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The 8K3A both resembles and differs from 8KHA+. The same green color of surface and the same layout of processor socket. And at the same time a place for RAID controller and no fan on the chipset. Now let's take a look at each part of the board. The first one is a processor socket. It is positioned in the same way as on 8KHA+. The distance from board's edge is enough to install coolers when a board has been already installed into a case. In this situation big heatsinks can be installed without any problems because all the condensers are located rather far from the socket. It must be noted that such coolers should be installed with a screwdriver and such operation needs great care. However there are special stripes on the board, which serve to prevent possible damage if a screwdriver flies off.
Like on 8KHA+, the thermal sensor in the center of the socket does not touch processor bottom. Moreover, according to official Epox information, no temperature correction is done in BIOS. So in order to have actual information, 5-10 degrees must be added to sensor indication. Also the board supports Athlon XP internal thermal sensor. Location of power supply switch also causes some difficulties with cooler cable connection. There are two extra fan connectors around power switch; the speed of the second one is not monitored. There are totally three connectors for extra coolers. The third one is located in the right corner of the board.
Now let's discuss the north bridge. And right away we don't see a fan. This situation is rather interesting because the board is obviously designed for overclocking and the most probable FSB frequency will be 166 MHz (in order to provide synchronous work with memory). At such high frequencies, boosted heating as well as stability fall is unavoidable. But it's all in theory; generally all the KT333-based boards have passive chipset cooling (with the exception of KT3 Ultra ARU by Microstar and Abit KX7). I must also note one point. When I was testing Epox 8KHA+ the north bridge cooler (from Cooler Master) was working almost noiselessly. But within a few days after I published a review the cooler started to howl. How comes it that 8K3A is more preferable for those who like quietude.
Under the heatsink there is layer of thermal interface, which does not resemble ordinary thermal paste. No changes were made with expansion capabilities in comparison with 8KHA+. As before, the AGP slot supports both 1.5V and 3.3V videocards. The same fixing latch and the same problem with DIMM slot blocking by AGP.
The quantity of PCI slots remains the same: 6 items. Now this is the only one KT333 board with that quantity of slots. The Abit KX7 board also has 6 slots, but this board was just announced (delay with issuing of new products becomes specific to Abit). Certainly, no raiser card slots have appeared.
The sound sub-system remained without changes; onboard sound is based on ALC201A Audio Avance Logic chip. The Winbond W83697HF I/O chip is installed nearby.
Now let's discuss IDE connectors.
FDD connector is installed under DIMM slots. By the way, there are 3 slots for DDR SDRAM installed on the board. Thus maximal memory equals 3Gb. Other KT333 boards also have 3 DIMM slots (except Abit KX7 which has 4 ones).
As on 8KHA+, a red light led installed on our board, indicating power supply on memory slots.The board's back panel looks usual.
In order to cheapen the board, integrated P80P Debug (POST) controller has been removed. There is only a seat for an indicator. Sure assemblers wouldn't like this, because this technology facilitates system setup as well as diagnostics in the future. I'd like to note a qualitative motherboard marking. Actually, an average user would need only one jumper (JBAT1) to clear CMOS. There is also one jumper for setting CPU start clock (JCK1). Anyway, CPU and memory clock can be tuned with BIOS setup and this jumper does not influence the result. It is interesting
to note that unlike 8KHA+, our board supports only two extra USB ports. Connector
for plugging them is located above the PCI6 slot (it is not equipped with a
plastic receptacle, only naked pins).
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