Motherboard Reviews
Omega65
Philadelphia, Pa
Legion Hardware reviews the K8T800 Pro based Epox 8HDA5+ Motherboard
Hexus takes a look at the nF3 250Gb based MSI K8N Neo Platinum Edition
Hexus takes a look at the nF3 250Gb based MSI K8N Neo Platinum Edition
Source: [url=][/url]The 8HDA5+ is unquestionably the fastest K8T800 motherboard reviewed to date. Previously the nForce3 250 contenders from EPoX and Gigabyte had out performed all the K8T800 solutions that I had reviewed. The EPoX 8HDA5+ has put VIA back in the front row, offering unbelievable performance in most tests. There was of course the odd test that saw the 8HDA5+ fall behind the nForce3 250 solutions, but for the most part the K8T800 solution was victorious.
On first glance, it looks like a photoshopped motherboard, such is the unusual location of ports and slots.
MSI's covered some of the hotter-running MOSFETs with passive heatsinks. This is steadily becoming the norm now, with EPoX following suit. The 4-pin 12v power connector is located just to the right of a heatsink. What's enabled MSI to re-jig the overall placement is NVIDIA's single-bridge chipset; there's no need to worry where the northbridge is going to be situated.
MSI's taken this opportunity to rotate the three DDR slots by 90 degrees. This completely removes the possibility of an AGP card blocking off the slots. Note that MSI specifies DDR400 operation for all three DIMM slots, even when run concurrently.
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