a very nice k6-2/k6-3 mobo
Written: May 20 '00 (Updated May 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lots of features
Cons: it's socket 7
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| c_knight's Full Review: EPoX EP-MVP3G2 |
I just recently bought this ATX motherboard and a k6-2 500 CPU to go with it (an upgrade from my K6-2 300 which is going to become a FreeBSD server now). I chose this motherboard for a few reasons: first, my old motherboard is an EPoX and it has worked great for me so I trust EPoX. Second, it is a well priced motherboard that is packed with features and with a great layout.
Basic Features:
Supports K6, K6-2, K6-3, Cyrix MII CPUs ranging from 133mhz to 616mhz. This is done by jumpers on the motherboard (sorry, not in the BIOS). You can set bus speeds ranging from 66mhz to 112mhz and the multiplier from 2X to 5.5X.
Onboard 1MB L2 cache. This is what differentiates this board from the EP-MVP3G5. The EP-MVP3G5 has a 2MB L2 cache.
Supports up to 384MB of RAM in three dimm slots.
1 AGP slot, 5 PCI slots, and 2 ISA slots (one shared PCI/ISA). This is pretty much standard now.
Then you have the basic components on all ATX motherboards such as 2 IDE channels, 1 floppy disk drive port, 2 serial ports, 1 ECP/EPP parallel port, 2 USB ports, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports.
Nice features on the board:
Keyboard On: Turn your computer on by just touching 2 keys on your keyboard.
Wake on Lan/Modem Ring: If either of these are enabled, your computer will power up when there is network activity or when you call it.
Resume by Alarm: Select a time to have your computer automatically turn on.
ATA-66: The IDE channels support ATA-66 and ATA-33 devices. This is nice because more hard drives are moving up to ATA-66 speeds. This can improve IDE hard drive performance.
Support to monitor CPU fan speed, case fan speed, and power supply fan speed: I constantly worry about how hot my computer is running because AMD K6-2 chips naturally run hotter than most other CPUs (such as Celerons). The motherboard can monitor both the temperature of the CPU/mobo and the speed of fans in your system. I like knowing this so I can be informed if a fan is dying. Another advantage with the fan plugs is that it can save you a connector on your power supply. While most fans have pass through connectors, I prefer not having the extra wire in my system and just connecting the fan directly to the motherboard.
Nice features in the BIOS:
The bios is a flashable Award BIOS. I like Award Bioses because they handle assigning IRQ to hardware very well. It saved me from an IRQ conflit in Windows 98.
Init Display First: If you have multiple video cards (for multiple monitor) you can decide whether PCI or AGP is the primary display. I was using two monitors for a while and I wanted to have PCI be the primary display adaptor because it was better than my AGP display adaptor (most systems default to AGP as primary).
Support for Hard Drives larger than 32GB: This is a must have for any system. As hard drive prices go down and hard drives get larger, 40GB or larger hard drives are very reasonable now. I have a 40GB drive now and I'm glad I didn't have to flash the BIOS to get support for it.
This is the main reason I bought this board, because it has so many small features that make this motherboard very nice. Some of these are just nice features to have while others can help to prevent headaches.
Other comments:
I've installed both Windows 98 (first edition) and Windows 2000 on this computer. Both operating systems were able to auto detect everything correctly including USB ports.
Great layout of the motherboard. The DIMM slots are easy to reach and the jumpers are all marked and easy to change. This allows easy access to change settings even after the motherboard is mounted in a system and all other components are added.
I paid 100$ for this board at a local computer store while I was able to find it online for about 85$ after shipping (as of 5-20-00). I bought it locally because I didn't want to wait for it to ship. While this is on the high end for Socket 7 motherboard prices, I think it is well worth it for all the extra features.
Conclusion:
If you want a quality motherboard that is easy to use and loaded with features to go with a K6-2/K6-3 CPU, I would recommend this board. Since 550 is the highest speed that K6-2 CPU will be manufactured at, this will be the last Socket 7 motherboard you will ever need. Now, if you don't have a K6-2/K6-3 CPU yet, I would not recommend getting this motherboard with one unless you want a cheap system now. The reason I don't recommend this is because the AMD Duron (their next budget CPU) is supposed to be released in June and it will be much better than K6-2/K6-3. If you need a super 7 motherboard now, grab this motherboard.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100$
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Epinions.com ID:
c_knight
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Location: Ohio
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 14 members
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