EPoX 5EPA+ likes its brother, 5EGA+ bridges the old and new as it uses the conventional DDR400. As we have mentioned before, the gains of DDR2 versus DDR is not substantial enough for us to switch totally to DDR2.

Features-wise, the EPoX 5EPA+ is probably the only board we come across that features not only SATA RAID but IDE RAID as well. This is definitely a plus especially when the price of SATA HDD are generally slightly more expensive and does not perform much better than its IDE counterpart. It also has Gigabit Ethernet, 8 ch audio 8 USB ports etc on board.

Overclocking wise, the EPoX 5EPA+ comes equipped in PowerBIOS all the features that overclockers love to have. They include all the voltage adjustments and an amazing FSB range adjustable up to 350MHz FSB.  Although there is no FIX PCI-E or PCI, EPoX seems to have overcome the 10% overclock limit. We managed to POST up to 275 x 14. It is a pity that the SATA HDD cannot be recognised when FSB is set above 256MHz. At 256MHz x 14, we get very stable performance running the system with cpu:ram at 5:4. Just ensure that PCI-E is not set to FIX but to AUTO.

EPoX's packaging has improved over time and EPoX is commendable for their efforts to make their boards user friendly by providing tiny heatsinks for the MOSFETs and a screwdriver. This is what I call BUILT FOR USERS.

Overall, the EPoX 5EPA+ is a well rounded board for those who wants the power of P4 3.6E without spending too much money upgrading the RAM. It would be good if it comes with AGP port as well and support for both DDR and DDR2.

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Pros

• USB 2.0 
• Gigabit ethernet
• Many overclocking options
• IDE RAID

Cons

• Performance could be better
• No 1394

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.