Epox EP-8RDA vs. EP-8RDA+

[Mr Miyagi]

Ok. Time for a new motherboard. My K7S5A is great, but a little outdated and underpowered. This thing is choking my Radeon 9700 and XP1800+. I still intend to keep this board, but it will be demoted.

I'm hearing much about this EP-8DRA+, so I went looking. Newegg is out of stock, but they have the EP-8RDA (No +) in stock for $88 vs. the $122 +. I have carefully read the specs and the only difference I can see is the NON PLUS doesn't have integrated LAN. If that is truely the only difference, then I'll just get that one.

Is there anything else that differs with these boards? Are there any issues that I need to know about?

The Following Hardware will be attached to this board:

-AMD Athlon XP1800+
-ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (Hacked 9500)
-1x 512MB Samsung DDR333 Stick
-Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM HDD
-LG 24x10x40 CD-RW
--All in an Enermax Mid-Tower Window Case w/400W PSU

[Benssax]

I think the only difference is

The ERDA

NO LAN
&
2 channel sound instead of 6 channel:t

[BipolarBill]

No Firewire either.

[Mr Miyagi]

I forgot to mention above...I have a FireWire and SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 card too.

I have a pile of network cards...I may get the 8RDA then.

There won't be any issues with a Radeon on a board with an nVidia chipset will there?

[BipolarBill]

What do you think? :p

[Giblet Plus!]

If you already have a good soundcard and NIC, go with the vanilla 8rda and save a few $. :)

[Mr Miyagi]

Yeah, the 8RDA sounds like it as long as the nForce doesn't get fussy about that Radeon in the AGP slot instead of an nVidia product. I don't think it would as nVidia does not stoop to Microsoft's lows. This backs it...the tests were done using a 9700.

http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=465

Once I'm sure finances permit...off to Epox-land I go.

Thanks guys.

[causticVapor]

They have to allow a competitor's card to work with their chipset.

Imagine what a stir it would create. Some... stinky wind.