Review - EPoX 8KRA2+ VIA KT600 Motherboard

Techware Labs recognizes EPoX's support in making this review possible!
Review by Edward Chang, call sign: Big_E
August 8, 2003

Conclusion:

The EPoX 8KRA2+ is one of the most feature-rich KT600 motherboard available. In retrospect, it sports a plethora of integrated devices: Onboard Ethernet, onboard 6-channel sound, USB ports in both old 1.0 and new 2.0 flavors, ATA133 IDE and Dual SATA connection, RAID, diagnostic LEDs, 8X APG, and fire-wire. Is this board missing anything? Except for onboard video and Dual Channel DDR, which is really VIA's responsibility, this board has it all. Choking the motherboard with all these ports, connectors, and chips made it a challenge for EPoX to devise a motherboard with a nice spacious layout, but they did alright fitting all the gear in the limited space. In the end, the 8KRA2+ holds true to EPoX quality and tradition, with no component irregular or out of place. Our only complaint is the close proximity of the memory slots to the AGP connector, but with space efficiency key, this was a sacrifice EPoX chose to make.

Our tests and benchmarks show that the previous 8K9A2+ KT400 consistently beats the 8KRA2+ KT600, it is expected. It is more important to note how well the 8KRA2+ runs at the current and soon to be mainstream 200 MHz FSB spec. In virtually every benchmark, the 8KRA2+ operating at 200 FSB earns top marks.

EPoX has a winner in their hands. The excellent 200 MHz FSB performance of the 8KRA2+ combined with its all-around utilitarian purpose is hard to beat. Not to mention EPoX has an impeccable TWO YEAR MANUFACTURER WARRANTY. Finally, kudos to EPoX's unrelenting dedication toward enthusiasts by adding the best overclocking tweaks in the BIOS. With all this said, we feel the EPoX 8KRA2+ deserves an accolade for its awesome selection of integrated devices, incorporated features, top-tier performance, and overclockability.