The brand new second revision of the Epox 4PDA2+ is not an example of a necessary update for stability (like the NF7-S V2.0). There was nothing necessarily wrong with the original 4PDA2+; its only real fault was that there just wasn’t enough to distinguish the board from its growing list of competitors. That, and the fact that it followed the 1.6V Vcore rule. I would expect a 1.6V cap from many board makers, but I was really surprised that Epox, a company that had built its reputation on psychotic voltage adjustments, would buckle to the 1.6V limitation. That’s where the V2.0 board comes in. The new 4PDA2+ has more Vcore, more features (including a few industry firsts), and more traditional Epox muscle. Competitors beware, Epox has gotten serious, and the gloves are definitely off.
With the new revision comes a new box, in a gorgeous and extremely shiny blue that is very difficult to take a picture of. There’s also a lovely carrying handle\pull strap for removing the goods inside the box.
Rather than one giant manual, Epox has chosen to split up the 4PDA2+’s mammoth amount of features into several manuals, which I think makes sense. The board has three separate raid controllers, so trying to find them all in a single manual would be a daunting task. There’s also a manual explaining how to use Epox’s new Windows BIOS flashing utility and hardware monitor, and a quick start guide.
The new 4PDA2+ comes with one of the best bundles you will find anywhere. Included are two rounded IDE cables, a floppy cable, two SATA cables and SATA power adapters, a two port 1394 back plate, and a back plate for the Game port, which also includes a never before seen feature…
Remember reading about SATA’s hotswap capability? Well there it is. The 4PDA2+ V2.0 is the first motherboard ever capable of supporting external hotswap SATA devices out of the box.
