustable in 0.025v increments
- 2.5v - 2.9v DDR voltage adjustment in 0.13v increments
- 1.5 - 1.8v AGP adjustment in 0.1v increments
- 1.6 - 2.0v Vdd adjustment in 0.2v increments
It feels like a stripped down version of the popular 8RDA3+.
The bundle is typical EPoX. That means a pretty good manual, a reasonable driver CD with all the appropriate drivers and utilities, including an older version of Acrobat. The CD is multi-board in nature, that is, it covers every EPoX nForce2 motherboard. EPoX, perhaps in a small cost-cutting measure, has decided not to bundle its blue rounded cables this time around. A game / COM port bracket and a 2-port FireWire cable finishes it off. That cable is kind of strange, given that there are three ports present on the bottom of the motherboard. Another idiosyncrasy of EPoX is not to bundle an extra USB2.0 bracket or S/PDIF cable. Bundles are usually classed as mediocre, average or excellent. This one is decidedly average. Perhaps that's more to do with the aggressive pricing on this model.
