[H]ard|OCP reviews EPoX EP-5P945Pro motherboard
EPoX was established in 1995 and since that time they have worked to make themselves a major player in the motherboard market. Specifically they are known for creating reasonably priced enthusiast level motherboards.
Today we are looking at the EP-5P945Pro. This board is a medium end board targeted at the mainstream motherboard market. The board uses the more affordable P945 Express chipset, instead of more expensive chipsets such as the P965 and P975.
The EP-5P945Pro is EPoX' latest offering supporting Intel's LGA775 processors. The EP-5P945Pro supports Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium D, Pentium 4 and Celeron D processors. According to the box and EPoX website, Intel processors coded 05A, 05B and 06B are all supported. The board supports one full speed x16 PCI-Express slot and the second PCI-Express x16 slot has been made in the same mechanical form factor, but only operates at x1 speeds. Memory speeds up to 667MHz are supported officially, and following industry trends, the EP-5P945PRO Deluxe requires only a few additional components for a full system. Components needed include a socket LGA775 CPU, DDR2 memory, a PCI-Express x16 video card, drives and a 24 pin power supply. EPoX integrated the following components into the EP-5P945Pros’ design; 1 EIDE ATA-133 port; 1 floppy port; 4 SATA 3G ports on the ICH7 Southbridge; 8x USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each.); 1 Gigabit Ethernet port on the rear panel; ALC883 HDA compliant CODEC (2 or 6-Channel Audio) with SPDIF out ports on the back I/O panel and of course, standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports...
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