Value Dual Socket-370 Motherboard Roundup - August 2001

EPoX EP-D3VA

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The EP-D3VA also features the Highpoint IDE RAID controller and thus RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1. Four DIMM slots support a total of 4GB of memory. Besides the five PCI slots, the EP-D3VA also features an ISA slot, making it the only dual Socket-370 motherboard we have in the lab that does so. Therefore, for those of you still hanging onto that ISA hardware modem, the EP-D3VA is the only option you have in this department.

Highpoint IDE RAID controller.

Performance and overclocking of the board was merely average. We were only able to raise the FSB of the board to 144MHz, which is noticeably less than what the ABIT and ASUS achieved. It would be nice if there were an FSB speed between 144 and 150 MHz that might have allowed us to go a bit higher. Further, the lack of voltage tweaking options could also contribute to the limited overclocking we observed.

Note that a few capacitors are quite close to both CPU sockets, so be careful if you'reusing a larger HSF unit.

Make sure you have enough space for your HSF.

EPoX uses the Winbond I/O controller instead of the one integrated in the south bridge.

In general, the EP-D3VA is an average dual Socket-370 motherboard. It has average performance and overclocking. If you plan on keeping any ISA peripherals, the EP-D3VA is the only option; otherwise, take a good look at some of the other contenders as well.