In our tests, the performance of the Epox 4pca3+ is definitely one of the better ones among the Canterwood boards reviewed so far. In fact, the differences are very minute which makes it difficult to claim which is a faster board than the other. The system is also quite stable when we pair it up using 2xCAS 2.5 DDR 400 Kingston modules. The system is very stable even at CAS 2, 5-2-2. We did not need to pump it up to 2.7v at all. The Voltage fluctuation levels are very steady as monitored from the BIOS.

This board has a nice feast of features and some special ones that deserves mentioning is the IDE RAID 5 using HPT 374 chipset. Most of the Canterwood boards focuses on the SATA but has forgotten about IDE RAID. EPoX probably thinks that IDE RAID 5 could probably be a better choice than to use SCSI. Well, if you don't have enough money to get SCSI HD, a RAID array of 8M Cache HDD should suffice too.

Usually we don't expect overclocking features on workstation boards. EPoX 4PCA3+, just like other boards provide you with a good range of FSB from 100~350 FSB selectable and voltage adjustments can be made for Vdimm, Vcore, VAgp. The PCI/AGP can also be fixed to 33/66 or other settings available through the BIOS. The 4 phase design helps a lot and we are even able to POST at 240Mhz FSB! We tested the board and managed to run max at 220Mhz FSB at cpu:fsb=1:1 ratio. This makes it at around 3.3Ghz. The only disappointment is the limited options for Vcore adjustments. The watch-dog timer and DEBUG LED also makes it easier for us to DEBUG potential problems of the board if you love to overclock.

Overall, an impressive board that has almost all the things any one would ever thought of. The only disappointment is that it doesn't come with upgrade capability to include a Wi-Fi connector. The Vcore adjustments is also quite limited and I hope that can be improved in future BIOS upgrades. There is no SATA RAID 0/1.

EPoX 4PCA3+ is definitely one fine board that you will consider if you are looking for IDE RAID 5 support. Besides that, it is also one of the most complete solution supporting the new 800Mhz CPUs, Gigabit Ethernet, Hyper-Threading Technology, 6-channel sound and SATA RAID 0.

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Pros 好处:

• 6 Channel audio
• USB 2.0 
• Gigabit LAN
• SATA
• Overclocking - up to 350Mhz FSB, PCI /AGP FIX selectable
• IDE RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5

Cons 坏处:

• No SATA RAID 1 only RAID 0 by ICH5R
• No 1394
• Vcore tweakable max is too low

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.

Product Excellence