Epox 8rda+

features:

• Socket A for AMD Athlon™, Duron™, Athlon™ XP CPU. Supports 266/333 FSB
  
• Nvidia Nforce2 SPP Chipset + Nvidia Nforce2 MCP-T
  
• 1 Floppy drive controller - 2 serial ports - 1 parallel port
  
• 6 PCI slots - 1 AGP (AGP 8X)
  
• 2 x E/IDE Ultra DMA/133, 4 drives max.
  
• 3 x DDR SDRAM PC3200, 3GB max.
  
• 4 USB 2.0 ports, 2 extra by optional USB back-panel cable
  
• Realtek ALC650 6-channel full-duplex integrated sound, with NForce Dolby level decode
  
• Onboard LAN 10/100 Mbit
  
• 2 ports IEEE 1394 (firewire™)
  
• Standard ATX format
  

package contains:

• Mainboard
  
• Ultra ATA IDE cable
  
• FDC cable
  
• User manual +
  
• multi-lingual setup guide
  
• IEEE1394 cable
  
• Driver CD
  
• I/O plate for case mounting
  

Being almost identical to the 8rga+, i have little extra to say about this. There's no 12V connector to help stabilizing the 5V line or a heatsink on the southbridge. A pitty, because they both prove to be usefull.

Note: i've put a zalman nb32 heatsink on the southbridge, this is not included in the package.

I/O panel

• 1* PS/2 keyb, 1* PS/2 mouse
  
• 3 audio connectors: (front, rear/line in, mic/center)
  
• 4* usb 2.0
  
• 1* lan
  
• 2* serial
  
• 1* parallel

The only difference compared to the 8rga+ are the 2 serial ports. An optical or digital spdif out would have been handy. There are pins on the motherboard to connect a spdif out bracket, but it's not included in the box.

Out of the box the 8rda+ provides an inadjustable 1.6vdd, which is too low (in most cases) to provide a stable +205mhz FSB. I've modded my old 8rda+ rev 1.0 board to provide 1.8vdd and included it in the following benchmarks.

Vdd mod with 680ohm resistor boosts 1.6 tot 1.8vdd: