Epox MVP3C2 Super7 Motherboard Review
Last updated: 11/31/2000

INTRODUCTION.  As long as the AMD K6-2 and the VIA Cyrix MII processors, and Socket 7 motherboards to host them, continue in production and the CPU/motherboard combination offer good performance, and a very substantial price advantage over the Pentium and Athlon processors and motherboards, the socket 7 will live on.  Of the socket 7 motherboards, the ATX form factor is definitely taking over and the Baby AT form-factor motherboards are beginning to fade, but not entirely.  One can add a lot of zip (and put a smile on a secretary's face), at minimal cost, to an aging Baby AT computer with new Baby At motherboard, CPU, 64 Mbytes PC100 memory, and, perhaps a new AGP graphics board.  The dividing line between upgrading or buying a new computer appears to be whether or not the aging computer has a decent hard disk drive: two gigs or more.  Today (5/23/99), we used the EpoX MVP3C2,  to upgrade a computer which had a 6.4 gig Western Digital Hard Disk and a 200 Mhz Pentium.

The MVPC2, or "C2" board and the MVP3C-M, or "C" board, are almost identical:  stability, quality, performance, features, and layout (these general categories are listed in the order of importance).  The basic difference in the boards is that the C2 supports ATA/66 hard disk drives and the C board  does not  (however, ATA/66 drives will work with the C board).  Other than the obvious form factor differences, the C2 has 512K memory cache' and the G2 has a megabyte, the C2 has fewer capacitors, and G2 has external USB ports while the C2 has a USB header which requires an optional (not included),  EpoX-specific  USB cable and bracket assembly to interface it to the outside of the case.

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