Epox MVP3G2 Super7 Motherboard Review
Last updated: 5/31/2000

INSTALLATION.   For tips on hardware installation see my article on How to build Your Own Super7 Computer.  VIA's 4-in-1 driver makes software installation even easier.   To be sure you have the most recent versions, you should down-load it from Via's Web site and put it on a floppy before installing the motherboard.   The VIA USB Filter Driver should also be downloaded from VIA and installed (the CD does not have this driver and it is essential if you are going to connect USB devices to your computer).   When Installing Windows 98, I recommend that you omit/remove all expansion boards from the system, except the monitor adapter, install 98, install the above software, and then install any additional boards one-at-time.  After installing and configuring the MODEM and Internet software, the Norton Anti-Virus database should be checked and updated from Norton's AntiVirus Research Center.

PERFORMANCE.  In April, 2000 EpoX released a new BIOS (Award BIOS version vp3c0412.bin) for the MVPG2 and other ATA/66 motherboards which corrected performance problems with ATA/66 hard disk drives.  Here are the revised benchmarks.

BENCHMARK NEW BIOS (vp3c0412.bin) WinStone 99 WinStone 99 20.5 WinBench 99 High End Disk WinMark  11,400 KBytes/Sec Business Disk WinMark 3,410 KBytes/Sec. CPUmark 99 30.4 FPU WinMark 1658 WinTune 98 CPU Integer 1072 MIPS CPU Floating Point 598 MFLOPS Memory 724 MB/S Cached Disk 81 MB/S Uncached Disk 3.4 MB/S HD Tach Read (above graph) Random Access 15.5 ms Read Speed Max. 20,0052 KPS Read Speed Min. 10,726 KPS Read Speed Avg. 17,105 KPS Read Burst 56.9 MBPS

Disk drive benchmarks with a 500 Mhz K6-2, showing the differences between the new BIOS and the old BIOS are available by clicking here.

For the truly curious, the original, old benchmarks with a 400 Mhz K6-2 are available by clicking here.

< Previous | Contents | Top | Next - File Server & Bottom Line >